GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ St. Louis Blues - 8:30pm - Jan. 29th, 2009

The Sens roll into St. Louis tonight to kick off a 3-game road trip that will see them play Columbus and Washington. The Sens opened up the second half of the season with a stinker at home versus New Jersey. This will be the Blues' first game since the All Star break. The pressure is on for Murray and co to get this team to respond to at least salvage something from this season and build for next season.

From: http://goaliepost.com/

Elliott gets the start in net for the Sens. Mason is listed as probable for the Blues.

From: http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2009/01/29/8183631-sun.html

BLACK AND BLUE REPORT

SENATORS: RW Shean Donovan (lower body) did not make the trip. He is expected to return to action next week ... C Dean McAmmond (ill) missed practice, but did travel with the team yesterday and could play tonight.

BLUES: C Andy McDonald (ankle) has been out since November. He is expected to return next week ... G Manny Legace (groin) was the backup to Chris Mason last week and should be ready to go tonight.

NOTEWORTHY

St. Louis -- Bad news for the Senators: The Blues, who will be playing their first game since the break, were enjoying their best stretch of the season prior to all-star weekend. They are 3-0-1 in their last four, a stretch that includes victories over the Bruins and Blackhawks ... G Chris Mason is likely to start for the Blues; Brian Elliott gets the call for the Senators ... C Peter Regin is on the trip and will likely play once again on a line with Mike Fisher and Nick Foligno ... Coach Craig Hartsburg will decide this morning whether to play D Jason Smith and/or D/LW Christoph Schubert, who were both healthy scratches Tuesday ... The Senators are 1-18-1 when trailing after two periods.

TSN's Ice Chips:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=11009

Winger Dean McAmmond (illness) did not skate with the team on Wednesday. He made the trip to St. Louis but head coach Craig Hartsburg wasn't sure if he would play tonight. Shean Donovan (lower body) did not skate on Wednesday. Goaltender Brian Elliott will start in St. Louis tonight while Alex Auld will play Friday in Columbus. - TSN

Game is on NHLN-CA,NHLN-US,FS-MW (HD). You'll need NHL Network for this one. No coverage on NHL CI.

First of all why are we always rolling in to places? Secondly that 3-0-1 record going into the break sound familiar? They beat Boston we beat Washington. The basement dwellers can go on runs like that once in a while. I give the blues the edge simply because we have no clue how to win on the road.

This is a game where I want to see results, ie. WIN.

I would have been satisfied with effort against the Devils and I will be satisfied with effort vs. Washington. Wins are secondary to me in those games.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:First of all why are we always rolling in to places?

HA! I don't know... it just sounds right... from the days of logging time on the bus between cities...

Hmm...I watch Blues games fairly regularly on NHL Gamecenter and I would respectfully disagree with the Cap'n's dismissal of this team.

The Blues don't have the available talent, due to critical injuries to many of their best players (Johnson, Brewer, Kariya, McDonald, Polak) to win consistently in the West. But they are well coached by Andy Murray, and play an intense, disciplined game.

Their January record (5-3-1) is markedly superior to the Senators' (3-5-2), and they have beaten more than a few strong teams in Boston, Chicago, and Columbus.
http://forecaster.canada.com/faceoff/hockey/schedule.cgi?StL

Goaltending has been an issue for them, but both Manny Legace and Chris Mason can come with an excellent performance, (as Mason did against the Hawks).

The Blues play tough. Keith Tkachuk fires them up, and they have dangerous forwards like David Perron, David Backes, and Patrik Berglund to name a few.

The Blues have a definite edge, and the Senators will have to perform with a lot more conviction than they did against Jersey.

Nice GDT Shabbs! Thanks.

17-1 Sens, Spezza with 15 goals.

No seriously, 5-2 Sens, Vermette with a natural hat trick in the 2nd period.

Regin with an assist.

If the Sens lose this one, they lose them all on the road.

This could quickly turn into a 5 or 6 game skid, haha, oh man.

davetherave wrote:Hmm...I watch Blues games fairly regularly on NHL Gamecenter and I would respectfully disagree with the Cap'n's dismissal of this team.

The Blues don't have the available talent, due to critical injuries to many of their best players (Johnson, Brewer, Kariya, McDonald, Polak) to win consistently in the West. But they are well coached by Andy Murray, and play an intense, disciplined game.

Their January record (5-3-1) is markedly superior to the Senators' (3-5-2), and they have beaten more than a few strong teams in Boston, Chicago, and Columbus.
http://forecaster.canada.com/faceoff/hockey/schedule.cgi?StL

Goaltending has been an issue for them, but both Manny Legace and Chris Mason can come with an excellent performance, (as Mason did against the Hawks).

The Blues play tough. Keith Tkachuk fires them up, and they have dangerous forwards like David Perron, David Backes, and Patrik Berglund to name a few.

The Blues have a definite edge, and the Senators will have to perform with a lot more conviction than they did against Jersey.

