How many good things are going to come out of Binghamton this season? Cory Clouston appears to be making a significant difference in the approach this team takes to their games. Brian Elliott is playing unbelievably well. Brendan Bell is quarterbacking the powerplay like no one else has this season. Ryan Shannon, along with Nick Foligno, is making a second line into an actual second line. Brian Lee is solid defensively, and can move the puck up better than any other defenceman. Is this what a farm team is supposed to offer?
Starting in nets, this game could (and likely would) have been completely different without Elliott. He played out of his mind hockey, stopping 34 of 36 shots including plenty of good opportunities. Ottawa was massively outshot (36 to 23) on the night, but Elliott was up to task. One of the two goals he allowed was off an unfortunate rebound, but his defencemen gave him no help on the play. And Mike Richards scored on a breakaway; anyone could let that guy's shot in.
Of course, Bingo callups didn't do everything for the team. The CASH Line played a large part in the win, as well. Although I didn't get to see the whole thing, Dany Heatley responded to criticism with two goals on four shots and three hits, if you'll believe it. He was named first star as a result. Jason Spezza had a goal and an assist, and Daniel Alfredsson also had one assist.
Secondary scoring kicked in with the rest, with Foligno scoring what turned out to be the game-winner (and what looked like the easiest goal in the world) and Antoine Vermette actually scored, his third in six games, on a solid solo effort cutting to the net (Vermette added an assist, to boot).
So, incredibly, the Senators have now won three in a row (first time this season), and are 3-1-1 under Clouston. Elliott is (knock on wood) undefeated on the road. Still 14 points back of a playoff spot, but it's nice to see some good effort on the ice.
According to Sportsnet, Daniel 'golden god' Alfredsson is back from his 'upper body injury' already, and will play tonight against Philadelphia. Is this guy a freakin' robot? Barely a couple of days to rehab arthroscopic knee surgery, and now he only missed a period and a bit from an ugly-looking hit. Amazing. He's playing with Ilya 'first-liner' Zubov, and Mike 'big money' Fisher.
Dean 'underrated' McAmmond is back from his bout with pneumonia, as well, but Filip 'Bobby Orr' Kuba will be out of the lineup due to a groin injury. In his place, Christoph 'rover' Schubert will play defence. Each of Chris 'fighter again' Neil and Dany 'blame-free' Heatley are expected to play despite missing practice yesterday.
I wonder how much cheesier headlines can get than "On a Winch and a prayer". Probably not much cheesier, but I'm sure the Ottawa Sun could find a way. (EDIT: They did, with their headline "Just like Auld times".) No matter how much cheese you have to cut through, the final result is the same: A mostly dominant 4-1 Sens victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Speaking of Winch, one of the game's biggest storylines was Jesse Winchester scoring his first NHL goal mid-way through the second period. As Winchester cut to the front of the net, Daniel Alfredsson sent a glorious pass his way, and Winnie tucked a backhand underneath Philly goaltender Antero Nittymaki. Winchester's celebration was at least as good as his goal: He stared, dumbfounded, for a few seconds, until his right hand shot up into the air, and then his left hand followed a second later. Hilarious. Then he skated over to Mike Fisher, and was joined by Alfredsson in celebration. It's pretty amazing how popular Winchester has become, because the building got really loud when he scored--his style of play has endeared him to Sens fans.
Since being 'demoted' to the second line, Alfredsson has transformed the Senators into a multi-threat team, and ended two goalless streaks (Winchester's on Thursday, and Fisher's on Tuesday) in just a few games. My girlfriend and I were talking last night, and we are both baffled by the fact that Alfie doesn't win the TEAM 1200's Hardest Working Senator award every night. Because he's having a great season so far.
Although the Sens let up a bit for the second and third, the first period was complete dominance. They outshot the Flyers 12-3, and had goals from Anton Volchenkov (laserbeam of a shot high glvoe side) and Dany Heatley (after Jason Spezza sent him a pass I still can't comprehend). A five-minute penalty assessed to Braydon Coburn after he hit Antoine Vermette from behind certainly helped the Sens get off to a good start, but they were well on their way before that penalty. I was kind of expecting the Sens to pad their powerplay stats after scoring just 30 seconds into Coburn's penalty, but they didn't really get much of anything after that goal.
