Update from the SUN
By CHRIS STEVENSON, Sun Media
Last Updated: 17th September 2009, 3:51pm
It’s not a problem...yet.
But the fact the Senators are still looking for their first goal from a forward and have scored just two goals in two pre-season games has been a topic of conversation in the Senators’ camp.
Coach Cory Clouston talked to the two groups that took to the ice at the Bell Sensplex for practice on Thursday, attempting to tackle the problem early.
Clouston wouldn’t characterize the situation as a worry.
“But it is an issue,” he said. “We worked on having more net presence today and driving the middle lane harder. I think we’ve hit five posts and had a pretty obvious goal called back (Wednesday night in the waning seconds against the Florida Panthers).
“If you’re going to have a tough break, now is the time to have it.”
“It’s too soon,” said captain Daniel Alfredsson, when asked if the lack of offence is a problem. “For sure, we’d like to have scored more goals, but we only had two practices (before the pre-season started).
The Senators goal scorers so far have been defenceman Alexandre Picard and Chris Phillips.
The Senators will be in action again Friday night in Montreal against the Canadiens.
NO KOVALEV IN MONTREAL: Fans in Montreal will have to wait to see the return of Alexei Kovalev.
He won’t dress for the Senators Friday night when they visit the Bell Centre for their third game of the pre-season.
Here is the lineup:
Goaltenders: Pascal Leclaire, Robin Lehner.
Defence: Chris Campoli, Matt Carkner, Alexandre Picard, Jared Cowan, Brian Lee, Geoff Kinrade.
Centres: Jason Spezza, Peter Regin, Zack Smith, Cody Bass.
Right Wing: Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Neil, Jesse Winchester, Jeremy Yablonski.
Left Wing: Milan Michalek, Ilya Zubov, Chris Kelly, Christoph Schubert.
SIX PLAYERS CUT: There weren’t any surprises in the half-dozen players sent to the AHL affiliate in Binghamton on Thursday (the Bingo Senators’ training camp opened Wednesday at Binghamton’s Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena).
Assigned were defencemen Drew Bannister and Tomas Kudelka; forwards Erik Condra, Denis Hamel and Jim O’Brien; and goaltender Chris Holt.
The NHL Senators now have 40 players left in camp: five goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 25 forwards.
Last edited by SensGirl11 on Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:25 pm; edited 1 time in total