Ottawa 3 Toronto 2

With the entire city on pins and needles, waiting to see how Pascal Leclaire would react after a rough stretch of games, the young French netminder made a statement against the Toronto Maple Leafs, making 30 saves and a few hair-raising ones late in the 3rd period to preserve the comeback victory.

To be honest, it was a must win game, not only for the Senators, but for Leclaire as well.

If the Leafs had managed to sneak one out on the road, the outcry would have been nasty. Not only did Leclaire restore a bit of his reputation, he also eased the burden on some other non-producing Senators players who surely would have felt the wrath of the fans and media if they dropped an important game to the inter-provincial rivals.

But it wasn't all champagne and roses for Leclaire. He still looks like he's living in the wild west sometimes, sliding around in his crease and often finding himself in strange positions far from his net. Yet, his reflexes and athleticism served him well tonight, as he never gave up on a play, especially when the scene turned scrambly late in the third with the Senators barely hanging on.

There were a few yanked collars when Phil Kessel skated over the blueline and put a bullet past Leclaire in the first period. The initial reaction was probably "he should have had that one" but Kessel is one of the few pure goal scorers in the game today and sometimes nothing is going to stop a shot like that.

But it will be the important saves late in the game that everyone will remember. Leclaire stopped half of the shots (15) in the third period alone, which was really a carry over from a rip roaring last 5 minutes of the second where the two teams traded chances, hits and crowd momentum. For a while there, it felt like the rivalry of old.

Mike Fisher continued his excellent season and was one of the standouts on a Senators squad that had virtually everyone going. Even Alex Picard, the oft criticised defenseman.

When the 1st power play unit was squandering their opportunities, Picard came on with the 2nd unit and kept it simple by taking a pass from Chris Campoli and putting it straight at the net where Milan Michalek tipped it past Vesa Toskala for the tying goal. I've been giving Picard a ton of heat for his poor play but you have to tip the hat when someone does a good job as well.

Another one of the standouts for me was Chris Kelly. He ended up -1 but I see a player who is excelling in his role as a fourth line centre, despite the probability that he expected to be higher in the pecking order coming into the season. Along with Jarkko Ruutu and Shean Donovan, that fourth line just seems to have perfect chemistry and they are a threat at both ends whenever they go over the boards.

Perhaps it's just a cumulative effect of seeing Kelly embrace his role over the past few weeks, but I thought he was one of the most important players on the ice for the Senators tonight.

With the victory, the Senators give themselves a 10 point lead over the Leafs in the standings and keep themselves in the middle of the pack for a playoff spot.

Realistically, with the uneven results they've been getting, the Senators are in a decent position right now. They can afford to tread water for a little while longer, hoping that their offense starts to take off again and their power-play gets its act together.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Pascal Leclaire
2. Mike Fisher
3. Chris Kelly


NOTES

Just one more reason for Clouston to dress Shean Donovan every single game: his first shift.
It was a thing of beauty, enough to bring a tear to Don Cherry's eye (if he didn't despise the Senators on general principle). For those of you who saw the shift, you know exactly what I mean. He followed that up with a great rest of the game....... Jesse Winchester also showed why he's being wasted as a healthy scratch in the first period. He landed a huge hit and then wins a scrap with Jeff Finger on the same shift. I thought Winchester had a great second half of the season last year and solidified his place on the team. You hate to see a guy lose his role because of an injury but unfortunately, that's what happened to Winchester here. I'm not saying there's an easy solution. I'm also a believer in Peter Regin and to a lesser extent, the speedy and skilled Ryan Shannon. But you have to find a way to get Winchester and Donovan on the ice every night. They have speed and they can hit with the best of them...... That was painful to see Alex Kovalev do the double-clutch when he was given the puck right in front of the net on a Sens power play in the first. The puck ended up bobbling away. It's just not happening for Kovie right now. Yet I'm still convinced he'll end up having a positive effect before the year is out. He's just too skilled to be snakebitten for so long..... Kovie did make a nice play when he fed Fisher for the winning goal. Smooth as silk.....

Even more painful was watching Colton Orr do a hammer job on fan favourite Matt Carkner. The ex-Ranger heavyweight Orr stunned Carkner with a couple of rights and the Sens defenseman, who hasn't lost a fight yet this year, couldn't recover. It did not end amicably either. Both fighters were chirping angrily after that one. But Carks will live to fight another day. The old maxim: it's not how many you win, it's how many you show up for. Yet no one wants to lose like that on home ice, especially against the Leafs. I feel sorry for the next guy who has to go up against Carks. It could get ugly......

Hard to believe a lot of people here in town wanted to see Chris Neil leave. Imagine he was causing the ruckus he did tonight for the Leafs instead of the Senators? Don't laugh. It came close to happening.....

Ruutu v Mitchell. Senators fight of the year? If not, then it's in the top 3. Ruutu is an underrated fighter and never seems to get overpowered.....

I may be in the minority here, but the Garrioch article concerning Alfie staying with the Senators for the remainder of his career should give fans pause. The striking revelation is not that Alfie wants to spend his last years in Ottawa - we already knew that because of the contract he signed - but it was that he left the door open to asking for a trade someday to a contender.

“I can’t see (asking for a move). Never say never. It could happen in the future, but I don’t think it’s probable.”

That's a direct quote. And I'm not blaming Alfie here. But it should open the eyes of some people who take the captain for granted. Some big name players have either asked out or walked away to free agency without shedding a tear of regret. If Wayne Gretzky can leave the Oilers, Alfie can certainly leave the Senators one day. If Bryan Murray can't get this team turned around in the next two years, we may be looking at a very uncomfortable situation for everyone involved. Just saying. ......

The Toronto media are certainly getting their shots in at the Senators. It should be noted that it was a Toronto reporter who solicited Alfie's response about one day asking for a trade. Then Mike Zeisberger couldn't help point out that the morning of the game, the Senators were far from having a sellout for the battle of Ontario. Those are two sensitive issues that Bytown reporters don't seem to want to touch very often........

I just picked up the Senators first ever media guide from 92-93 on Ebay for a measly 6 bucks. It's a great little piece of history (as are all media guides). For instance, you can find out that the original 2-D Senators logo (still the best) was designed by a man by the name of "Mr. Tony Milchard".




Also, for some reason, the Senators decided to forgo traditional pictures of the players and instead commissioned an artist to do really ugly and awkward drawings of every single skater. Has to be seen to be believed. Below is Brad Marsh and inaugural captain Laurie Boschman. Oh, the horror of it all!!

Back In The Day...

Back in the early part of the decade, Black Aces was a .ca address and was more of a traditional kind of hockey website, before I even knew what a blog really was. It was run by myself and my friend Simon and we kept it up for upwards of two years until the hosting fees became too big to handle. When I discovered the free service Blogger, I rebooted the Black Aces name a couple of years later and that's the site you see now.

For a peak at what that old site looked like, check out a 2004 archive right here courtesy of the Way Back Machine website.

It's a little crude and semi-pro looking but we "captured the spirit of the thing". Most of the articles seem to be working so you can check out the once popular "Classic Takes" section which is a compilation of some hilarious quotes from years past (these are also archived on the current site under the label "Classic Quotes". And you can probably tell that I was (and still am) a massive Mark Messier fan....

Rangers 2 Ottawa 1 (SO)

That's why they call him the "King".

Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers single handedly shutdown the Senators on Saturday afternoon, stopping 35 of 36 shots, including 16 in the second period.

Lundqvist got some competition from Brian Elliott who had a really solid game in the nets in relief of a struggling Pascal Leclaire but he was unable to stop the opposition in the shootout, which has been the case with every Senators goalie since format was introduced.

There was not much for the Senators to hang their head about. In what was a very tight and competitive game, Ottawa gave it everything they had but went 0 for 5 on the powerplay and even gave up a shorthanded goal to ex-Senator Vaclav Prospal.

Shean Donovan got called back into the lineup in place of healthy scratch Ryan Shannon and managed to be on the ice for the Senators only goal, scored by Brian Lee. Hopefully Cory Clouston gets the hint and keeps Donovan in the lineup for good. The intangibles and hustle Donovan brings are almost becoming a cliche by now and he seems to make that fourth line complete along with Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Kelly.

