Sens Game Report - Toronto @ Ottawa - 10.26.06

Raise your hand if you didn't score tonight...

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: We’re good, Ottawa wins 7-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Fisher (2) from his knees banging in a rebound
- Vermette (4) floating a wrist shot on from the left side that finds its way in
- Heatley (4) on the first of two great feeds from his boyfriend
- Corvo (2), zinggggg, blasts one in from 20 feet out
- Heatley (5) with another great feed from Spezza
- Heatley (6) continues kills the Leafs banging on in from the slot after fishing out the rebound in his skates
- Spezza (4) with a naughty little move on Raycroft fires on in from an impossible angle.
Making Sens: Spezza, Heatleym Fisher, Neil, Corvo, Phillips, Volchenkov, Eaves
Lacking Sens: Alfredsson, Redden
It was over when: Heatley giving us a 3-0 lead really was a backbreaker for the blue and white.
It was definitely over when: Toronto got two back and made it close, but Corvo’s blast spelled the end of this one and the rest was just a race to the stick rack.
Message in a Molson bottle: Any of you that questioned the character of this team, shame on you. This team has put up 21 goals in its last three games and dominated in every facet. Tonight was no exception as the Leafs big guns were invisible and ours were scoring hat tricks. Great showing and it restores our place as owners of the Leafs. Toronto has far more problems then their first 6 games would have you believe.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261026014
Next Game: Saturday in Boston, and we’ve been asked to bring takeout from Baton Rouge.

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- As modest as I’m not, I’ve gotta toot my own horn here for a minute. One week ago in this very space, I told you that Joe Corvo would be a major difference maker for this team and would be a favourite in no time. His 5-point performance should have won the hearts of every single Sens fan. He plays hard every shift and has a hell of a shot. This guy is going to be THE biggest impact player on our blue line this year. Write that down.
- Spezza and Heatley didn’t play fair tonight. It is hard to tell if they backchecked at all because the puck was never in the Ottawa zone when they were on the ice. Chemistry class is back in session here, folks. Watch out.


The Bad
- Powerplay was 1-for-8. While it is hard to call anybody out in a win like this, I was very disappointed with the performance during the 1:20 or so of 5-on-3 time we had. I’m of the belief that a team like Ottawa should be scoring at 100% when they have at least a minute of a two man advantage. Instead, we lollygagged in our own zone and before you knew it, we needed Emery’s pads and Phillips backcheck to break up a Kaberle chance out of the box. Just score on these opportunities, guys.

The Ugly
- Are you ready to have your mind blown? In the 13 goals we’ve put up against Toronto in the past 72 hours, Daniel Alfredsson has zero points. It isn’t a that hard to believe if you watched his presence tonight. He was often skating away from the play and floating in the neutral zone, in my opinion, and really sat back and enjoyed the scene. Now if Alfie is the type that will carry the team on his back in a one-goal game and then lets everyone else have the fun in a blowout, that’s one thing. But given the start this team had and the fact that Alfie has one empty net goal to his name this season, I reckon it is time this guy started to pop a few in there

Overtime
- Fans eat pizza twice in a week.
- Gratts and Kaiger didn’t see the ice until the third period. Somewhere, Jacques Martin groaned at the three-line operation.
- McGrattan, Volchenkov, and Neil all blocked slapshots from the point in the dying minutes of a 7-2 game. That’s awesome. Believe this – we are becoming the blue collar team that our management promised.
- Corvo leads the team with 8 shots on goal. Outstanding. This guy is fantastic.
- Speaking of total domination, Spezza wins 18 of his 20 faceoffs, and we hold specialist Michael Peca to to 45% in the circle.
- Nothing came of the Tucker/Belak/Neil/McGrattan hype, as expected. Maurice must have told them something in the second intermission about how ridiculous they’d look trying to fight after the embarrassing performance they were putting out.

