GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Tampa Bay Lightning - 7:00pm ET - Thu. Oct. 29th, 2009

I didn't see any glaring lack of effort last night. In fact, even Kovalev was battling for pucks. Getting into last-goal-wins battles with the likes of Nashville and Florida is a head-scratcher, though.

SeawaySensFan wrote:I didn't see any glaring lack of effort last night. In fact, even Kovalev was battling for pucks. Getting into last-goal-wins battles with the likes of Nashville and Florida is a head-scratcher, though.

Yeah... not liking these games that have last minute scrambles with goalies being pulled... too stressful. HA HA!

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Tampa is 3-0-2 at home and we're coming off a shakey game against the lowly Panthers coming in to the second half of a back to back. No way the Sens can take ANY team lightly right now. The last three games the Sens have not looked great.

Throw in the possible loss of Volchie and Leclaire and the Sens need to bring there hard hats and grind out a hard working road game.

Shaky? We were penalty killing almost the whole game. I wouldn't call that shaky. I think the team battled real hard to stay in that game and come out with a win. There's no such thing as an easy game in the NHL, we all should know that by now.

Don't forget too, the Sens as an organization have never done well on their Florida road trips.

jamvan wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Tampa is 3-0-2 at home and we're coming off a shakey game against the lowly Panthers coming in to the second half of a back to back. No way the Sens can take ANY team lightly right now. The last three games the Sens have not looked great.

Throw in the possible loss of Volchie and Leclaire and the Sens need to bring there hard hats and grind out a hard working road game.

Shaky? We were penalty killing almost the whole game. I wouldn't call that shaky. I think the team battled real hard to stay in that game and come out with a win. There's no such thing as an easy game in the NHL, we all should know that by now.

Don't forget too, the Sens as an organization have never done well on their Florida road trips.

Lets look at their last 3 games shall we?

Nashville - We come out flat against a team that should have been tired after playing the night before. Nashville has been anemic on offense but they come in and pot 3 goals on us in the 1st period and 6 all together in their OT win.

Boston - Last minute melt down with glaring errors by Veteran players leads to a Shoot out loss.

Florida - They get a quick goal and hold the lead or are even for about half the game and pull within one goal almost getting it tied up in the last few seconds. They also allowed a PP goal against a team that has struggled almost as badly as them in that department.

That, to me, says the Sens can't take anyone lightly.

the best line on the ice last night was the Kovy-Fisher-Alfie line, just when Florida seemed to get some momentum offensively, that line would come on and basically hem the Panthers in beneath their blue line, that was amazing to see, would have been great if they would have scored, but just seeing them dominate the puck battles was great in that close of a game.

I think it's fair to say the Sens have a few people not 100% because of the flu. Spezza was something like 27% on face offs. What's that all about? The flu could explain that. Leclaire has battled the flu the last two games, I'm wondering if he's well enough to even serve as backup. If not, then Carkner and Phillips will have to bear down because those forwards are gonna be crashing the crease all night long. Plus the Bolts are going to be a little ticked about all those goals last time.

The Sens will have to play a smart road game and get some ugly goals. Keeping both hands on the stick and keeping their own feet moving all the time should help even-out the PP/PK ratio. That was just brutal -- bad reffing or not, they can't give the zebras anything that even remotely looks like a penalty. Clouston has commented on reffing the last two games, which is not going to make the men in stripes any more sympathetic to our cause. Rookie coaching mistake, if you ask me.

SensFan71 wrote:the best line on the ice last night was the Kovy-Fisher-Alfie line, just when Florida seemed to get some momentum offensively, that line would come on and basically hem the Panthers in beneath their blue line, that was amazing to see, would have been great if they would have scored, but just seeing them dominate the puck battles was great in that close of a game.

That was amazing to see actually. It reminded me of the Pizza line circa 2007. The difference is we have a dangerous second line to go along with the AFK line.

Hopefully they can take back to back games on the road. This early in the season winning 2 back to back games on the road is huge, doesnt matter who they are playing.

This would almost garentee the start I thought they needed to get off too, 20 points in their first 15 games. Lets go boys!

Zenon Konopka on THN's "Say What?":

Energy, physical play, pound the other team...that's what we do. We
try to get the boys on the bench going and our crowd going. I like
having a smile on my face. Life's short, and too many people are
worried about things they can't control. Not me. What I can control is having a smile and dressing up like (wrestler) 'Macho Man' Randy Savage
at the team Halloween party.

Good, he's already looking forward the the party and not concentrating on tonight's game

wprager wrote:Zenon Konopka on THN's "Say What?":

Energy, physical play, pound the other team...that's what we do. We
try to get the boys on the bench going and our crowd going. I like
having a smile on my face. Life's short, and too many people are
worried about things they can't control. Not me. What I can control is having a smile and dressing up like (wrestler) 'Macho Man' Randy Savage
at the team Halloween party.

Good, he's already looking forward the the party and not concentrating on tonight's game

I'm not sure Zenon "Game Changer" Konopka, looking ahead to Halloween, will have much to do with the outcome of tonights game.

Since this game is on TSN... will Monster McGuire be commenting?

I hope not.

I have a new appriciation for McGuire and every other Canadian broadcaster after last night. Couldnt be happier to hear a TSN production again. I wont ever complain again.

N4L wrote:I have a new appriciation for McGuire and every other Canadian broadcaster after last night. Couldnt be happier to hear a TSN production again. I wont ever complain again.

So true.

N4L wrote:Hopefully they can take back to back games on the road. This early in the season winning 2 back to back games on the road is huge, doesnt matter who they are playing.

This would almost garentee the start I thought they needed to get off too, 20 points in their first 15 games. Lets go boys!

Again, so true. Let's go guys!

N4L wrote:I have a new appriciation for McGuire and every other Canadian broadcaster after last night. Couldnt be happier to hear a TSN production again. I wont ever complain again.

HA HA HA!!!

It is quite sobering watching a VS feed with American broadcasters...

I wonder what a Coyotes broadcast would be like?

N4L wrote:I have a new appriciation for McGuire and every other Canadian broadcaster after last night. Couldnt be happier to hear a TSN production again. I wont ever complain again.

That was pretty painful. I especially like when the commentators call home team players by their horrible "nicknames".

Brian Lee was just called up. NOOOOOOO!!!!!

jamvan wrote:Brian Lee was just called up. NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Yeah, saw that.

Eek.