Smith and Lee recalled from Bingo

The Senators announced today that both forward Zack Smith and defenceman Brian Lee have been recalled from Binghamton as Shean Donovan and Alex Picard are both listed as doubtful for Saturday's game against the New York Islanders. Dean McAmmond is still out with his cold, so the Sens don't have any wiggle room on the roster (although the B-Sens have even less, with as many as nine regulars out of the lineup for their game Saturday to various injuries or callups.).

I have no idea what Picard's injury is at the moment, but Donovan has an upper-body injury, according to TSN. If McAmmond and Ryan Shannon are both still unable to play on Saturday, then Christoph Schubert will draw back into the lineup for the Sens, as a forward once again.

Although Smith has continued dazzling Sens' brass with his play at the AHL level, with a team-leading nine goals to complement seven assists in 21 games, Lee hasn't quite gotten back to the level he was playing at last season. That probably has a lot to do with not playing alongside AHL All-Star Lawrence Nycholat, but the Sens need big things from this kid.

The game on Saturday would be Smith's NHL debut. At 20 years, 7 months, and 23 days, Smith will be the youngest player to dress for the Sens since Nick Foligno's debut on Oct. 3, 2007 at the age of 19 years, 11 months, and three days. Youngest player to debut before Foligno was Martin Havlat (debut 2000-10-05 at 19Y, 5M, 16D) and before Havlat was Mike Fisher (debut 1999-10-02 at 19Y, 3M, 27D). Considering how long it took me to figure out that statistic, it wasn't at all worth it.

On the farm: B-Sens roll on

After a tough four-game losing streak to end October/start November, the B-Sens got back to their winning ways with victories over Syracuse (Nov. 7, 4-1) and Worcester (Nov. 8, 5-4).

Recently-acquired defenceman Drew Fata proved his mettle in his first game for Bingo, scoring a goal and taking nine minutes in penalties including a fight against the Crunch's Craig MacDonald. If history serves, don't count on many more goals from Fata, but look forward to a lot more fights, and even more penalty minutes. I'll let Binghamton blogger/beat writer Michael Sharp give you a game recap:

"They avoided that first-period hole, re-established themselves on the penalty kill, kept those first-line guys ([Zack] Smith, [Ryan] Shannon, [Ilya] Zubov) rolling, struck quickly in the second after Syracuse rallied to tie the game (Zubov and Fata scored 48 seconds apart), and then they kept pushing in the third, with Brendan Bell getting that all-important insurance goal on the power play."

That line of Smith-Shannon-Zubov combined for four points (2G, 2A) and are in the top-four in team scoring.

For the win against Worcester, it was a different story. The B-Sens got out to a 5-0 win on four power-play goals, and then let the Sharks back into it, and almost blew the lead. Again, here's Sharp's post-game synopsis, from his blog:

"Overall, Binghamton owned a 5-0 lead and a 15-13 advantage in shots at that 4:23 mark of the second. From there, though, Worcester outscored the B-Sens 4-0 and outshot them 39-7."

So... yeah, holy shit, 39 shots in less than two periods for the Sharks. Worcester outshot Binghamton 52-21 overall, so goaltender Brian Elliott has to get a lot of the credit for the win. Zubov had a goal and two assists, Shannon had three assists, and defencemen Brendan Bell and Mattias Karlsson each had a goal and an assist.

The B-Sens are fourth in the East Division, and fifth in the Eastern Conference. Zubov is 11th in league scoring with 14 points (7G, 7A) and Elliott is eighth in save percentage and tied for 13th in GAA. Here's the B-Sens top-five scorers:

1. Zubov: 14P (7G, 7A)
   
2. Shannon: 14P (5G, 9A)
   
3. Bell: 11P (4G, 7A)
   
4. Smith: 10P (8G, 2A)
   
5. Karlsson: 8P (1G, 7A)
   

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.

On the farm: Bingo starts 2-0

With a 2-1 shootout victory over the Toronto Marlies followed by a 3-1 win over the Rochester Americans, the Ottawa AHL-affiliate Binghamton Senators are off to a 2-0 start on the year. Thanks in large part to goaltender Brian Elliott, who's stopped 66 of 68 shots (a .970 save percentage) so far this year.

Newly-acquired forward Ryan Shannon (1G, 1A) and defenceman Brendan Bell (2A) are tied with the 2008 third-round draft pick Zack Smith (1G, 1A) for the team-lead in points with two apiece. Josh Hennessy and Ilya Zubov each have one goal, while Bell and captain Denis Hamel scored in the shootout victory.

Disgruntled forward Alexander Nikulin is back practicing with the team, although it is unclear if and where he fits into a strong forward lineup for the B-Sens. Rumours are that some team(s) are interested in his skill, if only they could be assured SputNik would remain in North American rather than return to his native Russia.

Centre Peter Regin has returned from his concussion, and is slotted at centre with Hennessy and Hamel on the B-Sens' top line. According to Binghamton beat writer Michael Sharp's blog, the depth chart looks like this:

Hamel-Regin-Hennessy
Zubov-Smith-Shannon
Mauldin-Bass-Bois
Yablonski-Weller-Johnson
Nikulin, Daugavins

Sens re-sign Richardson

The Sens' also signed D Luke Richardson to a one-year, two-way contract on Saturday, according to CBC. I thought Richardson looked alright during his tryout in training camp, although not tremendous. He is not the kind of defenceman Ottawa needs, though, and I don't think he'll actually be heading to Binghamton at any point this year.