Once again, we've got to give credit to Alex Auld for the win. Although the Flyers only had 18 shots on the night, some of them were bona fide scoring chances. It wasn't a cake walk for Auld, but he provided the stability in nets that the Sens need to win games. Over at Scarlett Ice, they posted a comparison between Auld and former Sens netminder Patrick Lalime, and I think their big-body, positional styles are very similar. There's one difference, though: Auld doesn't seem to get frazzled by anything.
And is anyone else supremely please with Filip Kuba? Okay, everyone except Don Brennan is happy with the way this guy is playing. He's got 14 assists so far, and has at least one in 11 of the Sens' 13 games so far. His poise on the powerplay is great; he makes decisions more quickly han Wade Redden used to, and he makes far fewer mistakes than Andrej Meszaros did. The composure comes in handy when the Sens are short-handed, too. He's leading all Senators in ice time, averagin 24:33 per game, and is a team-leading +5. I thought he would be reliable, but Kuba has really stepped up and filled the void on the Sens' blue line.
Funniest moment of the game: When Christoph Schubert, demonstrating tremendous speed, blasted around the Flyers' D and cut in front of the net, only to overskate the puck at the top of the crease. Then he got demolished by Mike Richards. I tried not to laugh, but when I found out it was only Schubert's pride that was injured I couldn't hold it back. I've got to give the guy huge credit for his breakaway speed, and for setting up what would have been a great move. Here is the clip, for anyone who didn't see it:
Hilarious, once you realize he's not hurt badly. That's a blooper reel classic.
Anyway, the Sens play again tonight, this time against the Carolina Hurricanes. Martin Gerber will get the start, and if he has any chance of regaining the starter's role that he has lost (or even if he has any hope of signing an NHL contract next year).
That is the kind of player the Ottawa Senators need Chris Neil to be every night. Sure, it's nice that he scored two goals, but that's not the only reason. Neil hit players, wrought havoc in front of the net, forechecked hard, fought well, and--most importantly--didn't take penalties. No stupid penalties, anyway, because he did get a five-minute fighting major. If there is going to be room for Neil on the team, this season or in the future, he'll have to keep going that way. Any goals he scores are a bonus.
Speaking of goals Neil scores, the first was off a scrum in front of the net, and the second was a very skillful tip on a Filip Kuba shot. The final score was 3-1 in favour of the Senators, which made the Flyers look good after they were outshot 34-11 by Ottawa. Although Martin Gerber's mask looked really good, he didn't get tested very much at all, only surrendering one goal off a pretty good shot from Philly's Darroll Powe.
Getting back to Kuba, both he and Jason Smith played well tonight, assisting on the Sens' second and third goals. Both were also +2, each took a two-minute minor penalty, but Kuba had about 5 minutes more in ice time (largely due to powerplay time). I didn't like Kuba in his first game, but he looked pretty good tonight, so I'll sleep easy.
The big guns came to play tonight, too, although they didn't make a dent on the score sheet. Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, and Daniel Alfredsson all played well defensively; with the emphasis on playing a rounded game, we might see more games without one of those three on the scoresheet. Jesse Winchester, who once again played on the top line with Spezza and Heatley, did manage to pot a goal--albeit a flukey one of a Philadelphia defender's skate. He once again fit in well with the other two, and threw three hits while notching two takeaways.
If Winchester played well, Nick Foligno played outstanding. He once again (somewhat) subtly ran the opposing goaltender, generating some drama in front of the net. His forecheck was tremendous, and he kept plays alive on several occasions--including Winchester's goal. Cody Bass looked solid, as well, and made sure the Flyers weren't taking any liberties with anyone.
On defence, Brendan Bell looked a little nervous tonight. His game was passable, but not great. If he's going to make the Sens, he's going to have to work on his defensive game. Brian Lee had a pretty good game, though, and made up for a lacklustre effort in his first matchup. Anton Volchenkov was as you'd expect, and Luke Richardson played his typical, barely-noticeable (in a good way) game.
