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Senators Growing Into Themselves
by SENShobo on 10/20/09 at 09:02 AM ET
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Regin likely returning, Senators creating new fans, and prospect promise, but first..
From the Ottawa Citizen, on Spezza’s new game,
“He has been a little snakebit around the net, but he’s creating chances, he’s getting chances, and it’s only a matter of time.”
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“He’s a smart player. He can read well, and often offensive guys, if they’re willing to do the little things, commit themselves, they can kill penalties. It’s a matter of whether they’re willing to do that, and right now, he has shown that.
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“It has been a role that I’ve really welcomed,” he said.“I enjoy the chance to go out there and take some key faceoffs and kill some penalties, and try to grow my game defensively. It keeps you in the game and it gets you involved, too, team-wise, defensively. I still want to be better offensively. I wouldn’t mind getting on the board.
“Maybe in the past I wouldn’t be contributing unless I was scoring, but I feel I’m still contributing quite a bit and not scoring.”
You notice the increased trust immediately. Spezza sits 11th on the team with 1:09 of shorthanded time per game, up drastically from 17th and 0:15 per game last season. He was an impressive 62.5% in faceoffs that season, but took only 32 draws in 82 games; this time around, he may only be 53.3% while shorthanded, but with 15 faceoffs taken in 7 games thus far, he projects to take about 175, a nearly 450% increase.
Not bad, not bad at all, especially when the trust is received from a coach like Clouston, trust that must be earned every single game. Spezza will be rewarded on the ice, and perhaps even in Vancouver if Yzerman’s trust can be earned as well, but the team will come out a winner either way. He may not be scoring, but as the Ottawa Sun points out, with the top two lines chipping in 12 goals and the bottom two 8, frustration can wait.
From the Ottawa Senators’ website, Regin is ready to get back in action,
An upper-body injury has kept the Danish rookie out of the last three games but he skated on a line with Nick Foligno and Chris Neil during the Senators’ practice today, a new combination that head coach Cory Clouston suggested might possibly be part of the mix on Thursday.
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“(He’s got) skill, creativity and talent,” said Clouston. “He’s a good player, a very good player, and he was playing very well up until the injury.”
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“(Regin) is a great talent, for sure,” said Foligno. “He’s a great skater and he thinks the game really well. He has that ability to make plays and it’ll be fun to play with him.”
2-1--3 in his 4 games prior to injury showed his value quite well, ranking 10th on the team in scoring and tied for fourth in goals compared to teammates with nearly twice as many games. Aside from the upstart pairing of Picard (+7) and Carkner (+6), he also remains tied for 3rd on the team at +3, with only a bit of work required in faceoffs (48.3%).
Still, if he can return without missing a beat, there won’t be much reason to pain at having Ruutu, Kelly, Donovan, and Shannon battle it out to avoid the press box. That will come later with the return of Kuba and Winchester, both likely to be approved to practise with the team today.
From the Ottawa Citizen, the Senators host local schoolkids for practice,
Even if it’s sometimes difficult to get into the first practice after a day off, Ottawa Senators players got all the lift they needed when they were greeted by 3,400 screaming school children on Monday morning.
They were part of the inaugural Sens@School Faceoff Fieldtrip, which brought 118 classes from 43 schools to Scotiabank Place to learn about the game of hockey and to watch the Senators practise.
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After the official part of practice ended, Senators forward Alex Kovalev delighted the students by hitting pucks out of the air baseball-style as teammate Ryan Shannon lofted them to him.
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“I’m not trying to entertain or anything, but I’m trying to make their (day) fun, and, at least when they leave the building, they leave with some kind of souvenir and be happy,” Kovalev said.
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“It was great for the kids, and it’s very important, if we have those opportunities, that we make the most of them,” [said Clouston.]Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said it “almost sounded like a playoff game when we got out there.”
If there’s one thing you learn from watching as you play second fiddle (or worse) to the Leafs in Ontario, it’s that you have to treat your fans well, connect with them and avoid being lofty and unreachable. Kudos to the team for this, and for already looking into more of these events for later on in the season (OC).
If only fans at a game made Alfie feel like it was the playoffs, instead of 3,400 kids at a practice…
From The Sault Star, Lehner might get the reins,
Having split minutes between their netminders through the first 12 games of the season, the Soo Greyhounds need to find out if one of their masked men is ready to separate himself from the other.
And there’s no question, Robin Lehner has earned first crack at becoming this club’s undisputed, No. 1.
The way Lehner carried the Greyhounds defence Saturday, the native of Gothenburg, Sweden, should have a sore back.
The Hounds were outshot 45-26, but it was Lehner who got them into overtime and a shootout, where they lost 3-2 to visiting Oshawa.
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He’s also supremely confident in his ability — without coming off as a jerk.Lehner presently stands fifth in the Ontario Hockey League in goals against average with a 2.40 mark. He’s also third in saves percentage at .931.
All else being equal, I’ll just point out that it’s a good sign that he’s acclimatizing so quickly to the North American game. Keep him on your radar, he might be approaching faster than you’d think.
And the most interesting visitors from yesterday? Someone from Bonn, Germany, and an IP registered to some company out of New York, “Nhl Enterprises.” The lack of full caps makes my eyebrow raise. Then again, why would anything out of New York do that?
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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.
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