SENShobo
Next entry: The Trials Of Dany Heatley
Previous entry: Someone Light A Fire Under These Guys, And The Curious Case Of Ricochet Ruutu
Injured, Sens Look To Play Without Crutches
by SENShobo on 11/20/08 at 08:50 AM ET
Comments (0)
The Sens face the Canadiens tonight looking for rough-times inspiration, they’ll suit up Saturday against the Rangers in their new third jersey, and an interview with Daniel Alfredsson, but first…
From the Ottawa Senators’ website, injury updates for Fisher and Neil,
Fisher is probably out at least two weeks with a strained ligament in his right knee. Neil, who will undergo arthroscopic surgery on Friday to repair a meniscus tear, also in the right knee, is likely to miss a bit more time than that.
....
“Two years ago, it was a situation where we were missing three of our centre men (Fisher, Jason Spezza and Antoine Vermette), basically three of our core guys,” veteran forward Dean McAmmond said earlier today after the Senators’ practice session at the Bell Sensplex. “And as a team, we had a group effort to win games in whatever fashion we could. Out of it, we learned how to win period.“We came back and you saw the rest of the story then.”
Sure enough, if the Sens lose in regulation tonight, their 6-10-3 record will equal their 19-game point total from two seasons ago (7-11-1), but the turnaround they sparked with a win over Buffalo at that point will not be made easy to duplicate against the Canadiens or Rangers, especially with Neil and Fisher out for a good while.
It was also that Stanley Cup Finals appearance season when the Senators were without Spezza, Fisher, and Vermette, their top three centers (though Vermette now spends much time on the wing), and for a good while over Christmas and into the new year. That was when Kelly centered the top line, and Alfie and Heatley managed to find a way to score through hard work, their own hard work, and the team learned that each player could make a difference for the team, as a part of the team, by being better and better focused on their own game.
The confidence Montreal has shown in Price, along with Lundqvist’s Vezina nominations in each of his first three seasons (this of course being his fourth in the NHL), will not make it an easy task for the gunshy Senators to blast their way back up the standings.
From NHL.com, on tonight’s Canadiens vs. Senators matchup,
While offense has been a big problem for the Senators, goaltending has not. Veteran Alex Auld has recorded five of the team’s six wins and ranks in the top 10 in the NHL with a 2.14 goals-against average.
If Auld starts Thursday, he could make things tougher on a Montreal team that has averaged barely two goals while going 2-4-1 in its last seven contests. The Canadiens (10-5-2) averaged 3.5 goals during an 8-1-1 start.
Auld will indeed be starting tonight. If there is one thing that will help against the Canadiens and Rangers, it will be Ruutu. His gameplan in the last matchups riled both teams, with his suspension-earning elbow to Lapierre and what was assumed to be a slight against Lundqvist in the shootout combining with his consistently felt presence on the ice to rub both teams the wrong way. Ottawa might well draw some penalties off of their frustrated opponents, and their powerplay can still sting, sitting just under 20%, though it might work better against Montreal’s 82% successful penalty killers than New York’s 91% success rate.
From the Ottawa Sun, Carbonneau and Lapierre dismiss Ruutu,
“He has a job to do and he gets paid to do that job,” Carbonneau said. “It’s up to us to either take care of it or let him make a fool of himself.”
Lapierre shrugged off the head shot, or suggestions he might be looking to even the score.
“That stuff happens and it’s over now,” said Lapierre, who denied calling Ruutu over to the bench later in the evening—a claim the Senator made in explaining the actions that saw him ushered from the game. “The first thing is the team first, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
As usual, there will surely be a large Canadiens contingent in the stands. Let this be a warning to the fans, and a battle cry for them to come together and cheer on their Sens. In the latest episode of the Sens Underground podcast, the guys interview Senators’ colour commentator Gord Wilson, who brings to light just how hard it can be to break out of a slump.
He reminds us that as fans, we may indeed feel disappointed and lash out when we read the paper, the internet, or see uninspired play at the game. The reality is that the players take this with them everywhere, throughout their whole day. You may have a bad day or week at work, but imagine a bad two months that has no end in sight, with your boss hunched over your shoulder, waiting for you to type the wrong key to chew you out and possibly fire you.
Get on the right side, fans, and support your team.
The lines for tonight look to be shaping up, Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson, Vermette-Kelly-Winchester, Ruutu-McAmmond-Donovan, and some combination of Foligno-Zubov-Bass-Schubert. Every line has scoring potential, though it remains to be seen whether any can start breaking through the brick wall that is Price tonight or Lundqvist on Saturday. Bass being called up and Schubert being physical, both should draw in tonight to help offset Fisher and Neil’s physical game, and it will either be Zubov’s inexperience or Foligno’s troubling start that sees one of the two joining Murray and Richardson in the press box.
Update - 2:00PM EST
Schubert and Richardson are the healthy scratches, so we will see a Foligno-Bass-Zubov youth line tonight, a mix of hard work, hard hits, and at times hard to stop offense.