Senators who had strong games were the aforementioned Ruutu, Lee, Chris Neil and Filip Kuba. While Alex Picard and Chris Campoli continue to bring almost nothing to the table game after game, Lee seems to be improving and looks more assertive out there than during training camp when he was surprisingly cut.

Clouston still seems to believe in Picard as the smallish error-prone defenseman was given 22 minutes of ice time, behind only Chris Phillips and Kuba. The previous game against Philly, Picard led the team in ice time... and errors.

Some have suggested that Clouston is playing Picard so much as a way to showcase him for a possible trade by Bryan Murray.

I don't buy it. Why would Clouston intentionally hurt his team's chances of winning that way? He seems like a hard-headed, no-nonsense type of character and that scenario just doesn't fit.

The only explanation is that Clouston likes the way Picard plays and trusts him on the ice. Perhaps he see's something we all don't. Picard is certainly mobile and can move the puck at times with a lot of skill. Clouston was equally hard-headed by keeping Jonathan Cheechoo in the lineup and that actually seems to be paying off as the struggling winger recently picked up his first goal.

Can a similar renaissance for Picard be in the works? I doubt it very much but we won't really know how Clouston feels until Anton Volchenkov is healthy enough to play. Does Clouston sit Picard or Campoli? You can make a case for both quite easily but if ice time keeps getting distributed the way it is now, you can bet that it will be Campoli sitting in the press box and not Picard.

Regardless, it may be worth noting that perhaps we're all making too much out of a few defenseman and some fourth liners. Yet this season, it seems like how those secondary players go, the team goes.

Game after game, Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Jason Spezza provide what's needed from them. It almost takes them out of the equation now when you talk about what happened during the game. Like it or not, the competition is so fierce in the NHL that it often comes down to the bottom defense pairings and the third and fourth lines in how matches are decided.

The yo-yo season continues for the Senators on Tuesday when they host the Leafs.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Jarkko Ruutu
2. Chris Neil
3. Brian Elliott

***

Just as an exercise, I've been keeping track of the 3 stars I give out at the end of every game (well, almost every game. I'm bound to miss a few here and there when I can't blog) and these are the results so far this season. The criteria for the scores is 3 points for 1st Star, 2 points for 2nd Star and 1 point for being the 3rd Star. Unscientific and probably argument worthy, but here are my results so far:

Black Aces Senators Star Scorecard 2009 - 2010 Season

Spezza – 11
Alfredsson – 10
Michalek – 9
Neil - 7
Ruutu - 5
Leclaire – 4
Elliott – 3
Fisher – 3
Kovalev – 3
Volchenkov – 3
Carkner – 2
Lee – 1
Kuba – 1
Donovan - 1

Flyers 5 Senators 1

Obviously, a game to forget for Ottawa.

It seemed as if the Senators went in to Philadelphia intent on playing the perfect road game - laying back and waiting for the Flyers to get frustrated.

That's a good recipe if you have a solid defense core that can put bodies on Flyers forwards.

Unfortunately, Ottawa's defence is missing Anton Volchenkov and features the likes of Chris Campoli, Alex Picard and Brian Lee.

Can you imagine going into a hard fought, blood and guts playoff series with those 3 players on your back end? Against a team of men like the Flyers? No chance. You can't even mention the Stanley Cup in the same sentence.

Somehow, Cory Clouston found 24 minutes to give to Alex Picard. That was the highest ice time mark on the Senators. Higher than Chris Phillips. Higher than Filip Kuba.

So what is going on here?

Another head scratcher is Clouston's unwillingness to dress Shean Donovan, a player who at least gives a damn about what he gives on the ice. He was part of a very effective fourth line which was helping the Senators win games early in the season. He won't be the difference between winning and losing, but the Senators seem to perform better when he's in the lineup giving his all on limited shifts.

You can point the finger at Pascal Leclaire and Alex Kovalev for having another bad game but to me, the Senators are carrying an inept set of defenseman who have zero defensive acumen and zero character on the ice. They simply don't register against a character team like Philadelphia. Yet Campoli and Picard seem like they are here to stay because of their cheap contracts and their supposed "offensive ability".

In short, the Senators were outclassed by a much better Philadelphia team tonight. When Alex Picard plays almost two more minutes than both Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timmonen, you know the Senators are in deep trouble here.

So what is Bryan Murray going to do?

If you take him at his word, he's not even concerned about his defenseman. He says the Senators need another forward.

Oh brother.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Ray Emery (still being paid by the Senators to beat them)
2. Jason Spezza
3. Mike Fisher

Sens Survive Another Scare

The Senators have had their share of bad breaks over the past two weeks, but tonight against the Edmonton Oilers, they finally had a couple go their way and pulled out a much needed victory at home.

Did they deserve to win the game? That's debatable but no one will care in the morning. What matters is that a pinball style game ended on a pinball goal by Jason Spezza in the shootout, where he saw his shot hit the post, bounce out and hit Jeff Drouin-deslauriers and then slide into the net for the win.

Yet the Senators had more than enough bad luck to almost sink them in the third period.

For one, they got zero power plays in the entire game, a stat that covers up the fact that the referees missed at least 3 or 4 bonafide penalty calls against the Oilers, including a too-many-men situation and a blatant trip on Daniel Alfredsson along the boards in overtime.

Despite coach Cory Clouston's exhortations for the players to stop yapping to the refs, you couldn't help spot him dropping some F-bombs on the bench if you were a decent lip reader.

That wasn't the only matter turning the coach's hair white prematurely.

Alex Picard played a game that can only be described as unacceptable due to a series of endless giveaways late in the game (more on Picard in the Notes section) and Pascal Leclaire let in another soft goal for the second contest in a row.

Leclaire has been very good all season but he seems to have lost a little bit of his swagger ever since he went down with that flu a while back. He's still making big stops but seems a little scrambly at times. In all likelihood, Leclaire will settle down now that the games are coming more regularly but like the rest of the team, he's struggling against making untimely errors.

But enough with the gloom, as there were many positives to come out of the night.

Jonathan Cheechoo scored his first goal of the season on a nice pass from Alexei Kovalev, who really came to play tonight as well. Kovalev seemed to have the puck on his stick during every shift and scored a beautiful backhand goal during the shootout which was important because Leclaire had just given up the first shot to Patrick O'Sullivan. Spezza and Leclaire would finish the job from there.

As for Cheechoo, he couldn't have picked a better game to score his first, with the trio of Oilers in town who were GM Bryan Murray's first choice as the return on Dany Heatley. With all the talk of how good Dustin Penner has been, Cheechoo's goal was a little reminder for everyone that the Senators got more than just the speedy Milan Michalek in the San Jose option.

Chris Neil played it low key after getting some criticism for taking a misconduct the last game, and got zero penalties while scoring a nice goal in the 3rd by crashing the net. He seemed to pass up a few opportunities to mix it up with Zack Stortini in order for the Senators to stay focused. He did manage to get in a few nice hits along the way in case you thought he was too well behaved.

The Edmonton Oilers played a terrific road game for the most part and under Pat Quinn, they look as good as any time since the 2006 Stanley Cup Final. They seem to have their identity back by being a very fast and aggressive team.

Black Aces Senators Three Stars

1. Jason Spezza
2. Chris Neil
3. Matt Carkner


NOTES

I slapped my knee in anger when Michalek hit the post in the first period. My wife (who hates hockey), looked at me and said "Why are you mad? He tried." After I stopped laughing, I had to admit, she made sense in her own weird way....

It struck me as strange that Bryan Murray told the Ottawa Citizen that he needed another forward instead of a defenseman. I understand that slow starts by Cheechoo, Kovalev and Ryan Shannon have left the scoring depth thin but it seems clear to me that the big weakness on this club is on the backend. Ottawa has three almost identical defensemen in Brian Lee, Chris Campoli and Alex Picard, the 3 twins if you will. If Erik Karlsson makes a successful return to the club (as I believe he will at some point), that makes the 3 twins expendable. The Senators have four effective d-men in Phillips, Volchenkov, Kuba and Carkner. You never know what kind of game you'll get from the 3 twins. When they're on, they're mediocre. When they're off, they're terrible. Brian Lee has the most potential from that group and that's not really a compliment to Lee. It's clear that Murray needs to add another shutdown defenseman with some size and grit. The 3 twins are going to get awful tired getting run over every night.....

