Clouston to stick with same line combos for Buffalo game

I guess he liked what he saw in the come from behind win vs Pitt...

http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2009/03/16/8768931.html

Cory Clouston will stick with the line combinations he used late in Saturday’s come-from-behind win over Pittsburgh when the Senators host Buffalo tomorrow night.

That means Mike Fisher will be flanked by Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Comrie as Ottawa tries to extend its home winning streak to five games.

“It should be a really good line,” Alfredsson said after this morning’s practice.

Jason Spezza will play with Dany Heatley and Ryan Shannon, while Chris Kelly will again work between Nick Foligno and Chris Neil and Jesse Winchester centres Jarkko Ruutu and Shean Donovan.

Elliott is expected to get the start in net and Volchie should be ready to go.

whoa! It does sound like a nice line.
Spezza will either flourish or look dazed and confused.

C'mon Elliott. Let's give this kid a shutout!!

Tellqvist likely to get the start for Buffalo:

http://www.wgr550.com/Miller-skates-lightly--Tellqvist-likely-to-play-in/4027460

Let us visualize the lines....

Heater-Spezza-Shannon
Alfie-Fisher-Comrie
Foligno-Kelly-Neil
Ruutu-Winchester-Donovan

Nice.

ummm...Tellqvist, eh?
Is that a good thing?

Here's hoping the Sens shell him all game long...

On a side note, does anyone know if Clouston or Murray have tried to address that douche Orpik's blatant elbow to Spezza?

Cool lines. I guess this is how Clouston will want them to look next year. The only tiny issue I have is Foligno dropping down with the no-offensive-talents on line 3, but I guess this is a challenge from Clouston to see if Foligno can produce offense without the help of Shannon.

I like it, I like that we can finally spread the scoring around the 2 1/3 lines, with the rest of line 3 being hard workers. Comrie with Alfie is sexy, Shannon with Spezza and Heater is neat. We'll see how it all works out.

Also...if Alfie can play even 3/4 of the way he played against Pittsburgh, I don't like Barfallo's chances.

well said.
C'mon ALFIE!!
I want to hear the Scotiabank faithful chanting his name again!

You know, the stupid thing is, now seeing how they've been great at clawing their way back, if I happen to miss a period or two and just jump in mid-way through the 3rd, if they are down by 2 or 3 goals, I actually catch myself thinking "oh, they'll be fine." LOL

More from TSN's Ice Chips:

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

Defenceman Anton Volchenkov (lower body) did not skate today but is expected to play tomorrow against the Sabres. Head coach Cory Clouston's record since taking over from Craig Hartsburg is 11-6-3. - TSN

Practice Lines

Forwards:
Heatley - Spezza - Shannon
Comrie - Fisher - Alfredsson
Foligno - Kelly - Neil
Donovan - Winchester - Ruutu

Defence:
Philips - Lee
Campoli - Kuba
Schubert - Bell

Goaltenders:
Elliott

Out:
Neil
Picard
Schubert

They have Neil and Schubert out, yet Neil is on the third line and Schubert on D.

I'm not sure what to think. He breaks up Foligno-Fisher-Shannon. The top line now has no-one that has both a little bit of size and willingness to use it. Let's hope Shannon is too quick for the slugs. Personally if I were to berak up the FFS line I would want Fisher on Spezza's wing banging anything that gets in the way. But I'm not the one with the 11-6-3 record.

Cronie wrote:well said.
C'mon ALFIE!!
I want to hear the Scotiabank faithful chanting his name again!

You know, the stupid thing is, now seeing how they've been great at clawing their way back, if I happen to miss a period or two and just jump in mid-way through the 3rd, if they are down by 2 or 3 goals, I actually catch myself thinking "oh, they'll be fine." LOL

And the most important part of that is that they feel the same. It's the same mentality we had when we went to the Cup. We were defensively sound, but we were able to almost score at will. We need to get back to that - and it begins with Alfie's line and filters through to Shannon, Fisher, Foligno etc.

I think we're getting somewhere with that. Comrie helps too.

wprager wrote:They have Neil and Schubert out, yet Neil is on the third line and Schubert on D.

I'm not sure what to think. He breaks up Foligno-Fisher-Shannon. The top line now has no-one that has both a little bit of size and willingness to use it. Let's hope Shannon is too quick for the slugs. Personally if I were to berak up the FFS line I would want Fisher on Spezza's wing banging anything that gets in the way. But I'm not the one with the 11-6-3 record.

I agree. I'm a tad tentative breaking up the FFS line. They have the meat and potatos players like Fisher and Foligno and they had they skilled player in Shannon. Hopefully Shannon can be as effective with Spezza and Heatley when he doesn't have Fisher/Foligno backing him up in the cycle - because of all the things Shannon's good at, cycling is a big one (and takeaways).

Is it me, or does Comrie make Jason Spezza look like Pavel Bure?

Is this a temporary slowness in recovering from surgery, or will he be like this all the time?

asq2 wrote:Is it me, or does Comrie make Jason Spezza look like Pavel Bure?

Is this a temporary slowness in recovering from surgery, or will he be like this all the time?

The Healthy Scratches covered that a bit a couple of days ago. They had Eastwood on (who's jad a similar surgery). He didn't sound all that positive.

asq2 wrote:Is it me, or does Comrie make Jason Spezza look like Pavel Bure?

Is this a temporary slowness in recovering from surgery, or will he be like this all the time?

Really? He's slowed down a lot? I hadn't noticed...Dung.