Jared Cowen update and interview (courtesy of FC)

When Jared Cowen was drafted by the Ottawa Senators, I immediately compared him to Zdeno Chara. Like Chara, He's a huge defenceman who will undoubtedly take a few years to develop.

Luckily, Cowen will be playing for Team Canada during this year's World Junior Hockey Championship against many of the best young players in the world. That's sure to help his development.

Zdeno Jr. has 14 points and is +8 on a solid Spokane Chiefs team, who have a record of 14-8-1 while playing in the tight WHL US-divison.

Check out Future Considerations' recent interview with Cowen on the Chiefs and this winter's WJHC.

I'm looking forward to seeing a Team Canada featuring both JC and Ottawa native Erik Gudbranson, who was recently ranked the #4 prospect in the OHL. I think they can just give us our sixth consecutive gold medal right now.

Karlsson put in car seat for long drive to Bingo

Erik Karlsson as been assigned to the Binghamton Senators until he grows up. I mean, uhh... until his testicles descend. I mean... DAMMIT, JUST BE BIGGER!

GM Bryan Murray made his decision today: Karlsson needs to be a better defender before he plays defence for the Ottawa Senators (kind of makes sense, eh?). Apparently, the kid took it kind of hard, but he's not Russian or anything so we'll probably see him again next year.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact Karlsson will have in Bingo. One thing's for sure: they're set for defencemen for the next couple of years. The Baby Sens already have Brian Lee, will soon have Karlsson leading their powerplay, and can expect Jared Cowen next season. That's a lot of potential on the blueline that the Ottawa club will one day benefit from.

Just be patient, Sens fans, he'll grow up one day.

PS: Here's what a small group of Sens fans said in a hastily assembled poll.

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."

Welcome, Zdeno Jr.

Will there be any forwards on the Ottawa Senators come 2011-12? Not if Bryan Murray's ingenious drafting comes to fruition.

Naw, I'm just yanking BM's chain. The Sens continued their recent trend of using their first-round pick on blue-chip defenders by taking 6' 5" Jared Cowen with the ninth overall pick in this year's draft.

It seems that Murray's trying to cover all the bases on the blueline now, with an ample amount of puck-moving defencemen (cue eye roll) he's gone after the big-body presence that has been missing since... well... that other tall guy left for greener pastures. (I hate Redden so much!)

But just because Cowen's a big player doesn't necessarily mean he'll be hitting people all over the ice. Sens fans are all too familiar with big bodies who couldn't hurt a fly. For instance, Filip Kuba (6' 4" and 226 pounds) is roughly the same size as Cowen, but wouldn't hit an opposing player to save his overrated life.

The Senators', however, do need somebody to log major minutes in upcoming seasons. With Chris Phillips (31) getting older and Anton Volchenkov (27) becoming a free agent after the 2009-10 season, somebody's going to have to be on the ice while Brian Lee, Chris Campoli, Erik Karlsson, et al. save up all their talent juice on the bench.

Late last night, the Ottawa Citizen reported (overheard, I suppose) that Murray and Leafs' GM Brian Burke had a quick conversation on the draft floor (anybody else see this article?). Murray stated that he intended to draft Nazem Kadri with the ninth pick, and asked Burke if that was who the Leafs would select with pick #7. Burke said 'yes'. Murray replied, 'okay,' and walked away.

So I suppose this defensive drafting philosophy is more a product of circumstance than design after all.

...and whatever happened to Mike Comrie?