Uni File : If the Oilers don't have the worst road (white) uni's, then they certainly have the most boring. You have to look very hard to find even a trace of colour and when you do, it's a washed out orange on the sock stripes. A far cry from the bright orange and blue glory days of the Oilers. The only thing the current white sweaters should be used for is practice or as pyjamas.....

Funny, when Chris Neil scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, all anyone wanted to talk about was Alex Picard and what a great play he made to rush up the ice. Then Picard goes out and almost gives the puck away again on his next shift. And then the shift after that. And then Dustin Penner blew by him with ease a few plays later. It was ugly........... When Murray hinted he needed another forward, he wasn't thinking of Mike Comrie was he?

***

Count me in as AGAINST changing the trapezoid rule. And you can count me in against repealing any of the rule changes implemented after the lockout. The reason? Hockey hasn't been this entertaining since the early 90's and the changes have worked in tandem to help bring up scoring and increase the speed of the game.

It would be a complete shame to let certain reactionary elements in the hockey world chip away and repeal some of the most positive changes the game has seen in a long time. The same people aren't happy with the delay of game "puck in the stands" rule and they are often the ones who wish the refs would "let the players decide the game" (a barely concealed wish to allow massive obstruction back into the game). Chances are they are the same people who cry in their pillows night after night when a hockey player gets hit out there. In essence, they want to turn the NHL into a basketball game on ice, where even brushing against someone is considered a foul. Maybe the NHL season should be simulated on a video game so the only risk of injury is a sore thumb.

The NHL product is relatively good right now. Enough with the constant yammering for a repeal of rules that work. Thankfully the GM's shot down the idea of dropping the trapezoid rule today:

...the cost would be that the game would run the risk of going back to the offense-challenged style that marked the pre-lockout era.

“The game was turning into a tennis match,” said Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. “Now, with the soft chip in the corner it becomes a puck battle, which is exactly what we want.”

Campbell said people who want to remove the trapezoid might forget how pedantic hockey was prior to the lockout and one of the reasons for that was goalies were simply firing the puck out to the neutral zone on the dump in.

***

Fan of comedian Nick Swardson? I highly recommend you check out his new CD/DVD. Yes, it's called "Seriously, Who Farted?". Here's a clip (Warning: Not suitable for work).

Jersey Steals Two In A Heartbreaker

What happened to Ottawa's penalty killing?

They let in 3 straight to New Jersey tonight and two against Tampa Bay on Thursday. What was their biggest strength in the early part of the season has suddenly gone over the wall and fled the rink when they've needed it the most.

While it's no huge shame to lose at home to a team like New Jersey which came into the game having won 7 straight on the road, but it's the way it happened that gives one a reason to be concerned.

The Devils have had a hard time scoring this season, and with Ottawa up 2-0, you'd think the Sens would find a way to tighten the screws.

Peter Regin, Jesse Winchester and Chris Campoli were the players who put their team down by a man with penalties, but none of those guys were top penalty-kill regulars anyways. Instead it was the mainstays on the special unit who couldn't get the job done, and Pascal Leclaire had a few rough moments in an otherwise solid game.

Discipline has been a bit of a problem but not in the ways you'd think. Chris Neil and Jarkko Ruutu both took game misconduct penalties but those aren't the ones that hurt the team because they didn't result in a man disadvantage. Instead, it was the chintzy penalties that drive coaches crazy such as hooking and shooting the puck over the glass. When Campoli made that last mistake, he seemed to know that it was going to come back to haunt the team as he immediately hunched over in despair, knowing he had done it at the most unfortunate time of the game with the score tied.

The goalie and the penalty-kill couldn't bail him out, as is often the case with those types of penalties. If a guy takes a penalty by roughing someone up, at least there's emotion involved from that play which can carry a team through a treacherous two minutes. An unfortunate blooper like sending the puck into the stands is only deflating, and that's probably as good a reason as any that teams have a tougher time killing those ones off.

Regardless, the Senators find themselves in a weird state of flux. They've had too many long breaks in the schedule to get any momentum from their positives or any quick closure to their losses. With a slew of games coming up in the next few weeks, they hope to be able to find their identity again - and their penalty kill.

While I haven't heard the post-game pressers yet, I expect there to be an angry Andrew Peters accusing Jarkko Ruutu of some kind of dirty shenanigans yet again. In what had to be one of the most entertaining games of Ruutu's season thus far, he jumped into a fray that included Peters and seemed to start choking him from behind before wrestling the big lug to the ice. With arms and legs flying everywhere, it was hard to see what was going on at the bottom, but Peters emerged holding his hand and screaming at the refs about something Ruutu did. Remember, it was Peters that Ruutu bit last season and this was almost a replay of that scene, with Peters clearly being caught by the CBC microphones calling Ruutu a "f**king fa**ot" and later in the penalty box screaming "you're a f**king joke!"

Ruutu just smiled like a shark, thoroughly enjoying himself. The best part was that Peters and Ruutu got identical minors and the Senators weren't hurt as a result (Ruutu also got the misconduct). To say that Ruutu is in Peter's head is probably an understatement.

Ruutu also had a comical moment earlier when a Jersey player softly got a glove around his neck and Ruutu jerked his head back like he'd been shot, trying to draw a penalty on the play. The refs probably had a good laugh about that one after the period. They weren't falling for it one bit.

Black Aces Senators Three Stars

1. Milan Michalek
2. Jason Spezza
3. Brian Lee

Have a nice weekend.

Spezza And Neil Stun The Bolts

With his body bent over and his fist pumping the air, Jason Spezza was the very picture of relief as he led his Ottawa Senators to a gritty 3-2 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lighting.

Not only was it Spezza's third point of the night after sitting out two losses with a back injury, it was his first goal of the season and you could just sense the world tumbling off of his shoulders as the crowd and his teammates jumped to their feet in unison.

You could sense that the players were genuinely just as thrilled to see Spezza break the goosegg as they were about winning. Guys were laughing and giving him facewashes in a scrum after the goal and Spezza skated away as the 1st Star of the game.

And this offensive explosion couldn't have come at a better time for the young centre. If you listened to the call-in and pre-game shows on the 1200, fans and media members were getting tired of repeating the refrain that "at least he's playing well defensively". In particular, a couple of the pre-game show personalities were getting on his case, most noticeably Mike Eastwood, who seemingly never has anything nice to say about a skilled hockey player in this town.

For a guy who was asked to play better in his own end for years, Spezza complied this season but his point production wasn't as high as it used to be, due to losing his 50 goal scoring linemate and adjusting to new players on his wing while struggling with a nagging back injury.

But, as some have noted, Spezza seems to be a different player this season. Always a popular player in the room, Spezza is now becoming a leader (that's the sound of Jacques Martin's jaw hitting the floor). It's the little things you notice. He got married in the off-season. He hosted the team's annual Halloween bash at his home downtown. He stuck up for the organization in the Dany Heatley dispute, even though it meant he had to criticize his best friend on the team.

And perhaps the biggest sign is the way the players reacted after he scored that goal. It showed respect for the guy who was once one of the most criticised players in Ottawa Senators history.

The other item of note from this game has to be the absolutely crushing hit that Chris Neil delivered to rookie Victor Hedman in the 2nd period. It was like watching a wrecking ball crumple a phone booth. After the perfectly legal hit, Hedman was crumpled up on the ice gasping for breath and the big-minute player didn't return after going straight to the dressing room. With sensitivities heightened due to the near tragic hit in the OHL recently, you might expect some to call the hit "dirty". Yet TSN's Bob McKenzie, who is no fan of head shots and vicious acts on the ice, called it an "outstanding hockey hit". In a bizarre moment, a Tampa TV colour commentator (who I believe is Stanley Cup winning coach Terry Crisp) took offense at the hit and accused Neil of only being brave on home ice.

