SENShobo
Sens’ Scoring Punch Not Carrying Its Old Weight
by SENShobo on 12/15/08 at 08:47 AM ET
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Injury and personnel updates, but first…
From the Ottawa Citizen, on the not-so-changed but very different Senators,
Although the Senators have failed to take advantage of a cushy early schedule featuring plenty of games against non-playoff teams, captain Daniel Alfredsson insists they want a more onerous workload.
“I think we’re kind of looking forward to this stretch where we’re playing a lot of games instead of having a lot of downtime,” he said. “You don’t have a lot of time to think about it if you have a bad game. You get right back at it.”
Abysmal offence is to blame for the slow start and coach Craig Hartsburg took pains to point out this weekend that these aren’t the high-flying Senators of old.
“Why are we trying to hide that?” he said. “It’s not the team that scored all those goals two years ago (when the Senators went to the Stanley Cup final). I’m not going to stand here and try to say, ‘Well we should be that.’ We’re not.”
James Gordon goes on to point out just how snakebit the entire team is. None of the typical players you can depend on for a good run during the season are headed anywhere near their previous totals.
From TSN, Heatley projects to go 41-41—82 this season, the exact same output as last year. Only last year, he did the feat in 71 games; he’s expected to take a full 82 to get there this time around.
Alfie projects to 24-54—78 in 81 games, having notched 40-49—89 in 70 GP last season. Spezza is looking at 35-29—64 compared to 34-58—92 in half a dozen less games. Fisher will go 9-19—29 compared to 23-24—47, while Vermette and Kelly will both tally 5-8—14 compared to 24-29—53 and 11-19—30, respectively. Phillips will get 5 assists compared to 5 goals and 18 points, Chris Neil will get 6-3—10 instead of 6-14—20, Schubert 4 goals and 16 points instead of 8 and 24.
From those alone, not including the set to improve slightly totals of Donovan and Foligno, the Sens expect to lose 63 goals over last season, and the 17 lost with Meszaros, Redden, and Richardson will be equalled by the gains Kuba, Picard, and Bell project to. Last season the Sens were first in the League with 258 goals, followed by Montreal with 257 and Detroit with 252. Take away 63 goals, though, and they would have just 195.
That would be good for 28th place in the League, right ahead of Columbus’ 190 and the Islanders’ 189. Since they project to allow 196 goals, compared to 242 last season, which would have moved them from 24th in the League to 6th, it really does look as though the slumps of every player is what is killing the Sens the most, not the absence of others.
With that, there’s good news: many of these same Senators were able to punch Ottawa to the top of the League last season, and therefore should be able to do so again. The bad news is that the road map to that destination is completely lost at the moment.
From the Ottawa Sun, on McAmmond’s status,
C Dean McAmmond skated after his teammates Saturday, a lone figure shooting pucks. He skated over to the bench. “How purple are my ears?” he asked. “Huh?” I said. “My ears, are they as purple as the seats?” he asked. They were. McAmmond is fighting to come back from a grim bout of pneumonia and his lungs aren’t anywhere near recovered. As soon as he pushes himself, his body diverts oxygen from the extremities to his organs, head athletic therapist Gerry Townend explained. It’s called “shunting.” McAmmond’s ears and fingertips turn purple.
That means, of course, that McAmmond is a ways away from returning. With Bass sent down, and Hartsburg perhaps electing to keep Zubov (who had an assist on Picard’s powerplay goal on Saturday) on a scoring line, Kelly and his 49.6% success rate in face offs might drop down to that line, replacing Bass’ 38.5%. As Volchenkov’s lower body injury from blocking an Ovechkin shot has not been given the all clear, Lee might be sticking around as well.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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