GAME DAY:Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - THUR. Oct. 28, 2010

The Ottawa Senators (3-5-1, 7pts) continue their mini-home stand vs. the visiting Florida Panthers (3-4-0, 6pts). The Senators came out of the gates quickly against Tuesday's opponent, the Coyotes, and were rewarded with 3 goals on 21 shots in the first period alone. The problem is someone forgot to tell them there were 40 more minutes to play and the 'Yotes climbed back in the game...briefly before the Sens stamped out the come back seconds later making the game 4-2 and then eventually 5-2 by the final buzzer. Some might say Ottawa was lucky and sure there was some luck involved but, I choose to look at it as a good team bending but not breaking under the pressure of a full on attack from their opponent.

Florida is coming off a loss to the Leafs and they too have struggled to start the season. The Panthers will be hungry for a win after being jobbed on a blatantly obvious missed goalie interference penalty that Supervisor of Officials Colin Campbell even admits was an obvious missed call. Florida is only averaging 2.14 goals against per game so the Sens will need to stick with the game plan set out for the Coyotes game - shoot, shoot and shoot (Tip - Do it for 60 minutes). They'll need to be patient and not get frustrated with the defensive style the Panthers employ.

This one should be a win for the Sens and will inch them ever so close to a 500 record for the first time this season.

**NOTE the start time. Weekday games are normally 7:30PM but this one begins at 7:00PM

Game Coverage:
- TV: SNET-OTT(HD), FS-Florida (HD)
- Radio: Team 1200
- Web: Check: http://www.atdhe.net and http://www.justin.tv

Latest updates:
Elliott to start for the Sens and Vokoun for the Panthers
Head coach Cory Clouston said Spezza is targeting Saturday’s game against the Bruins to make his return.
Kuba remains a couple of weeks away from return from a broken leg while Leclaire is still nursing a groin injury and is at least a week or two from playing

TSN's Ice Chips:

Source for OTTAWA: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/icechips/?hubname=nhl-senators
Source for FLORIDA: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/icechips/?hubname=nhl-panthers

Ottawa Senators:

Injuries:
Kuba (Broken leg - 2 more weeks?)
Spezza (Groin - Targeting Saturday for a return)
Leclaire (Groin - At least a week or two)


Florida Panthers:

Key injuries:
- none

Game Day Previews:

NHL.com Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2010020132&navid=sb:preview

ESPN Game Day Preview:

Source: http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/preview?gameId=301028014


Media Links:
- SensTV On-line: http://senators.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp
- Official Twitter of the Ottawa Senators: http://twitter.com/NHL_Sens

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GO SENS GO!!!

Heh-heh. I was about to suggest that it's time for Clutch to push one out. Good one. Did you remember to twitter it up?

Whoa! Leclaire at least a week or two?

Lehner is, apparently, battling the flu. Good thing he's tall -- when he sneezes, he's not going to hit too many people (Kuba, Spezza -- and they're already out).

So, if it's bad enough, bring Brodeur up?

wprager wrote:Heh-heh. I was about to suggest that it's time for Clutch to push one out. Good one. Did you remember to twitter it up?

No I didn't. Could you?

wprager wrote:Lehner is, apparently, battling the flu. Good thing he's tall -- when he sneezes, he's not going to hit too many people (Kuba, Spezza -- and they're already out).

So, if it's bad enough, bring Brodeur up?

As of Tuesday night Mike Brodeur was still suffering symptoms from his concussion as per Tim Murray on SNET.

Sweet Cap'n Clutch-o-licious GDT! GO SENS GO!!!

Elliott starts tonight.

Game notes: http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/PDFs/gn-2010020132.pdf

Michalek will play tonight.

Thanks Shabbs. I posted some info on the wrong thread.

Frolik is a healthy scratch and Vokoun is starting.

Damn Vokoun... we gotta get to him early!!!!

Why couldn't they have played Vokoun against the Leafs.

Bah.

shabbs wrote:Why couldn't they have played Vokoun against the Leafs.

Bah.

Well, they are starting their #1 against us. Remember 2 years ago when everyone would throw their backups and rookies at us?

wprager wrote:
Well, they are starting their #1 against us. Remember 2 years ago when everyone would throw their backups and rookies at us?

Well I'm sure they saw the videos of how we lit up Lebarbera on Tuesday.

Losing to the Leafs due to that BS goal by Orr I'm sure deBoer really wants to win the next game, they'll come out flying tonight.

This (posted in another thread) explains why Leclaire is back to 1-2 weeks minimum:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/10/28/sens_leclaire_update

So, this will be Lehner's 6th game as a backup. He's actually been in 2 games -- which number counts toward blowing the first year of his ELC?

shabbs wrote:Sweet Cap'n Clutch-o-licious GDT! GO SENS GO!!!

And that's with no sugar added.