Anyone who has watched Neil over the course of his career knows that number 25 plays the same way every night, whether he's at home or not. It's unfortunate that Hedman was hurt, but that's part of hockey. Always has been and always will.

The real dilemma is how do you encourage hits like Neil's, and discourage the unfortunate hit and run we saw in the OHL recently that may have ended a young man's career. The line is very thin and often a couple of inches either way is the only difference between a clean and a dirty hit.

Otherwise, a fine night for the Ottawa Senators. It was a much needed victory for a team that is going to start playing a ridiculously compressed schedule between now and the Olympic break.

Full marks to the Lightning for a solid road game, but it was Spezza's night to shine.

Black Aces Senators Three Stars

1. Jason Spezza
2. Daniel Alfredsson
3. Mike Fisher

NOTES

Alex Picard showed up to play tonight. He had a hell of a first period and was all over the puck. If only he could find that confidence on a regular basis. He'd play Chris Campoli out of a job...... You know you're watching the Tampa Bay broadcast when one of the main sponsors for a ticket giveaway is "Mr. Empanada"........ You have to see this picture...... The Tampa play-by-play guys couldn't get over how aggressive Ottawa was on the penalty kill. When you think about it, the Senators are just as exciting to watch shorthanded as they are on the power-play. The ice just always seems to open up for Alfie, Fisher and Michalek.... With that being said, the Senators gave up two power play goals tonight, one of them a beauty by Steve Stamkos. The sophomore star is starting to explode in this league right now. The worst and best thing the Lightning have done in the past two years is hire then fire Barry Melrose. Rick Tochett came in and has done a real good job with this team and more importantly, he believed in Stamkos and didn't try to coach him through the media like Melrose did....... Speaking of Tochett, he is still a mean looking s.o.b. He looks like he could lace them up and hold his own in the corners of any NHL rink. Could you imagine what Tochett would have done to a player like Brian "Peach Fuzz" Lee back in the day? The would have had to get the shovels out to clean up the debris......

One sentence I could never have imagined writing this season: Antero Nittymaki is pretty good, but he's no Ondrej Pavelec......... You have to feel for Ryan Shannon. It seems like opposing players are always looking to crush this kid, kinda like the way Sylvester starts salivating when he sees a vulnerable Tweety out in the open. Except Shannon isn't as lucky as Tweety. He's had at least two concussions in two seasons and Andrej Meszaros was the latest player to take a healthy run at him. Fortunately, Shannon avoided the oncoming train.....


Want to see a ranking of NHL fighters based on a sophisticated interpretation of statistics based on the principals of chess? Behind The Net has the top 10 for you and, no surprise, Montreal's Georges Laraque is at the top of the list. What may surprise Sens fans is that there is no Chris Neil on that list. How sound can the list be without Neiler anyways? ..... There's something wrong when two heart and soul guys like Shean Donovan and Jesse Winchester are forced to sit because of hockey politics. The politics I speak of? Jonathan Cheechoo getting far too many chances to wow us with his non-existent skating ability because the boss traded for him as part of the Dany Heatley package. It's just not right..... For all the talk that the Leafs may have handed the number one pick in the 2010 Entry Draft to Boston for Phil Kessell, wouldn't it be funny if the Carolina Hurricanes keep bottoming out and scoop up the lottery pick from under the Bruins? Brian Burke would be the happiest guy in the NHL outside of Taylor Hall.......

All aboard the Carkbus

Matt Carkner has a fan club in Westport, Ontario, where he reportedly spends his off-season (he was born in nearby Winchester) and they actually charter a bus and take fans into Kanata from the Cove Country Inn. And yes, it's called the Carkbus. Thanks to Andrew for sending the email out and for the picture below of the actual flyer that hangs in the "Cove". So good...





The Tampa play-by-play guys evidently have no idea where Carkner is from. When Carks took on Ryan Craig at the end of the 2nd period, one of them blurted out something about the "two big Western boys". Craig was born in Abbotsford, B.C. so 1 out of 2 ain't bad. Carkner played 1 game for the Sharks so maybe that is what they were referring to. To be fair, with a name like Carkner, how can you not envision bone-cold ice rinks in the middle of Moose Jaw or Red Deer?

Ugly Flames Moment

Just a quick post while I get my new desktop up and running today (upgrading to Windows 7 is posing problems - anyone else have issues?).

With the Senators having a week off and everyone fretting over the same issues (injuries, Kovalev, Melnyk going after Heatley), I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said by everyone else all week. With all the recent losses, you'd be tempted to hit the panic button but Cory Clouston has kept the fans and media at bay by praising his team's efforts and lamenting some bad breaks.

But without Spezza and Volchenkov, this team is going to be in tough to win on any night.

One non-Senator issue that did strike a chord with me today is the revelation that the Calgary Flames skipped the que for the swine flu shots in Alberta last week while little kids and pregnant women waited in line for days (and in some cases were turned away when the clinics closed over the weekend due to mass confusion).

This story hit home because a) I have a pregnant wife who has been anxiously awaiting her chance to get the shot, and b) I am a strident supporter of universal health care in Canada.

I don't blame the players for this because players just do what they're told. But Flames management should have known better.

Think of the optics: millionaire hockey players jump the line because they can afford private health care while kids, pregnant women and cancer patients wait outside in long lines, not even sure if there will be a vaccine waiting for them at the end.

Being able to access health care because of your financial clout is anathema to what Canada is all about. But Canadians have a long standing tradition of chastising "millionaire hockey players" and this story just feeds the monster, even though the players are innocent in all of this.

"It's a failure of leadership that we are providing vaccines willy-nilly to whoever has money, to whoever has access, when cancer patients, when chronic lung patients, when pregnant women and their children can't get it," said Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann.

"It's a violation of the basic principles of public health care."

Hard to disagree.

Wiped Out In Tampa

A game to forget for Ottawa.

Playing injured (without Jason Spezza and Anton Volchenkov) and for the second consecutive night on the road, this game was dominated by sophomore Steve Stamkos and the gang mentality of the Lightning's fourth line that consists of Zenon Konopka, Steve Downie and Todd Fedoruk.

There's no excuses, but during the season, every team has nights where things go wrong right from the start and you run into a team that's motivated to beat you.

The Lightning were still stinging from a humiliating defeat to Ottawa earlier in the season and seemed intent on trying to run the Senators out of the rink both offensively and physically.

They even got the better of the two main fights when Konopka tussled with Chris Neil and Downey went with Jarkko Ruutu. That's just the kind of night it was.

While you don't want to start pointing out individual players when the whole team played flat, there were a few soft spots in the lineup for the Senators that were too obvious to miss.

Jonathan Cheechoo continued his descent into purgatory by playing only 9 minutes, just ahead of Neil who would have had more had it not been for the 5 minute major he took against the feisty Konopka. With two recent scratches Ryan Shannon and Shean Donovan playing spirited minutes tonight, you have to think that the next person to sit once Spezza comes back is Cheechoo. This team is carrying him right now and his poor skating doesn't fit the mould of what the club is trying to do.

But it isn't all Cheechoo's fault that the Senators have now lost 3 of their last 4.

Alex Kovalev needs to score more goals (although he had a nice one tonight when the game was already out of reach). Chris Campoli has to start being more firm in his zone. Alex Picard has to stop giving the puck away at the blueline like he did twice in the third period.

And the referees have to start giving the Senators some power plays. TSN's Pierre McGuire caught on to the fact that the Sens were getting "lippy" with the refs, but can you really blame them? The past few pre-game shows on the Team 1200 were full of Cory Clouston soundbites questioning the refs and assistant GM Tim Murray was a guest during an intermission tonight and he sounded exasperated with the officiating.

They were shorthanded 6 times tonight and were on the power-play 3 times. Against Florida on Wednesday, the ratio was 7-1.

Yet, there's only so many excuses. They lost tonight because Tampa was the better team. End of story.

This sets up an anticipated rematch a week from tonight. This has become a little mini-rivalry within this season as the teams have now played two particularly nasty games with both being lopsided.

