Yablonski gets pwned; prep for the rematch

I'm going to my first Senators game in a long time tonight. I usually catch a few games during the regular season, and one or two in the playoffs if I'm lucky... of course that wasn't the case this past season.

Watching most of the Sens game last night, I was very happy with what I saw (then I went to see The Informant! Yaaaaaawwwwn, chuckle, yawn). Pascal Leclaire made some great saves, including a left-pad breakaway stop on Gionta. The young defence appeared to be doing exactly what they were designed to do: move the puck quickly on the power-play and get the puck out of the Sens' zone quickly when defending.

Also got to see Jeremy Yablonski throw down against the Habs' Eric Neilson. Unfortunately, Yablonski got pwned, he was thrown to the ice and ended up with a cut above his right eye.

Tonight, I'll be looking for the same stuff: How's the puck moving between the defenders? Is Leclaire looking solid? And I'll be keeping an eye out for Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen. As of the time of this posting, the lineups and scratches for tonight are not yet available, so I'm just guessing. I hope Alex Kovalev opts into this game so I can see some of that much-heralded talent.

Hopefully, the wifi at SBP will be available and I can post some observations on Twitter (conveniently located on the left side of your screen as well as on its own page).

It's also fan fest all day today, so head down to SBP early for some family-friendly fun.

See you at the game!

Update: Of course, the Citizen posts their Sens stories minutes after I begin this blog. Here are some lineup notes.

Workload good for Leclaire

...and a positive review of Michalek's game.

"The former San Jose Shark made his Senators debut here on Friday night wearing the No. 9 his good buddy Martin Havlat used to wear in Ottawa, but you'd never mistake one for the other.

Havlat was and still is a magical player, capable of sublime moments, but he'd never excite you by killing penalties or backchecking. One of the worker bees would have to do that.

That's what Michalek looks like, but with what they call in baseball "all the tools."

Fight card: B-Sens v. Crunch, Dec. 19, 2008

Holy shit. I don't usually do fight cards for Binghamton Senators games, but this is just pure insanity. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who brought it to our attention, with two of the AHLs best heavyweights going head-to-head.

Jeremy Yablonski v. Jon Mirasty, 20:00 second period:



Verdict: Neither? Both? Draw? I don't know. I can hardly imagine how either of these guys can be said to have 'won' the fight, since they both probably lost ten pounds throwing all those punches, and maybe 10% of their brain cells from receiving the others. I counted 60 punches thrown from Yablonski, and 64 thrown by Mirasty. Sure, only a small percentage of the throws actually landed, but holy shit, these guys are crazy.

That wasn't the only fight of the B-Sens/Crunch game, but I couldn't find videos of the Trevor Hendrikx v. Danny Bois fight, but it probably wasn't as exciting. Instead, here are some videos of legendary Yablonski bouts, starting with a 19-second mixed martial arts victory (the guy's a YouTube legend):



And a friendly-fire battle between Yabo and Chris Neil:



And finally, Yabo jumping Toronto Marlboro Kris Newbury and then indiscriminately throwing punches at whoever skates by:



So... when is Yablonski going to make his debut for Ottawa?

At least the B-Sens are winning

The Binghamton Senators are now 4-0-1, with four wins and a shootout loss in their first five games. They are tied for second place in the league, just a point behind league-leading Hershey Bears, with a game in hand. And they're winning games with a pretty strong defence, too, with just nine goals against in the five games (or about 1.8 per game).

Goaltender Jeff Glass is second in the league in both goals-against average (1.00) and save percentage (.960), although he's only played on game, and started Brian Elliott has been extremely strong, fifth in goals-against average (1.68) and sixth in save percentage (.940).

Defencemen Brendan Bell and Tomas Kudelka have four and three points, respectively, and the defence will only get better if Brian Lee is down there for a little while.

Secondary scoring has become primary scoring, as Zack Smith, Ilya Zubov, and Ryan Shannon are outscoring Denis Hamel and Josh Hennessy--the latter two were last year's leading scorers.

As described so well by the big man in B-Sens land Mike Sharp, Bingo's enforcers are protecting their skilled players: Mixed martial-arts veteran Jeremy Yablonski (who I'd love to see up here for a game) pummeled Tim Conboy after the Albany defenceman kneed captain Hamel (who, unfortunately, is expected to miss 3-4 weeks after the event). And then to add insult to injury, Smith dangled around Conboy to tie the game in the third period, and then won it in overtime--make them pay physically AND on the scoreboard. Genius.