Good summary - The Sens should not assume that anyone is beatable at this point. Everynight they should be leaving it all out there. St Louis is far from an easy mark.

Thx MOI...BTW I watched the Pens-Rangers last night as well. Best game the Penguins have played in weeks. I'm not a Crosby fan, but he really looked focused last night, and scored an absolutely beautiful goal that nailed it shut.

Watching the teams back from the break, it's clear the Senators will have an extremely difficult time scraping together wins in the second half.

Right now, there are four teams (Buffalo, Florida, Pittsburgh, Carolina) fighting for the last two playoff spots in the East, and Rick Tocchet now has the Lightning lit up with seven wins in their last ten, ready to make a run for a berth as well.

In the West, from Phoenix on down, all ten (and you could even include St Louis) teams have more than a mathematical chance of making the post season.

Not one of them will be a laydown for the Senators, and all of them have better records.

IMHO anything less than maximum effort, every minute of every game, will bury Ottawa at the bottom of the standings.

davetherave wrote:Thx MOI...BTW I watched the Pens-Rangers last night as well. Best game the Penguins have played in weeks. I'm not a Crosby fan, but he really looked focused last night, and scored an absolutely beautiful goal that nailed it shut.

Watching the teams back from the break, it's clear the Senators will have an extremely difficult time scraping together wins in the second half.

Right now, there are four teams (Buffalo, Florida, Pittsburgh, Carolina) fighting for the last two playoff spots in the East, and Rick Tocchet now has the Lightning lit up with seven wins in their last ten, ready to make a run for a berth as well.

In the West, from Phoenix on down, all ten (and you could even include St Louis) teams have more than a mathematical chance of making the post season.

Not one of them will be a laydown for the Senators, and all of them have better records.

IMHO anything less than maximum effort, every minute of every game, will bury Ottawa at the bottom of the standings.

They'll make a run for the basement for sure without a solid effort but I don't see them sinking below the Isles. They'll even have a hard time getting below the Thrashers.

Cap'n, not a pretty picture when the debate is over whether the team finishes 27th, 28th, 29th or 30th...

davetherave wrote:Cap'n, not a pretty picture when the debate is over whether the team finishes 27th, 28th, 29th or 30th...

If they continue to play with the same level of inconsistancey then I want one of those bottom spots. If they put in the solid effort and go on a ridiculous run I'd be happy with the 9th or 10th spot in the east.

davetherave wrote:Thx MOI...BTW I watched the Pens-Rangers last night as well. Best game the Penguins have played in weeks. I'm not a Crosby fan, but he really looked focused last night, and scored an absolutely beautiful goal that nailed it shut.

Watching the teams back from the break, it's clear the Senators will have an extremely difficult time scraping together wins in the second half.

Right now, there are four teams (Buffalo, Florida, Pittsburgh, Carolina) fighting for the last two playoff spots in the East, and Rick Tocchet now has the Lightning lit up with seven wins in their last ten, ready to make a run for a berth as well.

In the West, from Phoenix on down, all ten (and you could even include St Louis) teams have more than a mathematical chance of making the post season.

Not one of them will be a laydown for the Senators, and all of them have better records.

IMHO anything less than maximum effort, every minute of every game, will bury Ottawa at the bottom of the standings.

I really dislike Crosby but as I said yesterday if Spezza had a dose of his compete level, Spezza would be a better player than Crosby and I honestly believe that. Problem is you can't teach compete.

As far as this club making the playoffs... if they did go on a magical, miraculous run, they would have nothing in the tank for a tough playoff series. It is plain and simple. When the if's line up back to back you can barely make out playoffs from the best vantage point, you can't even see a victory in a playoff round and anything beyond that is ludicrously out of the question.

I don't care where the Sens finish so long as they win that coveted lottery!

davetherave wrote:Hmm...I watch Blues games fairly regularly on NHL Gamecenter and I would respectfully disagree with the Cap'n's dismissal of this team.

The Blues don't have the available talent, due to critical injuries to many of their best players (Johnson, Brewer, Kariya, McDonald, Polak) to win consistently in the West. But they are well coached by Andy Murray, and play an intense, disciplined game.

Their January record (5-3-1) is markedly superior to the Senators' (3-5-2), and they have beaten more than a few strong teams in Boston, Chicago, and Columbus.
http://forecaster.canada.com/faceoff/hockey/schedule.cgi?StL

Goaltending has been an issue for them, but both Manny Legace and Chris Mason can come with an excellent performance, (as Mason did against the Hawks).

The Blues play tough. Keith Tkachuk fires them up, and they have dangerous forwards like David Perron, David Backes, and Patrik Berglund to name a few.

The Blues have a definite edge, and the Senators will have to perform with a lot more conviction than they did against Jersey.

Just out of curiousity, do you subscribe to NHL Gamecentre? A coworker of mine uses a site called hockeystreams.com. It's much cheaper and the quality is outstanding. They've even got HD. Check it out.