Musical roster spots: McAmmond, Bell sit out

Reports from the Ottawa Citizen indicate that veteran forward Dean McAmmond and offensive defenceman Brendan Bell will take their turns sitting out of the Ottawa Senators lineup as the Sens play the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight.

In their place will be defenceman-cum-forward Christoph Schubert and Alex Picard, respectively.

Coach Craig Hartsburg said that neither Bell nor McAmmond played well against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night, and so they were pulled out for tonight's game.

Anyone getting the feeling these are starting to get a bit arbitrary? Is this Hartsburg bringing about accountability, by scratching the team's lesser-lite players (Jason Smith, Schubert, Picard, Bell, McAmmond... who's next?)?

Maybe Hartsburg's decision will be astute. We'll see tonight.

New lines released: Bass up, Lee down, Zubov out

According to Sportsnet, the Sens have released line combinations for the Sens' game Friday against the New Jersey Devils:

Vermette - Fisher - Alfredsson
Foligno - Kelly - Heatley
Ruutu - Spezza - Neil
Schubert - Bass - Donovan

According to the same report, Ilya Zubov will not be making the trip because his work visa has expired (how does a professional hockey team let that happen?), Jesse Winchester has an upper-body injury and didn't travel with the team, either, and Dean McAmmond is close to returning after a bout with pneumonia that has kept him out of the lineup for nine games. Which is why Christoph Schubert is dressing as a forward, and why Cody Bass was recalled from Binghamton.

I get that there are people who don't like the way Jason Spezza plays. But he's not a third-line player. He's been playing harder then I remember ever having seen him play before, but maybe this is just a sign for him to wake up and start generating--and capitalizing on--his own scoring chances. But playing him with Chris Neil? That's just not fair. Jarkko Ruutu can at least receive a pass, but I don't understand the idea behind putting Spezza with a couple guys who can hardly finish plays at all. If he is going to succeed, he's got to keep it simple: Send the puck to the front of the net, and hope that--if it doesn't go in on his shot or a deflection--Neil and Ruutu are right there to hammer home some garbage.

On defence, Anton Volchenkov is back from his injury. I guess they had to special-order some replacement pieces from Russia or something, because the robot had missed two games with his lower-body injury. As a result, Brian Lee is back to Binghamton after a solid two-game stint with the O-Sens.

I guess we'll see how it all works out. Hopefully one of the lines steps up and scores a freakin' goal.

And the line juggling begins anew

According to TSN, Craig Hartsburg--in his desperate mission to get his team to wake the shit up--has resorted to the old tactic: Split up the CASH Line. I'm not trying to suggest it's a bad idea, because it's not like they were producing anyway, but it's just so cliché.

He did complement the move, however, with a 12-minute (that's it) bag-skate to try and get their attention. And his reasoning was sound:

"I think the fact for all three of them, and I don't like to talk about money and all that, but they are paid a lot of money," Hartsburg noted. "They should be able to make players around them better and in the past they have counted on the three of them playing together to carry the team. From what I have seen so far that's not going to happen."

He's got to do whatever he can to get things going. Although his complaint was that some players aren't working hard enough, I would argue that a lot of players are working incredibly hard--they just aren't working smart. Daniel Alfredsson is working his ass off, but he's using up so much energy in the defensive end that he's got next to nothing left when they get offensive. Jason Spezza is working as hard as I've ever seen him, but he's not taking shots for himself or taking advantage of the chances he generates. I haven't been impressed with Dany Heatley's play the last few games, so maybe the 'no-work-hard' comments were directed his way, but he's definitely frustrated.

The line combinations didn't include Alfredsson, Jesse Winchester, or Chris Neil, but were as follows in practice (according to TSN's Ice Chips):

Heatley - Kelly - Foligno
Zubov - Fisher - Donovan
Ruutu - Spezza/McAmmond - Vermette

You may notice that the pairing of Ilya Zubov and Mike Fisher stayed together, but were playing with Shean Donovan on the right wing. I think that, if the CASH Line is to be split, let's throw Alfie out there with Zubov so the youngster has someone to set up.

Still, no matter how hard a player is working, the offensive specialists need to score goals. If I could offer my two cents to the situation, I think a benching might be in order. But I'm not talking about a punitive benching, I'm talking constructive benching. Take a player like Antoine Vermette; he's working as hard as ever, but not getting results. It's not because he's somehow lost the skills that he scored 92 goals in the previous four seasons for, it's because he can't catch any breaks, and isn't playing smart. So scratch him for a night, ask him to sit in the press box and take notes on the way the plays are developing, and how/where his teammates would be better suited to be playing.

Explain to the media that it's not an attempt to punish Vermette or to wake him up, because he--along with most of the Senators--already realize that they have to play better and score more. Rather, it's an attempt to give Vermette an idea of the greater scope of the way the team is playing, and hopefully see some simple change that he has to make in his game in order to rediscover his ability to score goals (even if it is only 20 on the season).

Line shuffling

CASH Line stays together, everything else is different. Ryan Shannon is back in the lineup. Dean McAmmond is still injured. Chris Neil's rehab is progressing, and he might be good to go on Saturday. Christoph Schubert will play defence because Alex Picard is still out. Alex Auld is starting again.

The lines are almost all different:

Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson

Vermette-Fisher-Donovan

Winchester-Kelly-Foligno

Ruutu-Bass-Shannon

Line juggling

In my opinion, the beginning of the regular season is the best time to juggle and experiment with the team's lines to find previously unknown chemistry, and make a statement to underperforming players. Today, according to the Ottawa Citizen (via SensChirp), head coach Craig Hartsburg has expressed his frustration by doing exactly that. The lines, according to that Citizen article, are as follows:

Nick Foligno-Jason Spezza-Jesse Winchester

Dany Heatley-Mike Fisher-Daniel Alfredsson

Jarkko Ruutu-Chris Kelly-Antoine Vermette

Shean Donovan-Dean McAmmond-Chris Neil/Christoph Schubert

Notice a few things in particular:

• A big promotion for Nick Foligno, who was on the third line for most of the weekend.
• A message to Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley that their pairing isn't invulnerable, and they're going to have to prove they can compete every night to play together.
• A renewed call on Mike Fisher, who is with Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, to realize his importance is not just in physicality, but also in producing offence.
• Memo to Chris Neil: Get back to what you were doing in the pre-season, because 0 points and -4 on the season just isn't good enough--especially if he's not drawing penalties or making a physical impact (as Black Aces pointed out).
• Christoph Schubert may step back to defence, but that's only speculation at this point. Being benched for two games is certainly a wake-up call, as would the scratching of whichever defenceman might make room for Schubert (likely Brian Lee, who's had some weaknesses exposed).

I guess Hartsburg wanted to prove he's not afraid to make changes if things aren't working. Considering how coaches in the past have often been afraid to do so, it's a nice thing to see.