GAME DAY: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Ottawa Senators - 2:00pm Dec. 6th, 2008

Just thought I'd get the game day thread going early since it's an afternoon game. A couple of things to mention.

Pittsburgh Penguins are 10-2-2 since November 1st. Ottawa Senators are 5-5-3 since that same time period.

Chris Neil is expected to return for the game. Line combinations should look like this:

Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson
Vermette-Fisher-Donovan
Foligno-Kelly-Winchester
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

Picard and McAmmond are both expected to miss the game. Ryan Shannon has been sent back down to the AHL.

From SensChirp, a comment about our fourth line: "Neil will apparently skate on a line with Cody Bass and Jarkko Ruutu potentially forming the most annoying line in the history of the NHL." I find it hard to disagree

Should be a good game seeing as how the Senators have been playing much better in their last 5 games posting a 3-1-1 record.

Would be interesting to see the Senators all-time record in afternoon games if anyone has it.

Neil, Bass, and Ruutu played together in the pre-season and actually produced, really excitted to see that line.

Sens need to open up the scoring, if not, could be a long afternoon.

I have to agree with Neely. After seeing the stats on what the Sens record is when they are scored on first, well, it was SCARY!! 1-9-1 I think it was...

Food for thought... I noticed in the Sun they made specific mention of the fact that Neil's knee isn't completely healed; or rather that there's still some minor swelling and such, so I immediately thought, what are the odds his 'knee' will get some extra attention?

Hopefully tomorrow night it wil be "Pittsburgh Penguins are 10-3-2 since November 1st. Ottawa Senators are 6-5-3 since that same time period."

shut Pitts 1st two lines down and we win easily. volchie and philips should ALWAYS be on ice against malkin. Put the big line versus malkin's, and bass's line against crosby. Let Vermette's line explode.

marakh wrote:Hopefully tomorrow night it wil be "Pittsburgh Penguins are 10-3-2 since November 1st. Ottawa Senators are 6-5-3 since that same time period."

shut Pitts 1st two lines down and we win easily. volchie and philips should ALWAYS be on ice against malkin. Put the big line versus malkin's, and bass's line against crosby. Let Vermette's line explode.

Shutting down the leagues 2 top scorers is a lot easier said then done. Again this team needs to get on the Pens and their D right away. Dump and chase with a strong forecheck, only way the Sens will win tomorrow.

WE shut them down in Sweden and most of our goals went from breakaways resulting from it. I say it was a very good game plan by hartsburg.

marakh wrote:WE shut them down in Sweden and most of our goals went from breakaways resulting from it. I say it was a very good game plan by hartsburg.

Yup, but opening day and mid season form are 2 different things. Also, Pitts was coming off the cup run and the Sens were nice and rested.

Point is I wouldnt be expecting the same Pens team from Sweden, Sens can win, but they gotta get on em real early.

For the most part I really like these new lines. The top line is just starting to click and hopefully they keep on rolling. I really like Kelly centering the kids. I think they could end be a really good two way line. The 4th line is amazing. They will drive the other team nuts. Now if the Fisher line can start producing SOME secondary scoring, the team could really start to make a push for one of those playoff spots.

Kennedy out at least 4 weeks.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2008/12/05/kennedy-penguins.html?ref=rss

marakh wrote:WE shut them down in Sweden and most of our goals went
from breakaways resulting from it. I say it was a very good game plan
by hartsburg.

you're dreaming if you think ur facing the same team. Pitts is
playing well above the level they were in Sweden. Should be a
good game but I think Pitts will be able to produce a few goals which
will likely be enough......unless Pitts plays John Curry in net.
It wouldn't be all that surprising since Ott has faced about 50% back
up goalies this year.

Nasty Nas wrote:

marakh wrote:WE shut them down in Sweden and most of our goals went
from breakaways resulting from it. I say it was a very good game plan
by hartsburg.

you're dreaming if you think ur facing the same team. Pitts is
playing well above the level they were in Sweden. Should be a
good game but I think Pitts will be able to produce a few goals which
will likely be enough......unless Pitts plays John Curry in net.
It wouldn't be all that surprising since Ott has faced about 50% back
up goalies this year.

50%? You missed several games then. I say it's closer to 75%

hemlock34 wrote:

Nasty Nas wrote:

marakh wrote:WE shut them down in Sweden and most of our goals went
from breakaways resulting from it. I say it was a very good game plan
by hartsburg.

you're dreaming if you think ur facing the same team. Pitts is
playing well above the level they were in Sweden. Should be a
good game but I think Pitts will be able to produce a few goals which
will likely be enough......unless Pitts plays John Curry in net.
It wouldn't be all that surprising since Ott has faced about 50% back
up goalies this year.

50%? You missed several games then. I say it's closer to 75%

haha yeah I didnt want to make it seem so bad. They literally
went through a stretch of about 9 games against backups. Pretty
frustrating to watch as a fan.

Nasty Nas wrote:

haha yeah I didnt want to make it seem so bad. They literally
went through a stretch of about 9 games against backups. Pretty
frustrating to watch as a fan.

I see MAF is on injured reserve. I didn't even know. So are we facing the backup again today? But that reckoning, the Pens will be facing the Senators' backup as well.

I also just saw that Boucher is injured. How do I miss these things?

Sabourin is listed as probable for the Pens. Auld will go for the Sens.

BLACK AND BLUE REPORT:

PENGUINS: D Philippe Boucher (undisclosed), won't play; RW Tyler Kennedy (knee),
won't play; G Marc-Andre Fleury (undisclosed), won't play. C Mike Zigomanis (undisclosed), could play.

SENATORS: C Dean McAmmond (flu), won't play; D Alex Picard (wrist), game-time decision.