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

Dammit, Spezza out.

These guys need to pick themselves up off the floor and attack Atlanta Saturday. Things will be fine if they can eek out a win there, if not, we're in some trouble frankly. These are the games we need to be winning - weaker opponents (arguably), haven't hit the Caps, Flyers, Devils yet, Pens and Rangers only once. Grab these wins against teams like Atlanta, Florida and TB now.

A couple of things I noticed from that barely watchable game last night:

1.Regin would make a fine top center. He did everything right except get a goal.

2.Why the heck weren't we getting pucks to the net and driving the net hard? Mike Smith really hasn't been the same since his last concussion, why aren't we driving the net more? Chris Kelly finally did it last night, but it wasn't enough. We need more of Fisher, Michalek, Kovalev (ha ha), Neil, Cheechoo (he might as well do something), to drive the net hard while others including our D who are deadly afraid to shoot - get the puck at the net with authority allowing for heavy shots which = rebounds, which need to equal garbage goals.

Not an impressive way to start life without Spezza by trying to dick around and not getting the pucks on net with authority.

I have to assume that we are going to be going with the game plan tomorrow. Last night was unacceptable.

With Kovalchuk out for them, it should give us a little more wiggle room without our star in the lineup as well. We should be able to battle with these guys and hopefully pull out with the win. It also helps that we are back home.

It seems as though Clouston gave the guys another talking to during 2nd intermission (too late) and they found their legs a little more (too late) so hopefully they can come out flying from beginning to end tomorrow, Kovalev and Cheechoo have got to step up now and make a difference, now is their time to shine.

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:OK, all this recent optimism has me back from the brink.

Shabbs, where's the GDT?

I'll crank one out later tonight... been busy all day.

DONE!

People need to take a chill pill about last night.

N4L wrote:People need to take a chill pill about last night.

For sure - it wasn't pretty, but immediately the focus is on tomorrow.

Regin was good though, that's a big plus with Spezza being out.

That was a tough game for Ottawa to win, probably the toughest of the year in all honesty.

When you factor in the back to back, travelling to Florida, the flu, the injuries, Tampa's desire to "get us back"... the odds were not looking good.

As long as we don't take Atlanta lightly in the least. Is Leclaire food to do?

SpezDispenser wrote:As long as we don't take Atlanta lightly in the least. Is Leclaire food to do?

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:As long as we don't take Atlanta lightly in the least. Is Leclaire food to do?

That is funny. Holy typo batman.

Leclaire is "good" according to Clouston. Who's starting... we'll find out tomorrow.

F-off - I'm at work, I'm writing quickly.

shabbs wrote:That is funny. Holy typo batman.

Leclaire is "good" according to Clouston. Who's starting... we'll find out tomorrow.

Sweet, no offense to Elliott, but he's not yet in a position to be doing back to back nights, then playing again on Sat. It's not his issue, it's the fact that it's hard enough to be a back-up without being thrown in like that.

SpezDispenser wrote: F-off - I'm at work, I'm writing quickly.

Seriously that was comedy gold. It's right up there with the Bongo Sens.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote: F-off - I'm at work, I'm writing quickly.

Seriously that was comedy gold. It's right up there with the Bongo Sens.

And maybe now you can finally retire that one? I've ruled long enough, time to pass the crown onto someone else.