Sens Game Report - Ottawa @ Toronto - 10.24.06

If we win on Thursday, that's called a winning streak. It has happened before.

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Ottawa wins 6-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Fisher (1) flying in on a two-on-one with Preissing moves it to his backhand and in around Raycroft.
- Meszaros (1) with a shot from the point
- Eaves (2, pp) on a great 360 move from one knee in front of the net
- Vermette (3, pp) on an amazing pass from Fisher to the front of the net
- Heatley (3) cashing in on Spezza’s work behind the net
- Chris Neil (2) icing it by tipping in a Meszaros wrist shot
Making Sens: Spezza, Heatley, Meszaros, Neil, Fisher, Redden
Lacking Sens: Schubert had trouble moving back to the blue line after Volchenkov left the game.
It was over when: Heatley’s goal did them in. Best forechecking shift of the season.
It was definitely over when: Neil’s goal was the ultimate momentum shift after Toronto came out hard in the third with a goal and then a disallowed goal.
Message in a Molson bottle: For some reason, this game at times seemed closer than the score. We put up the five-spot and then seemed to let them change the style of the game to a more physical tone and we were back on our feet a bit more. But solid puck movement and constant pressure kept this one to what should be called a blowout.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261024021
Next Game: Thursday hosting Toronto to close out the home-and-home.

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- Our penalty killing is our best asset right now. It was there for us when the powerplay was struggling and it is there for us now that we’re starting to click. Bounces went our way tonight and that was part luck and part hard work. Let’s keep up the hard work on this and we’ll continue to get at least half the bounces, right?
- Redden and Meszaros read NxNE! The two combine for 3 points and a plus-6. Great work from the two behind the circles for us tonight.
- Who doesn’t love Chris Neil right now? The guy has been our best player this week and is a great all-around player right now considering the different roles he can play for us.
- Powerplay at 2-for-5 (the last one lasted 12 seconds in the third) seems to have found some mojo.

The Bad
- Chris Kelly’s has hands of stone. I love the kid on the PK and the fourth line, but he is very far out of place with Alfie and McAmmond. Alfie makes some guys better players, but I don’t know if Kelly could score a point between Mario and Wayne. That’s fine, just keep him at a low salary and plugging away on the fourth.

The Ugly
- Toronto’s second goal almost drove me to the bottle, which is exactly where I was in 2004 when Lalime let in the same goal. Twice. To Toronto. Gerber was good tonight, but not great. He leaves some rebounds and is still working on covering pucks, but he was good enough tonight.

Overtime
- Like I said earlier, Heatley’s goal came on the best forechecking shift any Ottawa line has had all season. The puck never had a shot of leaving the Toronto end without the help of McCreary picking it out from behind Raycroft (Aubin played the third).
- Sad moment on the TSN Leafs coverage when Harry Neale said, and I quote, “Mike Fisher and Darcy Tucker are cut from the same cloth.” Except one piece of that cloth is in mint condition and sewn into fine garments while the other piece of fabric has been doused in urine and ketchup and is lying in a gutter near the Humber. That was the second half of Harry’s comments, I would hope. I’ll take Fisher playing in one of those metallic uniforms from Medieval Times before I take Tucker. The guy is a disgrace, once again proven when he runs over Patrick Eaves, forces him into a fight, and then tries to call him a turtle. For those that didn’t catch this game, McGrattan and Belak had a go at it earlier and Gratts pointed out to Belak in the penalty box that he seemed to cover up early. Long story short, Darcy is an idiot.

Sens Game Report - New Jersey @ Ottawa - 10.21.06

If we win Tuesday in Toronto, that would be two in a row…
I also want to give a shout out to co-blogger Matthew for amazingly predicting the immediate firing of Hitchcock mere hours before it became a reality. We all knew there was unrest in Philly, but nobody came out and said it would happen so soon. Street cred for NxNE!