How come the Binghamton Senators seem to have addressed all the problems the Ottawa Senators seem to be dealing with right now?

At least it's reassuring that prospects like Elliott, Glass, Smith, Zubov, and Kudelka, along with guys like Mattias Karlsson and Peter Regin are developing as expected. They may be called on for help sooner rather than later.

Hamel captain on Binghamton (of course)

As reported by Michael Sharp on his blog, Denis Hamel will once again be the captain of the Binghamton Senators. The 'A' will rotate between five players: Brendan Bell, Ryan Shannon, Danny Bois, Matt Carkner, and Jeremy Yablonski.

Good on Bell and Shannon, two newcomers who must be making good impressions. And Yabo? I guess he's expected to lead the charge in pugilism.

Reinforcement(s) for game against Atlanta

The Sens brought Cody Bass up from Binghamton today as a replacement for Brian McGrattan, as Grats seems to still be recovering from the shoulder injury he suffered against Pittsburgh.

Bass has eight point (3G, 5A) in 24 games with the B-Sens, and is 6'0" and 211 lbs. Not the same size as McGrattan, but his style of play is probably more suited to a fourth-line shift than either of the Sens' blue-chip Russian prospects, Ilya Zubov and Alexander Nikulin. I'm not sure why Danny Bois wasn't called up, though; he's got more points than Bass, but it may just be to give a younger player a chance (Bass is 20, Bois is 27). It could also be that whoever is called up will be limited in their role, and so bringing an important player like Bois up to play 3 minutes a game is unnecessary when he'd be playing significantly more for the B-Sens in tonight's game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. It would also have been fun to see Jeremy Yablonski up on this team, just to see Yabo smoke someone mixed-martial-arts style.

For some unknown reason, HockeyBuzz.com is reporting that the Sens also called Jeff Glass up from Bingo to back up Martin Gerber tonight. I'm not sure where this information comes from, but no other news source is reporting it--and, in fact, reputable news sources are reporting that Ray Emery is going to be the backup--so I find it hard to believe. Now, I don't want to be overly harsh, but if this in fact turns out to be false, you have to wonder where 'information' like this comes from:

"Jeff Glass has been re-called from Binghamton of the AHL to back-up Martin Gerber tonight when the Atlanta Thrashers come to town. The limo was waiting for Glass immediately following the Baby Sens 4-3 win over Syracuse."

-from HockeyBuzz.com

I guess time will tell. All the best to BassMaster in tonight's game, although John Paddock has said that he's going to get limited ice time--if any.

On the farm: weekly Binghamton update

If Alexander Nikulin was angry with being assigned back to the B-Sens of the AHL after a forgettable two-game stint with Ottawa, it sure didn't affect his performance. After missing a game due to visa problems (how do the Sens let that happen? Come on, Tim Murray!), Nikulin scored once and set up three goals in a 4-0 blanking of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Denis Hamel scored twice, while Jeremy Yablonski rounded out the scoring and Ilya Zubov notched two assists. Jeff Glass got the shutout.

The next night must have been an amazing game to watch, and ended with an 8-5 victory over the Norfolk Admirals. After going down 5-4 in the third, the B-Sens rallied to score four unanswered in less than nine minutes to settle the score. Yabo extended what must be a career-high goal-scoring streak to two games. Hamel scored another two goals, giving him an AHL-leading 16 on the year. Larry Nycholat scored once and added three assists, and Niko Dimitrakos assisted on three consecutive goals, including the game-tying and game-winning goals.

As mentioned, Hamel now leads the league in goals, and his five goals over three games earned him AHL player of the week honours.

Binghamton earned 5 of a possible 6 points this past week, and is now 5-0-1-1 in he past seven games. Their record is 11-8-2-1 overall, worth 25 points and good for fourth in the AHL's East Division.

Top five scorers for Bingo, as of Dec. 3:

1. Denis Hamel: 22GP, 16G, 6A, 22P
2. Alexander Nikulin: 16GP, 4G, 11A, 15P
3. Larry Nycholat: 22GP, 2G, 13A, 15P
4. Niko Dimitrakos: 17GP, 8G, 6A, 14P
5. Josh Hennessy: 21GP, 5G, 9A, 14P