Neil and Matt Carkner both dropped the gloves in this game. I didn't see the Carkner bout (which was against Powe), but Neil was pretty even in his bout with Aaron Asham (I'd give the decision to Asham, though, who got a few more good shots in). If Carkner is to make the Sens it will be as an enforcer, so he had to prove he could toss them tonight, and he did.
So the Sens have Thursday off, and then begin a home-and-home series in Montreal on Friday. They come back to Ottawa on Saturday, and these should be some good games between two teams who should be battling for the Northeast Division all season.
The Sens play the Flyers tonight in Ottawa, game time is 7:00, the game is on Rogers 22 in Ottawa. According to James Gordon's Hockey Capital blog, the forward lines will be as follows:
No word yet on the defence pairings, but I'll post those when I come across them (EDIT: Posted). As I said yesterday, Martin Gerber will be playing the full 60 minutes, and the Ottawa Sun reports that he will be wearing his 'The Gerber Strikes Back' mask.
Both Mike Fisher and Alexandre Picard will be out of the lineup for injuries. Both are reported to be precautionary.
This morning the Sens also made some moves, sending seven players down to the Binghamton training camp. Included in the demotion are goalie Jeff Glass, d-men Mattias Karlsson, and forwards Danny Bois, Josh Hennessy, Alexander Nikulin, Ryan Shannon, and Ilya Zubov. No real surprises there, although I won't be at all surprised if Zubov is very high on the list if the Sens run into injury problems.
Sorry we didn't write a game recap for the loss Feb. 28 to the Flyers. I hate SensTV. Almost as much as I hate Steve Downie. As penance, here is a video of Mike Fisher demonstrating some of the emotion that Bryan Murray was looking for when he reclaimed the head coaching responsibilities.
So... yeah. Dean McAmmond was right, "Atta boy, Fish."
In other Downie news, this guy's isn't funny, but he made one humourous remark:
"If someone ended Steve Downie's career with a Todd Bertuzzi-like thing, I would nominate him for the Lady Byng."
Good for the Sens. There were four things that Murray needed to accomplish when he jumped back behind the bench:
Regain emotion: check
Get a goaltender to play well: check
Rebuild some semblance of defensive commitment: ___
According to the Ottawa Sun, the possibility of Ottawa signing Peter Forsberg is unlikely. He's reportedly close to announcing that he's returning to the Philadelphia Flyers.
I don't understand this affinity Forsberg has for the Flyers organization. They traded you before you even played a game in exchange for some other guy... why do you love them so much?
This is too bad. Signing Forsberg wouldn't have cost the Sens anything, so there would still have been the possibility of adding another player into the top six.
A four-year old Bobby Clarke, who apparently hasn't matured mentally since this photo was taken. Used without permission from LegendsofHockey.net.
Bobby Clarke is a complete and utter imbecile. How this man has a job, let alone a cushy job as senior vice-president of an NHL organization, remains beyond my grasp.
I'm not surprised he jumped to the defence of Steve "Degenerate" Downie on TSN today; this is the same player who slashed Soviet forward Valery Kharlamov, fracturing his ankle and knocking Kharlamov--who was arguably the best offensive forward in the 1972 tournament--out for the remainder. For those who haven't read or heard Clarke's comments, they are as follows:
"When he went after Blake, I loved it. Blake was a guy who had no problem going out and saying [Downie] should be suspended for life or suspended for the year. When you say something that stupid, why shouldn't this kid go after him for it? The kid did what every hockey player should do. ...
"The hit that Downie threw on McAmmond was not a whole lot different than the hits we all admired, including myself - that Scott Stevens used to do on open ice. He hit lots of heads and hurt lots of people and we said it was great. What Downie did was, it looked like Colin Campbell took it personally, [thinking] 'I told these players they couldn't do that and he did so I'm going to get him.' To suspend him for 20 games is ridiculous. [Dean] McAmmond was a veteran player who was skating and watching his pass and got nailed. Sorry for it, too bad he got hurt but it was his own fault as much as it was Downie's."