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Ottawa wins 8-1
Ottawa Goals:
- Spezza (3) on the powerplay with a zinger over Brodeur’s glove
- Heatley (2) tipping a Preissing wrist shot through the five-hole
- Vermette (1) banging in a rebound and getting nailed on the play
- Corvo (1) receiving and releasing an Alfredsson pass into the slot
- Preissing( 1) on a squirrelly wrist shot coming down the boards
- Vermette (2) tipping a Volchenkov point shot
- McAmmond (2) hitting rebound off a defender’s skate and in
- McAmmond (3) knocking a bouncing rebound over Clemenson
Making Sens: DMac, Corvo, Vermette, Neil, Spezza, mostly everyone
Lacking Sens: hard to call anyone out after a win like this
It was over when: Vermette and Corvo scored 50 seconds apart to put this away and the rest was just padding on the stats and a confidence boost.
It was definitely over when: Brodeur was pulled after the sixth goal. That typically means things aren't going well for the Devils.
Message in a Molson bottle: We converted on the first powerplay, didn’t give up a shorthanded goal, skated hard and won the battles for loose pucks. This one brought back the memories of last year when we made opponents pay for every misake.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261021014
Next Game: Tuesday starts a home and home in Toronto (we host them on Thursday)

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- Dean McAmmond and Daniel Alfredsson looked awesome together. DMac’s speed and Alfie’s vision will work very well together. I think Kelly being on that line is a bit of a wasted opportunity, but Alfie and DMac can be great producers on that line. Can Kaigorodov play the wing? That would be an interesting experiment.
- Chris Neil deservedly was awarded the first star. As the New Jersey announcers kept pointing out with amazement, Neil has really redefined his career while at the same time remembering what got him here. He makes the right plays and still manages to be a pest. A good contract there. More on this night later.
- Two goals straight off defencemen’s sticks and another two were deflected on the way. Good things happen when you get shots through from the point as it resulted in four of the goals.

The Bad
- Nothing really to point out here. Fisher had a bad turnover in the neutral zone that led to the Gionta goal, but the whole team regrouped after that. Pass from Meszaros was in his skates and Gionta's shot was unstoppable. It still gave a quick reminder about the importance of moving the puck through the neutral zone.

The Ugly
- Meszaros and Redden still managed to be a minus-1 tonight. That blows my mind. With the way Corvo has fit in and played in his two games, expect to see a lot more of him and the defensive minutes being spread out.

Overtime
- Kaigorodov centering the fourth line went a whopping 1-7 in the faceoff circle. I know he is better at centre, but I wonder what he’d look like on the left wing of McAmmond and Alfredsson.
- Chris Neil had 11 hits, seven more than Fisher’s four (our second biggest hitter last night).
- Neil also led the team with 6 shots on goal.
- A telling sign that the defence is different in Ottawa this year is that Joe Corvo led the team in icetime with 22:23.
- This is a start in the right direction as the team is rewarded for playing hard. Hopefully this feeling will stay with them and they’ll understand that if they do what they’re supposed to do, they win games and people eat pizza.

A Good Time for a Change

As Mr. Geoffrey Tiberious Cheek informed you all in the previous post - the lines are going to be a little different tonight. I am indifferent to the change and expect a successful game for Alfredsson and Spezza - but Heatly on the other hand - that's a different story. Heatly is a pure goal scorer. He has never been a creator and never will be. Ive never admired players like this but they can be effective if they have a highly skilled player to get them the puck. Dany has always been blessed with a number of elite level plyers on his line (Kovalchuk, Spezza, Savard, Alfredsson) and tonight, for the first time, he will be playing with a rag-tag group of players. Antoine Vermette, although speedy, has never shown that he can playmake consitantly and although I admire Chris Kelly's work ethic - his hands leave alot to be desired. I expect Heatly to flounder tonight and be immediadtly re-paired with Spezza next game.