Although I don't want to predict anything untoward, I think this signing might mean there's a move coming soon. The Sens, with Richardson, have eight NHL defencemen: Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenkov, Jason Smith, Filip Kuba, Alex Picard, Brian Lee, Christoph Schubert, and Richardson. It's unlikely either Lee or Richardson will be sent to Binghamton. Keep in mind that, as versatile as Schubert is, GM Bryan Murray told him he'd be getting a good chance at playing defence this season. I'd like to see him stay, but I didn't see enough from Schubert to believe he could crack the top-six on defence.

EDIT: The Sens' also sent surprise forward Zack Smith bown to Binghamton. Apparently it wasn't because Smith didn't make the cut, but because his development would require more ice time than he would be getting on the Senators' roster. He'll most certainly help the B-Sens out this season.

Sens beat Panthers, Leafs in rookie tournament

Anyone who hasn't seen can check out highlights of the Sens' rookie camp victories on TSN.ca, 4-2 over the Florida Panthers rookies and 7-5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs rookies. (Despite finishing so much worse than Ottawa so many years, the Leafs are apparently still unable to assemble any young talent.) The Panthers highlights are up now, and I'm sure the Leafs ones will be up soon.

Against Florida, undrafted rookie tryout candidate Mick Lawrence (who?) scored two goals and an assist, while Shawn Weller added a goal and two assists and Ilya Zubov scored the Sens' other goal. Since the Senators' official press release is seriously lacking, and I can't find a stats sheet anywhere, I turned to the Ottawa Sun, who filled out a bit more scoring details: Jesse Winchester also added two assists, and Bruce Garrioch said he looked "strong". About Lawrence, he seems to have found his game at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in his final year, scoring NCAA career-highs in goals (21), assists (19), and points (it's basic math, come on; 21+19=40 points). If the highlights on TSN were typical, then Winchester, Zubov, and Lawrence were on a line together. Brian Elliott was tending nets for the Sens.

Against Toronto, all I know now is what the Sens' press release says. Forwards Winchester (2G), Zubov (1G, 1A), Alexander Nikulin (2A), and Peter Regin (2A), as well as defenceman Mattias Karlsson (1G, 1A), each had two points. The Leafs were up 2-0 at one point, but the Sens rallied and eventually took the lead. Two goals on three shots in the first period; Leafs goaltending prospect Michael Ouzas must have had a rough game. Jim O'Brien, Benoit Doucet, and Zach Smith also scored for the Senators, while Mitch O'Keefe played in goal.

The Sens' final round-robin game of the tournament is tomorrow at 2 p.m. I wish it was on TV... and that I didn't have to work so I could watch it live.

(P.S. If you're wondering what my player-name tagging technique is, I've only tagged the names of players who are on contracts with the Sens. That's why someone like Mitch O'Keefe is tagged, while Mick Lawrence isn't. Not that anyone cares at all.)

Sens sign centre Smith

The Sens signed 2008 draft pick Zack Smith to a three-year entry-level deal, according to a press release from the team (read it here).

I think it's a foregone conclusion that he won't be making the Senators, but he's probably got a good chance of playing for the B-Sens after getting some AHL experience with the Manitoba Moose last season. Including Smith, the Sens have the following (natural) centremen on the roster:

1. Jason Spezza
2. Mike Fisher
3. Antoine Vermette
4. Chris Kelly
5. Dean McAmmond
6. Cody Bass
7. Josh Hennessy
8. Justin Mapletoft
9. Ilya Zubov
10. Scott May
11. Alexander Nikulin
12. Peter Regin
13. James O'Brien
14. Zack Smith
15. Igor Mirnov
16. Louie Caporusso
17. Matthew McIlvane
18. Colin Greening

So... yeah. A lot of guys will be playing the wing instead, and a few guys might get bumped.

Overheard at NHL Draft 2008

"Nashville! Wooo!" (Heard across the entire Scotiabank Place)

"...dat's a pop-tart with de ketchup"

"Tanguay, eh? Enjoy the extra 10 goals, Montreal"

"Who did we draft? Erik Karlsson or Karl Eriksson?"

Other unexpected events:

Standing ovation for Wayne Gretzky? Really? Sure, he's the greatest player ever, but he is the coach of an opposing team now.

18 year-old puts on Leafs jersey... we have a new enemy.

Alfredsson brings up last season before making the Sens' draft choice at the podium... why?

More thoughts

You know who might want to take a risk on a talented young goalie like Ray Emery? A team with very few goaltending prospects and a lackluster starter going into the final year of his contract: the Ottawa Senators.

Everyone got their hate on Garrioch yesterday. That's a cause I've been championing for months!

GM's unhappy with trigger-happy media - CBC
Trade everyone - Black Aces
The Garrioch Effect - Kulkas Korner

Round 2+ - Sens picks
42nd overall - Patrick Wiercioch
79. Zack Smith, c, Swift Current (WHL)
109. Andre Petersson, w, HV 71 Jr. (Sweden)
199. Derek Grant, c, Langley (BCHL)
139. Mark Borowiecki, d, Smiths Falls (CJHL)
199. Emil Sandin, lw, Brynas (Sweden)

...more to come...