***

Brian Lee had an okay game after getting called up to replace Volchenkov. Playing with Chris Campoli, Lee was a -2 with one assist and about 16 minutes of ice time. But what's with Lee's constant mouth guard chewing/slobbering and his sweater arms hiked up so far that his elbow pads are exposed? It probably looks cool in the minor leagues but it's not how an NHL player is supposed to carry himself. Wear your uniform like a professional and stop looking like such a hayseed from Binghamton. What's next? White skates and a tinted visor?......

Ever since my desktop computer died a few weeks ago, I've been using a mini-laptop kindly donated from a friend. But what I still can't master is that damn mouse pad. I don't get it. It's so hyper responsive yet I can barely get it to do what I want. Twice I've been in the middle of a column and have accidentally published my post by one slight slip of the finger. Then once in a while, it just randomly decides to scroll my entire page. You're probably thinking I'm just an idiot (and you'd be right), but I can't understand how anyone could use one of these things permanently. The one good thing I like? Lying on the couch with the laptop sitting on my stomach watching You Tube Mafia documentaries on a Sunday afternoon. .......

Edmonton just went up 4-0 on Detroit. For a guy as astute as GM Ken Holland, I cannot believe he didn't upgrade his goaltending this summer. Chris Osgood is a respected champion but last season should have been the warning sign for Holland. He should have went after Ray Emery when he had the chance. Not that Emery has been a Vezina candidate or anything, but he would have been as good a fit in Detroit as he has been in Philly. The Osgood tandem with Jimmy Howard is looking absolutely brutal right now.....

As talked about during the Team 1200 pre-game show (still a good listen after all these years despite having to put up with a perpetually grumpy and bitter Mike Eastwood dump all over Jason Spezza night after night no matter how good the team is playing), maybe it's time for Clouston to try Kovalev with Spezza for awhile to see if the two can get each other going a little more. If you drop Cheechoo down the lineup (or off the lineup), perhaps someone like Nick Foligno or Shannon can play with Mike Fisher and Daniel Alfredsson. It may not work but it would be worth a shot to see if they can spark something in each other. Spezza has played good but Cheechoo is like an anchor on that line. Kovalev would also be the right wing on that line, his natural position.

See you Saturday against Atlanta.

Road Cure For Sens Woes

How many of you were thinking: "Here we go again" when Bryan McCabe scored to cut the Ottawa lead to 4-3?

One player wasn't buying it. Daniel Alfredsson.

Soon after the McCabe goal, the captain got on the ice and dominated for over a minute in the Panthers zone and capped off the shift with a big hit. That was the captain's way of saying: "There ain't going to be no comeback. Not tonight."

After that shift, there were no major miscues and Brian Elliott finished off what an ailing Pascal Leclaire started by making some timely saves in the 3rd period to finish off the near-Leaf bad Florida Panthers.

In essence it was an uneventful game - just the kind of game Ottawa needed. Filip Kuba stepped back into the lineup and got two assists without breaking a sweat. Clearly he's an important piece of this team without too many people seeming to notice in the past. One of his assists came on the power-play when Mike Fisher tipped in his point shot and his presence certainly bodes well for that unit going forward.

Now we wait and see if coach Clory Clouston can avoid making any more unnecessary lineup changes like he did the last time the Senators were on a winning streak. Shean Donovan may have played some scant minutes (and showed up for a good fight with the much younger Kenndal McArdle) but he's becoming a good luck charm for the team as well as a vital piece of that fourth line. Intangibles, intangibles....

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Daniel Alfredsson
2. Brian Elliott
3. Filip Kuba

NOTES

Bryan McCabe - Does that guy score in every single game he plays against Ottawa, or does it just feel that way?......Tomas Vokoun just hasn't been that good since joining the Panthers from his "glory days" in Nashville. I should know because I've been stuck with him in pools the last couple of seasons. His save percentage has been pretty good in Florida but his team just hasn't been able to score. When he was with Nashville, he seemed to come out of nowhere and exceed expectations. Now that he's a known entity, he simply seems underwhelming...... Jarkko Ruutu is quietly having a really good season. And so we won't jinx it by talking about it too much....

It was 50 years ago on November 1st when Montreal goalie Jacques Plante took a shot directly to the face courtesy of Andy Bathgate, prompting the legend to don that famous hockey mask which has now become standard protection for today's goaltenders. Yada, yada, yada, but when did goalie masks get so ugly? I would say that across the board, most NHL goalie masks are completely indecipherable from one another when seen on TV or from the stands in the arena. The reason? Most goalies hire specialists who fill the mask with so much detail and busy artwork that they can only be appreciated from up close. In the 70's and 80's, when "mask artists" didn't really exist, goalies tended to opt for solid colours, stripes, or simplistic but edgy designs such as Gerry Cheevers famous "stitch" mask or Gilles Gratton's "lion" mask. Today's masks look bad on TV and that's a shame. Part of the problem is the modern structure of masks doesn't leave much room for big, bold designs due to the standard face cage. But the limited space on the top and sides of the masks just screams out for simplicity rather than obscure cartoon characters. For my money, nothing beats the classic Grant Fuhr mask. Simple, colourful and memorable.......

I couldn't be more tired of the endless exhortations from some quarters demanding the NHL do something about "hits to the head". The fact is that the NHL already has stringent rules in place for players who target another players head. What these people really want to do is to punish players who deliver "incidental" contact to the head. The only way to do that would be to outlaw hitting in the NHL. No player can always deliver a perfectly safe hit. It's a tough game and sometimes heads get knocked around. Mike Richards' hit on David Booth was clearly legal (he did not leave his feet like some people erroneously tried to claim). Same as the big hit on Jonathan Toews from Willie Mitchell. These players are paid a lot of money and they all have a choice whether or not to play hockey for a living. They know what they are getting into. Sometimes big hits happen and sometimes players get hurt from those hits. For all the hits that happen every night in the NHL, how many really go wrong and result in an injury the likes of which Booth suffered? There's only a handful every single year, yet some critics act like it's a nightly occurrence. Huge hits are an integral part of the NHL. Let's not confuse those with deliberate hits to the head (which are even rarer!).

Murray Changes Mind - Demotes Rookie

The confusion surrounding Erik Karlsson's position on the team and what exactly a demotion would mean contract wise have all been clarified today.

Karlsson was sent to Binghamton and not Sweden, as GM Bryan Murray thought he might have to do in order not to burn a contract year on Karlsson's entry level status in the league. After clarification from the league, Murray, and the rest of us confused dopes learned that sending Karlsson to the AHL, the much preferred option, will not burn the first year because he's exempt due to being a European draft pick.

Or something like that....

But if he plays one more game in a Senators uniform, he'll be one year closer to RFA status.

Regardless of all that contract mumbo jumbo, the slick Swede has to take his lumps riding the buses like a lot of prospects have to do, partly due to the amount of 1-way contracts on the NHL team.

Like I reiterated in my last column, I don't agree with the decision in a hockey sense but I understand the financial logistics behind the move. To me, it's a reasonable compromise between the NHL (the preferred option) and going back to the big rinks of Sweden which would mean Karlsson would only be delayed in learning the intricacies of the North American game.

Ultimately, as Murray mentioned in his press conference, it was up to Cory Clouston on whether or not he was going to use him enough going forward. Once Murray got the shake of the head, he knew what he had to do.

Clouston has done a great job so far and he deserves to outfit his club as he sees fit. My hunch is that with the condensed schedule, we haven't seen the last of Karlsson this season and that any hangups over a measly year on an entry level contract won't dissuade Bryan Murray from trying to ice the best lineup he possibly can.

I still hold out that Karlsson will be an impact player this year. He just has more tools than guys like Brian Lee, Chris Campoli and Alex Picard. All that stands in his way is a little patience from management and some hard work from Karlsson to get back to the big time.

On a related note, what happens when Jesse Winchester's conditioning stint is over in Bingo next week? I think Winchester has already proved his worth at the NHL level and an injury shouldn't stand in his way.

But who do you take out?

Obviously, Murray has to make a trade here, barring any injuries in the next 3 or 4 games.