You've got to be kidding me. Clarke is the mastermind behind the goonish tactics we've all seen from the Flyers this season, drafting Downie ('05) and Jesse Boulerice ('96), signing Randy Jones ('03) and Riley Cote ('04) before finally "resigning" (read: getting fired gently) part-way through last season, in which the Flyers finished dead last. It wasn't until Paul Holmgren came in as GM that functional players such as Kimmo Timonen, Daniel Briere, and Martin Biron were brought in to try and win games by outplaying instead of outlasting the other team.
As ridiculous as his comments surrounding the Blake incident were, I'm going to focus on his analysis of the hit Downie threw on Dean McAmmond in the pre-season.
First off, let me say this: Steve Downie should have been suspended for the entire season for this hit. Downie, if you're interested in punching me in the eye because I said that, please contact me at petrov84@hotmail.com because I would love to have you charged for assault.
Clarke's ridiculous 'blame the victim' justification and his goonish mentality are the kind of old-school ideology that I personally, and I thought most other hockey fans and pundits, are looking to get the NHL to move away from. I don't know what I hope happens, but Clarke deserves to lose his job and most respect people have for him over this, no matter how many points he got in his career (which, for the record, were a lot: 1210 points in 1144 games).
One week ago, I posted a blog entry stating that the league has to reprimand the Philadelphia Flyers organization for their lack of respect for other players. My rant was precipitated by the fourth questionable hit and subsequent suspension of a Flyers player (where Scott Hartnell elbowed Andrew Alberts of the Bruins in the head). Instead of issuing any sort of warning, the league simply handed Hartnell a slap-on-the-wrist two-game suspension.
Then on Saturday night, Riley Cote added to the growing list of brutal hits from Flyers. After an elbow to the head of Dallas Stars' d-man Matt Niskanen, becoming the fifth Flyer to receive suspensions in just over two months of NHL hockey (Steve Downie, Jesse Boulerice, Randy Jones, and Hartnell being the other four). Cote jumped, led with his elbow, and knocked Niskanen's helmet off with the hit--luckily Niskanen had prepared himself to get checked.
What I said last week was that the league had to warn the Flyers that further infractions would be penalized with increasing severity. Instead, Cote--a career minor-league enforcer who is likely only in the NHL because of other Flyers' suspensions--received three games. There is no excuse for such a light penalty for such complete disregard for the rules of the game and the health and well-being of the other players. In fact, something should have been done after the third event committed by a Flyers player; instead league executives watched as a fourth and fifth infraction occured.
According to The Globe and Mail, the league--more specifically Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell--has spoken with Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren and suggested that there will be ramifications in the event of further infractions.
"We were kind of put on notice more than anything and that's fine," Holmgren said from his Philadelphia office. "We understand the consequences and we've just got to be a smarter team."
Apparently in the NHL, it's six strikes you're out. The first five are okay, but God help you if there's a sixth elbow-to-the-head-wth-intent-to-injure committed by one of your players.
One time it's simply an event. Twice it can be a coincidence. Three times is a trend. But four times? It's become a disturbing trend.
Fresh in the mind of all Senators' fans is the Steve Downie incident, where he threw a cheapshot breaking every rule in the book to give Dean McAmmond a concussion earlier in the season. Here is a list of the shit we've seen from this Philadelphia Flyers organization so far in this young season:
Sept. 25, 2007: Downie crushes McAmmond into the boards, jumping at him, leading with his elbow, and hitting Deaner from behind, is suspended 20 games.
Oct. 10, 2007: Jesse Boulerice cross-checks Canucks' Ryan Kesler in the face, suspended 25 games.
Oct. 27, 2007: Randy Jones hits Boston's Patrice Bergeron face-first into the boards, breaking his nose and giving him a concussion; suspended two games.
Nov. 26, 2007: Scott Hartnell elbows Boston's Andrew Alberts to the head while Alberts is in a vulnerable position, suspension hearing forthcoming.
Those four events, all from Flyers players, are some of the most gruesome acts that have happened in the NHL this season. They may even be the four worst, leading one to wonder what the reasoning is behind this trend.
It gets to a point where you have to question what to what extent Flyers' head coach John Stevens is accountable for the actions of his players. Not to suggest he's telling his players to injure their opponents with dirty hits, but inaction can also be a fault if you've got the chance to prevent something and you fail to do so.