Rumors

My trade rumor record has been pedestrian at best but the winds of change are blowing in Philly. Darien Hatcher is being offerd up to anyone who will listen and to quote Ed Snyder "Nobody is safe on this team". Now nobody is going to take Hatcher or Rathje of their hands so expect Hitchcock to be fired by mid-week if the Flyers continue to struggle.

What to expect tonight...

So we head into our fifth home game looking for our first home win against the New Jersey Devils tonight. Understandably, Coach Murray has split up the Pizza Line in an attempt to find a pulse in our forwards. As of this morning, Ottawa sits in last place and our leading scorer is Dany Heatley with 5 points in six games. Alfredsson and Spezz, his former linemates, have 4 and 3 points, respectively. Our 'secondary line' (Mike Fisher - 0 points, minus-4; Peter Schaefer - 0 points, minus-4; Antoine Vermette - 1 point, minus-1) and our 'top defence pairing' (Wade Redden, 0 points, minus-2; Andrej Meszaros, 0 points, minus-5) are having some trouble, as well. After getting booed off the ice 48 hours ago, how will Spezza and the Sens come out tonight?

In Thursday's game, the puck was in the Colorado zone for the first three minutes of the first period before we ran out of steam and dogged it for the rest of the game. I'd like to see if it is in the genetics of this lineup for them to sustain that kind of pressure for 60 minutes. The difference between Ottawa and a team like Buffalo is that the latter will skate HARD for every single loose puck. Every single one. Do you know who skates the hardest for the Sabres? Daniel Briere, their captain. Do you know who skates the hardest for the Senators? Dean McAmmond, a late free agent pickup to fill spots on the second and third lines as necessary. Until our top six forwards start skating like the Sabres, we'll stay in our funk and continue to get booed. It isn't one player in particular who can step up their game and change the outcome of the game. It needs the blood and guts of all 12 forwards to win in this league now. I dearly hope that the Pizza Line toppings are humiliated and pissed off at their performance thus far.

I also want to put a little cap on the Sabres celebrations, though, before we crown them as champs after their 7-0 start. I remember a team that was close for a while, then lost a heartbreaking Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 to the eventual Cup winner, and then started a season 7-0. I remember that team well. They ended up losing in the second round in five games. Just remember that as we watch the Sabres this season, and be sure to enjoy tonight's Sens/Devils game.

A Pinch of Pynch - Chara vs. Redden

In our first installment from our guest blogger, Jeff Lynch, a Pinch of Pynch analyzes what will soon be known as the biggest question of the year for Ottawa: Did we sign the right All-Star defenceman? Here it is and as always, comments are appreciated:

It’s a question that was posed as early as July 2006, and will likely be asked, dissected and criticized for weeks, months and years to come – did the Ottawa Senators sign the right All-Star defenceman.

In response to this highly voiced question, as posed this morning by Mr. Cheek, my personal short answer is no.

Before I begin, allow me to make a few things clear. I am no hockey expert, far from it in fact. The only regular season Sens games I get to watch are those carried by Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights, in Toronto mind you, and the ones I catch when I’m home sweet home in the Nation’s Capital. However, I am a Sens fan. A true, dedicated Sens fan. I listen to the team on the Team and spend most mornings at work reading articles on our beloved rouge et or…et noir. Alright, get it? Got it? Good. Now for my long answer. Here we go.

Wade Redden. Ottawa’s golden boy. I used to have a very jaded perception of Reds. You see, when I lived in Ottawa I actually did see just about every game possible. I also listened to post game shows and read daily Citizen articles and editorials. Different games led to different expert opinions and comments, but Wade’s performance was the one consistent. He was always a star, and when he wasn’t first, second or third star, he was fourth star. He couldn’t make a mistake, even when he blatantly did. Again, Ottawa’s golden boy. But I’ll stop right there, take a deep breath, and continue.