Suggestions on who goes?

One thing we know, it's not going to be Peter Regin. Word is the Senators told him to buy a house.

Usually, that's the kiss of death in the NHL but Regin likely has a long career in the red and black ahead of him. Either this season or next, as I've said before on Black Aces, he's going to be the next David Krejci.

Cherry Takes Another Shot At Senators From The Bully Pulpit

Lots of little storms brewing in Senators land. Here's my take on a few:

Cherry Attacks Senators Players...Again

Immediately following Saturday's loss to the Bruins, Don Cherry called out Chris Neil and Matt Carkner for "hotdogging" and showboating after their fights in Scotiabank Place. He claimed that this was the reason that Boston summoned the emotion to fight back and win the game.

You have to wonder why Cherry is calling out the two Senators for actions that virtually all the enforcers around the league do in their home rinks. It's a league wide trend for a guy to wave his arms in an attempt to pump up the home crowd after a scrap. It's been going on at least since the lockout ended and is rarely meant, or seen, as a deliberate gesture to embarrass the visiting team.

Yet there was Cherry singling out a couple of Senators for ridicule on national television. This is just one in a long line of insults hurled the Senators way by the self-described Maple Leaf fan.

Once it was the Senators use of exercise bikes after games to get rid of lactic acid in their muscles. Never mind that all teams practice that now as just common sense. Cherry revisited this again on Saturday night by showing the Canucks players on the bikes and then proceeded to call them "sucks" at least twice to an amused Ron Maclean.

It was also last season that Cherry singled out Mike Fisher for having the audacity to wear a toque into the rink along with his game day suit in the middle of winter. He showed footage of Fisher with the toque and called the Senators a bunch of "bums". It's a wonder he didn't follow it up by saying "Listen kids, never wear a toque in the winter cuz' you'll look bad. Remember, it's all about how you look, not how you feel. And when I do drink beer, I like to drink Dos Equis."

Cherry is a guy who will always says what he thinks and I respect him for that. But isn't it time he just comes out and says he dislikes the Senators as an organization and get it over with rather than foolishly attempting to embarrass them on national television over and over again with petty grievances that the players then have to answer questions about again and again?

Just once, I'd love to hear Bryan Murray stand up for his team and tell Cherry to take a flying
f!*k at a rolling donut.

Rumours of Karlsson Getting Sent Down

With Filip Kuba seemingly ready to return from injury, and Karlsson about to hit the 10 game mark on Wednesday in Sunrise, the organization has been mum on whether or not Karlsson still fits into their plans for this season.

In fact, if you heard Cory Clouston's interview on the Team 1200 Monday afternoon, he suspiciously sounded like a coach who already knew the rookie would be on his way to the AHL, without saying so on the record.

I've argued for keeping Karlsson up in the NHL and I haven't changed my stance on that. It seems to me that Karlsson has suffered more by playing with the largely ineffective Chris Campoli than he has by his own play. He's still getting used to the NHL but he also hasn't been the reason Ottawa has lost any games. Campoli on the other hand has been largely invisible all season but is probably going to get the benefit of the doubt because of what he has done in the past for the New York Islanders. Alex Picard has played better of late once he got the solid Carkner as a partner. Karlsson, meanwhile, hasn't had the benefit of a defensive presence on his pairing since Kuba went down.

A lot of it will come down to politics in the end. Sending Campoli down is not an option because of his one way contract. It's also similar to how politics is playing a role in why Shean Donovan is sitting and Jonathan Cheechoo is playing.

There is no chance in hell that anyone could agree that Cheechoo has deserved his roster spot more than Donovan. Yet Cheechoo is going to get the call every game because his salary says he needs to be on the ice.

If you take stats out of the equation, you have to look at how effective each player is at his specific role. Donovan is expected to create energy on every shift, even if that means playing under 10 minutes and sometimes not at all late in games. Clearly, Donovan has met or even surpassed those expectations.

Cheechoo is expected to provide offense playing with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek. Obviously he's not fulfilling his role, even if his linemates are having individual success. The painful truth is that Cheechoo just can't skate at an NHL level. Perhaps he just needs a break and that will get the goals coming. That's probably the only rationale you can use to keep him in the lineup, especially when Nick Foligno is playing behind him on the 3rd line and is more than capable of filling that role. Ryan Shannon can do the same.

In Karlsson's case, I'd be surprised to see him get demoted if only for the fact that Murray came out last week and said that 10 games would not be the benchmark for the rookie. I'm not sure why he would change his mind now, especially after a strong game on Saturday where the rookie looked very good at times.

Yet if Karlsson does get sent down, we can probably expect to see him again due to the compressed schedule coming up and the injuries it will undoubtedly cause.

The Heart Attack Kids

How's yer blood pressure, Ottawa fans?

For the second game in a row, the Kanata faithful were caught leaving the stands a little too early and failed to witness a mind-bending comeback. Except tonight, it was the visiting team giving everyone heart attacks.

Strangely, the result was the same. Another loss by Ottawa.

Strange is the key word here. It's like Halloween has showed up early.

Ottawa had no business getting a point against Nashville on Thursday but somehow made it happen.

Tonight, Ottawa had no business losing a point against Boston but somehow allowed it to happen.

And the reasons were eerily similar. On Thursday, Matt Carkner was given a penalty in overtime after hauling down a Nashville player who was breaking out of his zone.

Tonight, Anton Volchenkov did virtually the same thing except it was more of an innocent dive for the puck rather than a football tackle that was called for a penalty, allowing Boston to tie the game in the final minute.

It's too bad for Ottawa because they had played a near perfect game for the duration with players like Daniel Alfredsson, Milan Michalek, Mike Fisher, Brian Elliott and Jason Spezza having excellent nights.

Yet after two losses in a row (overtime losses mind you), it's hard to get down on the Senators. Despite a few bizarre moments, this team is moving forward playing some inspired, emotional hockey and have a new star in town with the new Mach 9, Milan Michalek.

Nothing for nothing, but Michalek is starting to remind me of a young Marian Hossa when he was patrolling ice for the Senators in the early part of the decade. You can just see Michalek starting to blossom into the gamebreaker that he was predicted to be.

His goal tonight should have stood as the game winner, but it was fitting that the "Wrecking Ball" Mark Recchi got Boston into a position to tie it up in his 1500th game.

Michalek will have many more nights to shine.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Milan Michalek
2. Daniel Alfredsson
3. Mike Fisher

Honorable mentions: Jason Spezza, Brian Elliott and Chris Neil.

Fearless. That's the only way to describe Milan Michalek's drive to the net in the first period. Mark Stuart drove Michalek into Tim Thomas and the collision was very, very scary. There was only two ways that play could have ended up - with Michalek scoring a breathtaking goal or with Michalek going head first into Thomas. Lesser players could have hedged their bets by not cutting to the inside to avoid injury. The new "Mach 9" doesn't have the word "hedge" in his vocabulary.......

A question that has been nagging at me for many years now: Who is that woman in the stands at every Senators home game which the cameras go to after the Senators score? You know - she has blond hair and is often seen high-fiving her kid next to her.They go to her so often right after the goals that she has become the team's unofficial 2nd mascot. If she is not the biggest Senators fan in the rink every game, I don't who is. In fact, along with the Senators theme song, the image of her jumping up and down in the stands has become a team tradition...... Matt Carkner is such a good dude that even the guys he fights have a laugh with him in the penalty boxes afterwards. That was the case after the scrap with Shawn Thornton, who gave Carkner his toughest scrap of the year. In fact, I'd give the nod to Thornton in that one.......There would no smiles from Steve Begin after he tangled with Chris Neil. Begin took a single punch and hit the ice. As Georges Laraque once said of Neil, pound for pound, he's one of the toughest players in the league. And under Cory Clouston, the first coach to believe in him since Bryan Murray was permanently on the bench, Neil is back to being the force he was in 2007. Give Murray credit. When everyone was ready to throw Neil under the bus, Murray saw his true value and now he gets to reap the rewards......

