SENShobo
Sens’ Schedule Picking Up, Will Efforts Follow Suit?
by SENShobo on 10/20/08 at 08:52 AM ET
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- Sens need to unify as near-breathless portion of schedule begins Wednesday.
- Heatley and Spezza working to impress not only Hartsburg, but Olympic team decision-makers as well.
- Preparing for the Panthers on Wednesday means assembling a solid team, solid effort approach in the face of a schedule that’s about to get a lot more relentless (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen).
“It might be (a lack of playing games), but as far as the competitive part, you should be able to play a game (for 60 minutes) in August or December,” Hartsburg said after the Bruins game.
“There’s a pride to winning battles and not losing any battles. We lost too many (against the Bruins).
“You’ve got to be able to play with the puck to create offence and to compete for loose pucks. We had some flurries in the third finally when we started to work and when we started to compete. The first two periods I don’t think we generated hardly at all because we were light and you can’t play light.”
‘Dwelling’ has never come up when players are asked about their hobbies, but what do you expect when there’s a four day break? It’s been almost two days since Saturday’s loss to the Bruins, and I expect video coach Tim Pattyson is still trying to see what positives he can find in the 60 minutes the Sens turned in.
We know the Sens are better, on paper and in the dressing room. The team almost looks as though they’re trying to avoid last season, when a blitzing pace to start their post-Finals appearance season left them tired and shaken by spring, now playing anything but a game with full efforts. After what has to be the longest summer in over a decade for the team, there should be no reason to hold back.
Hartsburg has had a great deal of days to get the team practicing, engraining his philosophies. Now, with Wednesday starting a six games in four days stretch with few long layoffs in sight, it will be time to engrain the lessons by burning them into players’ minds game in and game out.
We may all have been cheering for a comeback win Saturday, but the loss was important; it showed the team that you should not expect to win a game without putting in a full game’s worth of effort. The only question now is how many stinging losses will it take before the Sens are kicked back into full gear; let’s hope one loss is enough.
- Well over a year away, the Olympics are still creeping into the collective consciousness, and with any luck might provide further incentive for players like Heatley and Spezza to continue rounding out their form (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen).
“Most definitely (they’ll be on the list). They’re both excellent players. They both performed well (at the world championships last spring),” said Armstrong, who will also act as GM of the 2009 world championship team.
“A lot can happen between now and the Olympics, but these guys are great players. Heatley played so well (at the worlds) with the number of goals he scored and it’s just finding the right chemistry for these players and getting them in the right environment.”
....
“(Heatley and Spezza) have a long time ... to prove to (Yzerman) and the whole staff that they have a strong level of play and that they should be on the team. They’ve gotten experience by playing in the Stanley Cup finals and we know they can play under the bright lights. You can’t speed up the process of making decisions, but they’ve got a good start.”
The fact that Heatley stepped up at the Worlds, tying Yzerman’s own record for points at a championship and being Canada’s all-time leader in that department, should go a long way towards earning him a spot on the roster in Vancouver. Both players have a lot more to prove though.
Just as a defensive stud like Phillips doesn’t match up to the all-around skill set sought in defencemen, and found in the likes of Pronger and Phaneuf, all-around play will undoubtedly be sought in the forward ranks as well, likely especially so considering Yzerman’s own success in turning his game in that direction. The conversations Heatley and Spezza have had with the media about their desire to improve all facets of their games show them pointing in the right direction, but it’s the statements they have yet to consistently leave on the ice that will determine who plays and who stays.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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