I have to wonder what a skilled player like Daniel Briere thinks when he sees so many of his teammates suspended for such heinous demonstrations. Can't be anything good, that is for sure.
I will not panic. I've heard around the rink (the internet rink) that this is the dreaded Stanley Cup Finals syndrome finally catching up to the Sens. And if so, I'm glad. To get some of these loses out of the way and forge a better team now is probably best for the team in the long run.
However, the 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night was ugly. It appeared that the Sens, who had a very light schedule during their winning streak, are now being bogged down by the repetition of playing nearly every-other night.
Playing without Daniel Alfredsson obviously impacted the team as they lacked the offensive spark that the Spalfedheat line usually brings. In particular, Jason Spezza was not his normal no-look-drop-pass self. Even Dany Heatley's awesome slapshot goal lacked some creativity (now I'm really nitpicking).
Martin Gerber let in a couple of weak goals, but so did Antero Niittymaki, so let's cut Darth Gerber some slack, and not put the loss entirely on his shoulders. On the plus side, Ray Emery allowed only one goal in his half-game of work. All things considered, however, the goaltending situation for the Sens is significantly less rosy than it was a week ago.
After switching Gerber out, I thought the Sens could have pulled the game together into a win. Apparantly, the spark was missing against Philly, and not even a solid game by Wade Redden could bring it back.
I expect this to be the last we'll see of the now-famous Black Mask - you heard it here first.
Mr. Heart-and-Soul Dean McAmmond is once again the victim of a dirty shot to the head. Steve Downie, also known as 'dickhead', has been put on notice (see left) for his charging/elbowing/boarding penalty when he hit D-Mac.
Rumour has it that McAmmond's latest injury is a combination head/shoulder injury, likely including a concussion. McAmmond appeared to be bleeding from both his nose and his mouth, and the on-ice crew was seen cleaning it up after the event. McAmmond was talking to paramedics on his way off the ice, and Sportsnet reported at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday night that he was moving his arms and legs.
As someone who was at the game, I can attest to the tension and suspense in the game, as everyone was waiting to see if McAmmond would wave to the crowd to show he was okay. McAmmond lying prostrate on the ice was extremely scary for everyone there, and likely everyone watching. The situation was made more concerning directly after the hit, when a brawl broke out right beside McAmmond. While someone did fall on top of him, and people were all around him, hopefully it didn't worsen the injury.
Downie's got a history of dirty hockey, including most notably an incident with former OHL teammate Akim Aliu, when Downie cross-checked and then fought Aliu during a practice--while on the same team. Wow, class act. See the full story and video here. Count on a suspension to include the pre-season and more, with 12-15 regular-season games coming into effect if and when Downie plays in the NHL, whether that's this season or in the future. If he plays Ottawa this season, Brian McGrattan has said that "he'll get what's coming to him."
In the end, the Sens won the game 4-2, thanks to goals from Daniel Alfredsson (a beauty short-handed breakaway), Joe Corvo (wicked shot from the point), Jason Spezza (the puck hit him and went in), and Shean Donovan (who'll have to thank Chris Neil for it). Ray Emery played the first two periods, surrendering two goals on nine shots. Both Philly goals were glove-side, so either Rayzor's glove-hand is slow, or he was nervous on the prospect of re-injuring the hand he recently had surgery on. Martin Gerber played the third, and stopped all eleven shots he faced--including a few good chances.
It looks like McAmmond will probably miss a lot of action this season, since--given the cumulative nature of head injuries--the team won't risk bringing him back in the lineup too quickly. Christoph Schubert, therefore, will likely play forward, so Larry Nycholat and Luke Richardson will be the sixth and seventh defencemen (though not necessarily in that order). There are then two spots on forward, and two of likely Ilya Zubov, Alex Nikulin, Josh Hennessy, and Nick Foligno will take those spots.
The most important story of the night, however, is obviously the injury to McAmmond. We'll bring more information regarding his status and a Downie suspension as it becomes available. Let's all hope Deaner is alright, and can play again.
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