The HNIC cameras caught Mike Fisher and the Big Z having a friendly conversation in the hallways before the game. Then Fisher took a run at him in the 1st period without making much of a dent.......Erik Karlsson isn't making the big plays that everyone may have expected after a stellar training camp, but at least he is starting to make important small ones. He still makes mistakes like his giveaway on the powerplay in the 2nd period, but his overall decision making seems to be getting better and more natural as the games start to pile up..........

B's coach Claude Julien let the Boston Herald know that he respects the job Cory Clouston and the Senators have done to get back into contention this season:

"(Clouston)’s come in and taken a hard-nosed approach. It’s my way or else,” Julien said. “Dany Heatley didn’t want to buy in, so they decided, ‘Hey, we’re not changing coaches this time, we’ll go with the players who want to play it (Clouston’s) way.’ With the way guys have bought in, you’re seeing what’s come out of that. With their whole approach to the game, they’re a lot grittier than they have ever been.”.....

Ottawa native Todd White is off to a bad start with the Thrashers this season. In 7 games he has 1 assist and is a minus 5. But there is hope. He was placed back on the "Little White Russian" line with Bryan Little and Slava Kozlov, who together had a lot of success last season. You have to wonder if someday White ends his career in a Senators uniform. It would be a nice end to a surprisingly productive career. What's helped the little guy along the way? As former Senator teammate Jason York said on the Team 1200, it's his "huge butt".........

There was a great feature on the revamped Vancouver Canucks dressing room prior to the start of the game on HNIC. They made the room smaller and circular so the players have a more intimate setting to interact in. They also made it so that the players have to go through the lounge area in order to get out of the building, probably making it harder to leave without having a few laughs with the guys after the game. I find little psychological touches like that really interesting and rarely covered by the media. So how about the Ottawa Senators in this regard? One thing to note is how the organization has painted everything red, gold and black in the arena, including the hallways and the fitness room. The dressing room itself is largely red and black. A quick perusal of the main tenets of colour psychology tells us that reds, along with yellows (gold) and oranges seem to ignite passion and emotion (and aid digestion!). Black on the other hand can invoke a lethargic or depressing emotion and drain emotional energy but it is also associated with self-discipline. It must be strange for the players to walk into the arena in the middle of a cold, dark winter morning and be surrounded by red and black everywhere they look. The Canucks room is a cool and light blue and the lounge area is bright and clean. So what does it all mean? Well, I have no idea. Probably nothing. But one thing I will never understand is why teams put a massive logo on the dressing room floor and then ban the players from stepping on it. But again, that's an area for the sports psychologists. The professional life of an athlete is a series of tests both off and on the playing surface. Why should the dressing room be any different?.........

L'Artiste Steals The Show

It was an unforgettable moment in a largely forgettable game.

With the Senators clinging to a 2-1 lead just over halfway through the 3rd period, former Hab fan favourite Alexei Kovalev found himself all alone in the slot with the puck and he buried it behind a helpless Carey Price.

At first there was just stunned silence, and a smattering of boos. Then, slowly, a cheer started to build throughout the building as a large contingent of Montreal fans stood to give the player they once so affectionately called "L'artiste" a standing ovation.

Sure, some were still booing and trying to drown out the spontaneous cheers (Kovalev had been booed throughout the game prior to the goal) but the cameras showed a large contingent of the crowd being swept up in the moment and standing for number 27. While CBC neglected to show us a shot of Montreal GM Bob Gainey, you can imagine the look that would have been on his face.

So while the Canadiens find themselves in a funk in front of perhaps the most intense set of fans in the NHL, the Ottawa Senators sail contentedly into a 4 day break before taking on the struggling Nashville Predators at home on Thursday.

And for that, they also have goalie Pascal Leclaire to thank, who made 27 saves, a lot of them at important times in the game.

Kovalev's linemates in Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher also played strong at times in a game that was mediocre if you were looking for end to end excitement.

Black Aces 3 Stars

1. Alex Kovalev
2. Pascal Leclaire
3. Daniel Alfredsson

NOTES

A must read article: Jack Todd's outright knifing of Brian Burke (and to a lesser extent, Bob Gainey).

"It's impossible to watch TSN or Hockey Night in Canada without getting overexposed to what the inimitable M. Strapp describes as Burke's "televangelist
hair," not to mention his Rush Limbaugh bluster.

Unfortunately, where the NFL had the good sense to tell Limbaugh to take a flying fandango at a rolling donut, Burke is still seen as some kind of hero. Maybe that's because he persuaded the league to waive the rules and allow his Ducks to run roughshod over the poor unsuspecting Ottawa Senators, who were naive enough to think the NHL would actually enforce its Brave New Rules in a Stanley Cup final."

..... It was great to see Brian McGrattan get the Gordie Howe hat-trick for the Flames the other night and even better to see Don Cherry show the highlights with the Rocky theme on Coaches Corner. How long before Cherry gives some love to Matt Carkner, a Cherry type player if there ever was one?......Speaking of Carkner, HNIC commentator Cassie Campbell intimated that the defenseman could be out of a roster spot once Filip Kuba gets healthy. Obviously, Cassie hasn't been watching the Senators games this year. Carkner isn't going anywhere. Otherwise, Cassie Campbell is one of the most likable commentators on HNIC. She just keeps getting better and better. Gary Galley is also a rising star on the legendary show. He's just so solid. Rookie Guy Carbonneau has some work to do. He didn't have much of a presence during the game and speaks too softly. He is very knowledgeable though, and provided some good insights as a former coach........ Bob Cole has made some legendary calls and can really capture the moment beautifully, as evidenced by his distinctive voice popping up on a large amount of historic highlights . But he seems to miss as many moments as he catches lately. A few great saves by Pascal Leclaire were met with total silence. On other less exciting plays, Cole was blowing the roof off. He failed to really gauge the crowd reaction during the Kovalev ovation and only seemed to notice about 30 seconds later when he remarked casually that "the crowd is cheering now". Still, Cole will be greatly missed when he moves on. As classy a personality as there is in broadcasting......

It's (very) early, but King Henrik Lundqvist has to be the current favourite to win the Vezina and Michael Del Zotto is making his case for the Calder. Even John Tortorella has the early lead for the Jack Adams. With Wade Redden playing better and Marian Gaborik staying healthy, the Rangers are in great shape right now. I guess it always helps when you get to play a team like the Leafs twice early in the schedule. The cigar chewing Glen Sather has taken a lot of heat over the years but his ability to move Scott Gomez and his mammoth contract was one of the most masterful moves in recent memory...... Mike Milbury might have been a bit of a gong show as a GM, but I like him as a personality on HNIC. He's gruff and looks like he might punch fellow commentators out at any moment, but it's also the right balance from the two other "nice guy" panellists on the Satellite Hotstove Segment.

Nicest moment of the night? After the Toronto - New York game, rookie Michael Del Zotto was interviewed and he mentioned that his ailing grandmother made it to the ACC to see her grandchild score a goal in his first hometown game in Toronto. As Del Zotto put it, if his Grandma was going to move for anything, it was to make it to the rink and that she would have to spend the next two days in bed recovering.

No, I'm not crying. There's just something in my eye.

Beatdown: Senators 7 Lightning 1

This was the game everyone was waiting for.

A good old fashioned beating of a visiting road team and the break out of the major piece of the Dany Heatley trade.

Milan Michalek finally showed the fans why Bryan Murray was willing to part with the valuable Heatley for the largely unknown West Coast winger who came with promises of speed and skill but had so far had a tough time finding chemistry with Jason Spezza.

Michalek basically made the power play problems of the Senators moot by going out and getting 2 shorthanded goals. If you can get them on the penalty kill, who needs a power play? But Michalek made good on the man advantage by finishing off the hat trick, the recipient of a jaw dropping, behind the back pass by Jason Spezza.

And as if the fans weren't pumped up enough, Matt Carkner then goes out and hands out an old-school behind the woodshed beating of notorious Senator headhunter Steve Downie just seconds later. The only person not smiling was Carkner's mother who sat in the stands with a look of motherly concern on her face, maybe not yet realizing that her son was turning into a folk hero amongst the Kanata faithful.