It was when I moved to Toronto, away from the bombardment of the Ottawa sports media that my thoughts and feelings changed. I realized I disliked Reds only because the media loved him so. Without having to hear his overwhelming praises enabled me to make my own assessments. Sure he still made mistakes, but I no longer had to hear that they weren’t his fault. I started appreciating his assets without them being blown out of proportion. Hey, this guy’s pretty damn good.

That leads me to my current state of affairs. I like Reds. Sure he gets caught pinching often and can be known to cough up the puck, but these plays do not nearly outweigh his positives. He is one of the top defensemen in the league and I’m glad he’s in Ottawa, but…

That brings me to the 6’9”, 290lb, rib eating, father wrestling, Tour de France route cycling Zdeno Chara. Hey Zdeno, you’re awfully tall, but aside from a long reach, what other assets do you have in the game of hockey? Let’s see…. He’s strong, he’s mobile, he has a cannon from the point, he’s physical, he’s tough, he’s mean, he can’t be moved from the front of the net, he’s well positioned and he’s a leader. Now, Wade Redden is also many of those things, but he’s not all of those things.

If I have to pick on Chara for anything, it’s that some games he can appear slow and gets beat much too often. That used to drive me nuts. Perhaps it’s the altitude – that thin air around his head could leave him dazed from time to time – but some games he would certainly look like the weaker of the two players in question…but not always and not often.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to resign two of the NHL’s best in the same year. I’d like to pass blame on John Ferguson Jr. for signing mysteriously well perceived Bryan McCabe for roughly $5.5 Million a year and thus setting the bar for defensemen salaries, but face it, Reds and Chara are both franchise players and whether they signed for $6, $6.5 or $7 there was no way we were keeping both.

So, as we’re all well aware, John sunk Eugene’s money into Wade. With such an offensive powerhouse, it seemed to make sense to stick with the guy who can make that tape to tape first pass transitioning our boys from the defensive zone and onto the attack, the guy who is capable of 80 points a year, the guy who looks better on the cover of a Score Magazine. But I don’t buy it. Let me tell you why.

After the first quarter of last season, the Globe and Mail alluded to the Sens as possibly being the best team ever. They were virtually unstoppable at the time because they were the entire package. Not only were their stars scoring and they’re wondergoalie flip, floppin’ and savin’, but they were mean. For once, finally, the Sens put fear into their opponents. Don’t step out of line or you’ll have to deal with Neil, McGratton and the toughest of them all, Chara. This let the offense do their thing without repercussion. For some unknown reason, that mind set went away. McGratton found a regular seat in the press box, but more importantly that fierce toughness was replaced by a country club type atmosphere. It was ‘dipsy doodle, hope this works’ as opposed to crash, bang and clear the path for the goals. I’m certainly digressing here, but I assure you it’s connected, so let me get back to my point.

At the beginning of this year, Murray insisted that the Sens were going to carry a blue-collar, lunch box attitude. Back to basics. Don’t mess with Texas, er, Ottawa. Yes!, I thought, what a concept! It worked last year for half a season, let’s bring it back and not forget it. Let’s be mean. Let’s be tough. And who can spark that attitude and style of play – our very own Zdeno Chara! Oh, wait. He’s gone. He’s the captain of a division rival. He’s installing fear at the TD Banknorth Garden. He’s parked in front of the net on Boston’s powerplay. He’s gone.
I’ve seen Redden drop the gloves before and hold his own, if not give a bit of a beating. He’s tough in his own right, but the key issue is that he does not install fear. Maybe this style of play won’t win the Cup. Did Carolina install fear? No. Does Buffalo install fear? No. And that’s fine. And I may be wrong. But, I like that style of play. And Ottawa was winning playing that style.

Bottom line – Ottawa would have been better off with Chara. In my mind, he’s more of a Norris candidate and I believe he’s more valuable to an all around game. They’re both great players and I’m happy to have at least one of them on the ice, but give me Chara any day.

And now I’m spent. I’m going to grab some ribs. Have a good weekend.

- Pynch