GAME DAY: Tampa Bay Lightning @ Ottawa Senators - 7:30pm EST - Thu. Nov. 5th, 2009

Just watched the replay of Neil's hit. Wow, what a beauty. A-Train must have been smiling. No charge -- he was coasting from the face-off circle, perfectly head-on, not even slightly from the side. A perfect hit.

TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

I have ripped Kelly for most of the year, but he was very good on the PK tonight and he had at least 3 hits on the forecheck.

Brian Lee is still very soft.

Clouston corrected a poor decision during the OT PP. His initial 4 on the ice were Alfie, Kovalev, Spezza and Kuba. The Sens controlled the zone but you are not going to score without a net presence. With 50 seconds left in the PP he replaced Kovy with Fisher, who wins the draw, goes directly to the front of the net, and voila, goal. Good adjustment by the coach, but the mistake should never have been made.

Another issue I have is with the new PP setup we were using last night, that puts Kuba in the high slot ? I don't like it one bit, not one bit. Essentially, Alfie was the sole point man, in an umbrella config, except Kuba was sitting in the middle. It's not so much the configuration I have issue with, it is the use of Kuba in that position, there has to be a better choice.

Didn't Kuba score one from there earlier in the game? Sure, it was called off (friggin' Frasier) but that's where he scored from.

wprager wrote:TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

It all comes down to "in the mind of the ref, he touched the puck and the play was dead" interpretation. Mistakes happen and I'm gald we still ended up winning in OT.

Btw... 'bout damn time Spezza. Sweet.

Any word on Hedman's status? He got knocked the Diddle out!

Sens score 5 and win 3-2!

I thought the Sens overall played a very good game. Michalek-Spezza-Alfie line looked great, very few defencive breakdowns, and a good all-around team effort. Cheechoo had the least TOI but was getting some chances. He's due to pot one any day now.

Still wishing we had that 6th top-six forward. I think that's what's separating Ottawa from a good team to an elite team. Shannon/Cheechoo just isn't working right now. Someone needs to compliment Kovalev but I don't think we have anyone on the team capable of doing that. Wouldn't mind seeing Foligno play the wing with Fish and Kovie, and then having Shannon-Regin-Cheechoo, Ruuttu-Kelly-Neil as our third and fourth lines.

That being said, Winchester is back and expected to play Saturday night. Press-box is getting kind of full. Who's in and who's out?

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

It all comes down to "in the mind of the ref, he touched the puck and the play was dead" interpretation. Mistakes happen and I'm gald we still ended up winning in OT.

Btw... 'bout damn time Spezza. Sweet.

Any word on Hedman's status? He got knocked the Diddle out!

What do you mean about damn time SPezza? He's been playing well all season long.

jamvan wrote:

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

It all comes down to "in the mind of the ref, he touched the puck and the play was dead" interpretation. Mistakes happen and I'm gald we still ended up winning in OT.

Btw... 'bout damn time Spezza. Sweet.

Any word on Hedman's status? He got knocked the Diddle out!

What do you mean about damn time SPezza? He's been playing well all season long.

About damn time to score a goal.

Did I say he wasn't playing well? No.

shabbs wrote:

jamvan wrote:

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

It all comes down to "in the mind of the ref, he touched the puck and the play was dead" interpretation. Mistakes happen and I'm gald we still ended up winning in OT.

Btw... 'bout damn time Spezza. Sweet.

Any word on Hedman's status? He got knocked the Diddle out!

What do you mean about damn time SPezza? He's been playing well all season long.

About damn time to score a goal.

Did I say he wasn't playing well? No.

I wasn't attacking, sorry! Cheers. Go Sens Go!

jamvan wrote:

shabbs wrote:

jamvan wrote:

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:TSN's highlights online showed the Kuba disallowed goal. WTH? Does someone need to explain the rules to Frasier? Veilleux barely touched the puck -- there was absolutely no control, if there was, it would not have slipped under his stick to Kuba.

Good thing the game ended the way it did, and Spezza got his first, but that was a bad call and could have gone very badly.

It all comes down to "in the mind of the ref, he touched the puck and the play was dead" interpretation. Mistakes happen and I'm gald we still ended up winning in OT.

Btw... 'bout damn time Spezza. Sweet.

Any word on Hedman's status? He got knocked the Diddle out!

What do you mean about damn time SPezza? He's been playing well all season long.

About damn time to score a goal.

Did I say he wasn't playing well? No.

I wasn't attacking, sorry! Cheers. Go Sens Go!

HA HA! Spezza's been working his Donkey off... so I'm sure he's glad to get the monkey off his back with his first goal.

RobbyJ wrote:Clouston corrected a poor decision during the OT PP. His initial 4 on the ice were Alfie, Kovalev, Spezza and Kuba. The Sens controlled the zone but you are not going to score without a net presence. With 50 seconds left in the PP he replaced Kovy with Fisher, who wins the draw, goes directly to the front of the net, and voila, goal. Good adjustment by the coach, but the mistake should never have been made.

Or it could be that Clouston wanted two C's on the ice for that important face-off.

And from the "shut your trap" category... Downie sounds off on Neil's hit...

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/11/05/11652881.html

Ha ha. What a loser.

Our PP was 2 for 6... and on both goals, Fisher was in front of the net. Sounds like a nice strategy to continue with eh?

Zenon Konopka also commented on the hit saying 'if I was the commissioner, I would be making more money, but I would be taking a serious look at the hit'...

He also commented on the OHL hit, trying to compare the two.

Neil defended the hit saying he thought it was legal, never left his feet and even if he had he would not have hit Hedman in the head cause he is '8 feet tall'. Said it is his job to finish his checks and hopes Hedman is okay.

My thought - legal hit, perfectly acceptable. Too bad for Hedman - welcome to the NHL. Neil did everything he is supposed to do. He also did the right thing and fought that punk Wing Dang Doodle Downie.

Damn I wish I was Mike Fisher...

Sens post-game video here:

http://senators.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=767&id=50560

Clouston post-game presser (MP3):

http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/Audio/091105_Clouston-post.mp3

shabbs wrote:Damn I wish I was Mike Fisher...

Me too- but I mean- you know that he's not getting any.... that would drive me ape.