GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Atlanta Thrashers - 7:30pm Jan. 14th, 2009

The Sens roll into Atlanta today to face the Thrashers after an impressive win over the Hurricanes last night. Elliott has been called up, Gerber benched and we snap our losing streak. Clealry, Elliott will be a big part of the Sens' future... but how will the rest of the season play out.

Kovalchuk is a notorious Sens-killer and just loves to put pucks in our net. I'm always weary when he's on the ice.

Nice to see some Sens get some much needed goals last night - Fisher, Vermette, McAmmond, Phillips...

BLACK AND BLUE REPORT

SENATORS: C Cody Bass (shoulder), season; D Anton Volchenkov (shoulder), day-to-day.

THRASHERS: D Garnet Exelby (hairline fracture in leg), indefinitely; C Bryan Little (ribs), probable.

NOTEWORTHY

The Thrashers are sitting a point behind the Senators in 14th place in the Eastern Conference ... The Thrashers had given up the most goals in the NHL going into last night, 157. To put that in perspective, the Boston Bruins had given up the fewest, 95 .. .The Thrashers are 4-7-1 this season against the Northeast Division; the Senators are 5-4-2 against the Southeast after last night's win against Carolina...One thing that has been working for the Thrashers is their power play, which is 10th overall (second on the road at 25.3%; 19th at home at 16.8%) ... The Senators' power play is 21st in the NHL on the road at 16% ... The Senators, at 4-14-1-2, own the league's second-worst road record, ahead of only the Los Angeles Kings (5-9-0-0, 10 points on the road to the Senators' 11).

I'm assuming Auld will get the start since Elliott has had two in a row and played last night. Has Gerber's time in Ottawa run it's course already? Rumours of a big trade with Columbus are swirling, but you never really know.

The one thing Murray has been sure of these days is that he's not worried about his job and is not going to sell the farm for quick gains now. I'm assuming he's laid out his long term plans to Melnyk and Melnyk is has bought in, as much as I'm sure it's killing Melnyk to not be winning now, reality must win out in the end.

Game is on TSN tonight, in HD.

Elliott may start tonight against the Thrashers it seems, since he did well last night.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Ottawa/2009/01/13/8010171-sun.html

Three starts in a row... hmmmm...

Not surprised Elliott is likely to start again. The kid is loaded with confidence and Murray wants to see what he has before deciding what to do with the goaltending situation. Also, Elliott is used to riding the bus and playing 3 games in 3 nights down in the minors.

Murray did say he was going to wait a couple of days before deciding what to do with some of the players. Not sure if that was just a threat or if he's really going to make some moves. The team certainly did seem to respond last night. I guess we'll see tonight. The only real move I think Murray has in the pipe is to waive Gerber.

My only concern would be burning Elliott out right off the bat, but it sounds like he can take it and has the confidence this team has been lacking.

After tonight, Sens have a couple of days off and host Montreal on Sat night. Hell, Elliott could start that one too if he's on his game tonight.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him start Saturday as well actually. Give him as many starts in a row as are reasonable. On another note, if Gerber's still her on Sunday does he play in the Sens Skills competition?

All I have to say is, what a great game by everyone last night.

My favourite player by far was Spezza, he really seems to be turning things around and becoming the all around player we've wanted him to be since the beginning. It just takes a little time, he's getting there though. If they move him out of here, they're a bunch of dumb bunghole. This guy is for real, and he's only going to get better.

Elliott, what can I say, what a solid solid game by him. I'm very comfortable with him in nets, and I think he'll be a solid No. 1 for us in the near future.

Go Sens!!! Great game, and I'm looking forward to tonight. It's nice to finally see some smiling faces, very refreshing.

Murray spoke one-on-one with 9 players. That's a significant amount of the roster. I wonder if it had any impact. I wonder a lot of things.

The advantage of being near the bottom: lots and lots of "4-point" games. That should build some excitement on its own.

It was a great game and the team played as a team but even basement dwellers have games like that once in a while. Lets not get too high here. Elliott has played 2 games this year and a grand total of 3 in his career. He also let in a softy in the game against the Rangers and poor rebound control led to the first goal. So he has 2 suspect goals in 3 games so lets not get too excited just yet. I too believe he'll be a solid goalie for the future though.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I wouldn't be surprised to see him start Saturday as well actually. Give him as many starts in a row as are reasonable. On another note, if Gerber's still her on Sunday does he play in the Sens Skills competition?

this is Elliott's test, he's gonna play every game until they determine if he's ready.
so far so good. I REALLY want to see him against the Habs on Saturday, now there's a test!

as for the skills competition, I say they let Gerber play in it...nice little goodbye party for him as he IS pretty solid on breakaways! and then buh bye.

Thank you Clutch. I'm a little worried that Murray will stand pat and not make any changes to this franchise because of a few wins. Hopefully, Murray is a realist and knows that a partial rebuild is in order.

I prefer to focus on the saves Elliott is making and there have been some dandies and other difficult saves that he made look easy.

Rebound control? I don't think so. That was a scrambly situation and he might have been a little soft on smothering the puck.

A little dose of reality... last night's game was our 41st. The mid-way point game wise for us.

Current record: 14-21-6 for 34 points

To finish the year with the same record as last season, where we barely made it into the post season, the Sens would need to go 29-10-2 for 60 points from here on out - basically winning 3 out of every 4 games. That would give us a final record of 43-31-8 for 94 points on the season.

That is one HELL of a second half, and with all due respect, very unlikely.

I don't know what the future holds this season, and whether or not Murray does have some sort of vision to go for a top 5 pick by either trading up or staying at the bottom of the NHL. Who knows. I certainly don't envy being him.

SeawaySensFan wrote:I prefer to focus on the saves Elliott is making and there have been some dandies and other difficult saves that he made look easy.

Rebound control? I don't think so. That was a scrambly situation and he might have been a little soft on smothering the puck.

All I'm saying is I'm not ready to say Elliott is our Number 1 goalie from here on out so lets celebrate. I will accept your point about the scramble play though.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:I prefer to focus on the saves Elliott is making and there have been some dandies and other difficult saves that he made look easy.

Rebound control? I don't think so. That was a scrambly situation and he might have been a little soft on smothering the puck.

All I'm saying is I'm not ready to say Elliott is our Number 1 goalie from here on out so lets celebrate. I will accept your point about the scramble play though.

At some point the organization is going to have to commit to a goalie and Elliott looks like a pretty good candidate to me.

We have the luxury of a dry run in the back half of what looks to be a lost season. Besides, other options are limited.

I agree. Give him a bunch of starts and see what we have, give him some experience and if he pans out then great.