Nothing much, if anything was wrong with Ottawa's game tonight, except maybe a sloppy, uninspired start that soon turned around when Daniel Alfredsson stole a puck from Martin St.Louis and fed Alexei Kovalev in front of the net for the Senators first goal. Other highlights were Nick Foligno getting his first of the year and the (now expected) solid play of Pascal Leclaire.

You wouldn't be far off if you suggested that perhaps the Senators are starting to get an inkling of how good they can really be. They've had some good wins so far this season but it always looked like baby steps - good plays followed by strange mistakes and plenty of tightly clenched sticks. Yet somehow they got more breaks than they missed and had a winning record going into the game. With 7 goals and contributions from their star players for a change, the Senators seem like a team on the cusp of realizing their own strength.

Momentum is clearly with the suddenly resurgent Senators as they travel down the highway to Montreal for their next game on Saturday.

Black Aces 3 Stars

1. Milan Michalek
2. Jarkko Ruutu
3. Jason Spezza

Honorable mentions: Too many to mention. But Chris Phillips (+4) and Daniel Alfredsson (3 assists) get the nod.

NOTES

Some fans have begun to question Clouston's wisdom in his defense pairings, and I get what they're talking about. Like one commenter mentioned on James Gordon's blog, if Clouston were to split up Phillips and Volchenkov, Ottawa could have one physical player and one offensive player on every pairing (with Kuba missing). Putting Karlsson with Campoli is like serving up a smorgasbord for opposing forwards. No one misses Kuba more than Karlsson right now. Who could have predicted Kuba would be such an important player? I'm guilty myself of underestimating his impact. In this case, I'm happy to be wrong..........

The "A-Train" Anton Volchenkov continued his "Rookie Reign Of Terror Tour" by crushing the much larger Victor Hedman in the 2nd period. Previous tour stops included Anton Stralman in Toronto and John Tavares of Long Island. He also did a number on sophomore Zach Bogosian of Atlanta. The hit also couldn't have come at a better time for TSN as the network had just done a feature on the Russian the night before showcasing his big hits. The only mystery is that commentator Ray Ferraro and others were predicting Volchenkov was going to start getting a reputation as a fierce open ice hitter. Starting? The A-Train has been cranking players since his first season way back in 2002-2003. In one rookie tournament game that year, Volchenkov delivered his first huge hit by catching a now forgotten Florida Panther with his head down behind the net. The player was knocked out cold and my brother Ben was sitting right at the glass looking down at the guy. He said the Panther was doing the doggie paddle while lying flat on his back, obviously in in la-la land.......

TSN struck gold a second time when Chris Cuthbert was telling the great story of Matt Carkner and how he made the NHL at 28 years old. Just as soon as Cuthbert was finished, Carkner ran over Stephane Veilleux. Ferraro said "On cue."...... I don't mean to toot my own horn, but Chris Phillips told Cuthbert that Carkner reminded him of Lance Pitlick. I said the very same thing just some days ago. Toot Toot....

Did anyone catch TSN's Bob McKenzie say that a doctor in the Czech Republic actually wanted to amputate Milan Michalek's leg because the winger's knee was so screwed up after multiple injuries and surgeries? Good lord...... Gotta agree with Ray Ferraro. I don't understand why pucks that are kicked along the ice into the net are not valid goals. I understand why you wouldn't want players drop-kicking pucks into the net, but an example like Miller's goal, with just the slightest intentional kicking motion are not about to open the door to guys making a living off of it. Skates and pucks are awkward partners and would always be a last option compared to a taped up, curved stick. How many similar goals are called back every year? 30? 50? The league thankfully got rid of the "toe in the crease" rule. Maybe it's time to revisit this one. But as McKenzie noted, the issue has been brought up many times in GM's meetings and a consensus to scrap it has never formed. I wouldn't hold my breath for that to change anytime soon....

Even though the Senators have fallen on hard times the past two seasons, they have maintained their streak of 11 straight winning record seasons. They barely kept the streak alive by finishing with a 36-35-0-11. Some would say those 11 OT losses should count in the loss column, but when you get a point for them, it's hard to call it a loss.

In keeping with this blog's fascination with uniforms and hockey fashion etiquette, I have to wonder - what happened to those old maroon and black uniforms that the lower level servers/ushers used to wear at the rink in Kanata? I don't know if they changed them last year or this year, but they're not half as cool now. Okay, I guess that's taking the uni obsession a little far....

Karlsson Still On Track

Ok. Back up with a temporary computer. Crisis averted.

Before the Tampa game, I just wanted to quickly address the latest scuttlebut going around concerning Erik Karlsson and (as some believe/wish) his suddenly eminent demotion to the AHL.

First off, Bryan Murray denied it and stood behind his rookie by saying that 10 games is not going to tell the story on Karlsson's year.

That's the right move as far as I'm concerned.

One, he's standing behind a player and defending him publicly, something that Murray rarely does (he's old school even though he was once considered too "new school" in the 80's).

Secondly, 5 games is not a fair slice to start dumping on the kid. He looks like a 19 year old rookie and is having some trouble getting used to the speed of the regular season, yes.

But you can tell that this guy is good enough to play in the NHL once he gets his head around it. After a couple of decent games, people are jumping on the Alex Picard bandwagon and clamouring for the call-up of Brian Lee.

Not going to happen (barring injuries, of course)

Murray has been around way too long to succumb to knee jerk reactions after only 5 games. When you believe in a player and decide to give him a chance, you give him a real good shot at it. If Karlsson is still struggling at 20 games, maybe then you have this discussion.

The upsides for Brian Lee and Alex Picard are not as big as Karlsson's right now, not even for this season.

Murray is not keeping Karlsson up just because he is his prized draft pick. He can see the obvious game breaking talent right there at the surface that is going to shine through once he gets more confident.

People didn't seem to be too worried about Karlsson when the Senators won 3 games in a row. Now, after losing one game to the Stanley Cup champions, they seem to want to make a change.

All players make mistakes, especially rookies. You have to live with a few even if the easiest thing to do would be to throw in the towel.

Karlsson will be better.

Bank on it.

No Tech

My computer whacked out for good yesterday and so there will be no game report on the loss to the Penguins. Hopefully I'll be back up by Thursday if I can swing a deal on a new desktop. Anyone know of any good deals? Mac or PC?

Same Story, Different Night

So, like many of you, I did not get to see the Senators - Thrashers tilt last night and therefore I won't try to comment on it too specifically, other than to say that it looks like you can take my last post from the win over the Islanders and apply it here.

You can even take Anton Volchenkov's hit on John Tavares and substitute second year youngster Zach Bogosian. Other than that, things unfolded in much the way they did the game before - big plays from unheralded players on the third and fourth lines like Chris Neil (1 goal, 2 shots on goal, +1), Jarkko Ruutu (1 goal, 2 shots on goal, +1) and Shean Donovan (1 assist, +1).

You also had a couple of guys who haven't made an impact so far come through with big games. Brian Elliott made 28 saves for his first win and Alex Picard had 2 assists and was a +2.

Just from looking at the stats sheet you can tell that the Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev and Daniel Alfredsson line had a good night and we can probably expect them to stay together for at least a few more games.

Probably the best news to come from this game was that the rink was sold out after the embarrassing fact of the home opener being significantly shy.

That's a hard concept to wrap your brain around, especially when all those supposedly "weak hockey markets" in the South mostly managed to have better attendance than the Senators did on their opening nights.

To me, that's more an end result of two years of constant negative imaging from certain segments of the media who exploited minor to medium issues into catastrophic character assassinations, poisoning the atmosphere around this team to the point that fans were openly talking about boycotting games until the "scumbags" were traded etc.

I've talked about this before ad nauseum but the Senators themselves didn't do a good job of protecting their players in the media and getting ahead of negative stories.

Now, when a home opener doesn't sell out, everyone is left scratching their heads.

It's collateral damage from two years of negative stories that the team let fester in the public's mind.

But as long as they keep winning, the fans will come back and certain radio hosts and columnists will be forced to talk about some of the positives, hopefully erasing some of the damage they've done in the past.

Anyways, happy Thanksgiving and don't drink and drive.