From the Ottawa Sun, on being in the basement of the East,
“I look at the standings every day ... I think it’s our obligation to do that,” said Alfredsson. “We’ve got to know where we are and what we’ve got to do.
“Throughout my career here we haven’t been at the bottom a lot. It’s almost like, ‘Let’s go here.’ We’re in a tough situation right now. We’re facing adversity. We’ve just got to pull together and we’ll see if we can come out of this.”
Chris Kelly said the basement can be a springboard for the Senators.
“I think we can use that as a motivator to turn things around,” said Kelly. “You do get upset when the team’s not doing well. I am not happy with the way things have gone, the way we played and where we sit in the standings. I’m confident we’ll still make the playoffs and do well.”
The team ‘can’ make the playoffs, ‘can’ do well, but the ‘will’ attitude might not be the key the team is looking for, unless that’s a promise of consistently hard work throughout the lineup from Kelly that we can take to the bank.
From the Ottawa Senators’ website, the Sens’ will get a feisty replacement,
The Ottawa Senators today recalled centre Cody Bass from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.
Bass began the 2008-09 season with the Senators and was a healthy scratch for two games before being assigned to Binghamton on Oct. 7. In 16 games with the B-Sens, Bass has scored once and added one assist, while recording 37 penalty minutes. The 21-year-old is in his second National Hockey League season and third pro.
Bass made his NHL debut with the Senators during the 2007-08 season, recording two goals, two assists and 19 penalty minutes in 21 games. He played in all four of Ottawa’s playoff games, scoring one goal and adding six penalty minutes.
I’ll be the first to say that going 2-2--4 in 21 NHL games and 1-1--2 in 16 AHL games tells the story of two different players. When he was sent down in October, Murray had suggested that he’d get better development playing 2nd and 3rd line minutes along with more scoring chances in the AHL, compared with 4th line grinding minutes in the NHL.
I have heard from fans in Binghamton that he does not appear to be putting in a full effort shift after shift, and perhaps he has decided that scoring is not why he wants to play hockey (Fisher himself has admitted that scoring is not the focus of his game, just a pleasant and sporadic byproduct of it). Then there’s always the chance that he’s feeling just as snakebit as the entire Ottawa roster.
Most certainly, it will be a physical role he will be asked to play, helping to replace Fisher and Neil’s combined 97 hits so far this season, and missing Neil as an enforcer, his 37 AHL PIMs this season (including three fighting majors OS) will come in handy should there be any lingering tensions over Ruutu, though I’m not sure how easily Bass might be coaxed into a fight with Laraque.
Hartsburg also appears poised to go back on his word and move Schubert to forward, in light of these injuries, though one can hardly blame him for wanting a defensively responsible physical forward like Schubert in this instance, one who can revert easily back to defense for the special teams. Perhaps having two full powerplay quarterback units (Bell replaced Schubert, but is now poised to pair with him) can spark some more goals from the team.
From the Ottawa Senators’ website, on their new third jersey debut Saturday,
“We looked at a couple of different colours in terms of considering designs,” said Jeff Kyle, the Senators’ vice-president of marketing. “The feedback we received indicated black was the preferred choice, so we went in that direction.”
....
Captain Daniel Alfredsson said he likes “the mix of retro and new design. It really stands out. You can tell it’s just not a copy from a retro jersey. You still have the new with the logo and everything.”The third jersey also features distinctive red, black and white striping on the arms and socks, with the word “Sens” running up to the right.
“These are unbelievable,” said alternate captain Dany Heatley. “Just everything about it: the colours, the design, the Sens (word) across the front. We all like it and I hope the fans do, too.”
Added alternate captain Chris Phillips: “This one is at the top of the list. Of all the jerseys (I’ve worn as a Senator), this is the best-looking one so far.”
I usually tiptoe around unofficial sources and rumours, but the admissions made here along with the previews made on the Sens’ website make me comfortable with providing you with a sneak peek, if you want it (and by peek, I do mean that this is a full-fledged new jersey spoiler). I’d comment on it, but I have to see it in action, and don’t want to spoil it any more than I already have, or risk popping an unavoidable spoiler on anyone.
Finally, Sporting News Today has an interview with Daniel Alfredsson that covers a range of subjects, and where you might find hope that the team knows what has to be done to start winning, and is ready to pay the price.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
Tags: Daniel+Alfredsson,
Comments
Be the first to comment.
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Clouston’s NHL Career Turns 50
A Class That Embodies The Real Lesson
Karlsson Down, Kuba In For Sens
Who is SENShobo?
Fully addicted to hockey, Andrew Dodds finds it safe to live in the alleys, considering his allegiance to the Ottawa Senators in the middle of Leaf County. He tries to bring you as many worthwhile Sens stories as he can find, along with his musings on the team and the NHL in general; musings indeed since he is but a humble hockey hobo.
If you have any general comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns about myself or my blog and its content, you can post them publicly here, or drop me an email.
Email:
SENShobo Recommends
The Professionals