GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Philadelphia Flyers - 7:00pm EST - Thu. Nov. 12th, 2009 PLUS post game thoughts

The Ottawa Senators (8-5-2, 18 points, 2nd in the Northeast) roll into the city of brotherly love to face the Philadelphia Flyers (9-4-1, 19 points, 4th in the Atlantic) and their former goaltender Ray Emery. This will no doubt be an important game for Emery, hopefully the Sens step up their game too. The Sens are coming off an ugly shootout win over the Oilers who dressed their backup goalie and were missing a lot of players from their line-up. While they did play a more disciplined game, it was not a very convincing performance. Add-in a couple of questionable goals by Leclaire and the scene seems all too familiar. The Sens will be in tough against the Flyers and will need to play their best hockey to get a win. The Sens' forwards will have to keep their heads up with Pronger manning the blue-line for the Flyers. Biggest news of the night was Cheechoo getting his 1st goal of the season, nice to see him find the back of the net after working so hard all season long.

Game Coverage:
- TV: TSN (HD), CSN-PH (HD)
- Radio: Team 1200
- Web: TBD

Latest Updates:
- Clouston: Leclaire starts. Winchester and Donovan not playing.
- This will be Clouston's 50th game as head coach of the Ottawa Senators

Team Lineups:
Ottawa Senators: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/ottawa-senators-team-lineup
Philadelphia Flyers: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/philadelphia-flyers-team-lineup

TSN's Ice Chips:

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

Ottawa Senators:

Daniel Alfredsson did not skate on Wednesday. - TSN

Practice lines from Game Day skate:

Forwards:
Michalek - Spezza - Alfredsson
Cheechoo - Fisher - Kovalev
Foligno - Regin - Shannon
Ruutu/Donovan - Kelly/Winchester - Neil

Defensive pairings:
Phillips - Kuba
Campoli - Lee
Picard - Carkner

Projected lines vs the Flyers:

Forwards:
Michalek - Spezza - Alfredsson
Cheechoo - Fisher - Kovalev
Foligno - Regin - Shannon
Ruutu - Kelly - Neil

Defencemen:
Phillips - Kuba
Campoli - Lee
Picard - Carkner

Goaltenders:
Leclaire
Elliott

Injuries:
Volchenkov (dislocated right elbow, on injured reserve)

Philadelphia Flyers:

Centre Jeff Carter may have linemates Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk back for Thursday's game against the visiting Senators. Briere, who has missed the last four games with a leg strain below his right quad, went through a full practice yesterday and said he felt no discomfort. Van Riemsdyk also participated in a full practice; he had suffered a broken left pinkie. He had the finger heavily taped yesterday. Whether they play on Thursday depends on how they feel after Wednesday's practice, said head coach John Stevens. Defenceman Ryan Parent (groin) and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (slight concussion) practiced yesterday. Tollefsen is doubtful for Thursday, while a decision on Parent will be made Wednesday. - Philadelphia Inquirer

Projected Lines vs the Sens:

Forwards:
Hartnell - Richards - Giroux
Van Riemsdyk - Carter - Briere
Carcillo - Betts - Laperriere
Pyorala - Powe - Asham

Defense:
Carle - Pronger
Coburn - Timonen
Bartulis - Syvret

Goaltenders:
Emery
Boucher

Injuries:
Mike Rathjie (hip/back, on IR, out for season); Simon Gagne (hernia surgery, on IR, out 6-8 weeks); Danny Briere (quadriceps, possible); James van Reimsdyk (finger, expected to play Thursday); Ryan Parent (groin, doubtful for Thursday)

Game Day Previews:

OttawaSenators.com Game Day Preview:

Source: http://senators.nhl.com/club/preview.htm?id=2009020255

NHL.com Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2009020255

Sportsnet.ca Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20091112/Ott@Phi/story

Ottawa Citizen Game Day Preview:

Source: http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/hockeycapital/archive/2009/11/12/gameday-preview-senators-at-flyers-on-nov-12-2009.aspx

ESPN Game Day Preview:

Source: http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/preview?gameId=291112015

ESPN Stats Comparison:



Media Links:
- Game notes for tonight's game: http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/PDFs/091112_Ott-vs-Phi.pdf
- Cory Clouston post-practice presser from Thursday: http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/Audio/091112_Clouston.mp3
- Cory Clouston post-practice presser from Wednesday: http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/Audio/091111_Clouston.mp3
- Cory Clouston post-game presser from Tuesday night: http://senators.nhl.com/v2/ext/Audio/091110_Clouston-post.mp3
- SensTV On-line: http://senators.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp
- Official Twitter of the Ottawa Senators: http://twitter.com/NHL_Sens

Ottawa's Last Game: vs Edmonton Oilers
- Date: Tue. Nov. 10th, 2009
- Score: Oilers 3 - Senators 4 (SO)
- Recap: http://senators.nhl.com/club/recap.htm?id=2009020244
- Boxscore: http://senators.nhl.com/club/boxscore.htm?id=2009020244
- Game Summary: http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020244.HTM
- Video: http://senators.nhl.com/club/gamevideo.htm?id=2009020244

Notable Senators articles

Ottawa Sun:
Spezza nets shootout winner for Sens: http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/11/10/11704576.html

Ottawa Sun:
Sens being patient with plan B: http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/11/11/11708611-sun.html

Ottawa Sun:
All talk, no action on Sens penalty front: http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/11/11/11705436-sun.html

Ottawa Citizen:
Spezze excited to face old buddy Emery: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Spezza+excited+face+buddy+Emery/2208371/story.html

Ottawa Citizen:
Sens squeeze past Oilers in shootout: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/hockey/ottawa-senators/Senators+squeeze+past+Oilers+shootout/2208527/story.html

Ottawa Citizen:
We have to add a player: GM: http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/hockeycapital/archive/2009/11/10/we-have-to-add-player-sens-gm.aspx

OttawaSenators.com:
Cheechoo hoping he's back on track: http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=505715

OttawaSenators.com:
Shannon aiming for bigger impact: http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=505560

OttawaSenators.com:
Sens thinking outside the box: http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=505433

Notable Flyers articles:

PhiladelphiaFlyers.com:
Flyers seek gains in faceoff circle: http://flyers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=505575

PhiladelphiaFlyers.com:
Flyers recall Bartulis: http://flyers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=505443

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GO SENS GO!!!

projected lines don't include Alfie??? this game is gonna hurt but GO SENS GO!

Flo The Action wrote:projected lines don't include Alfie??? this game is gonna hurt but GO SENS GO!

My bad... that was a typo.

GDT goodness!

Let's hope their performance is even gooder.

one smiley to sum everything up:

BIG test tonight to keep us one point back of Buffalo. Hoping for a big game from Leclaire to make s all forget about those softies he let in the past couple games . GO SENS GO

A win would push us to 6th in the conference. A loss (assuming Boston beats up on Florida) and we're in 8th. And if Tampa beats Minny we could be all the way back to ninth. At least we finally have the same number of games plaied as Buffalo and can finally tell exactly how far behind we are -- 3 points. And we "gave" them two of those when we softened up the Oilers for them by letting Edmonton play an extra 5 minutes.

Realistically, what chance have we got? Philly is on a 4 game winning streak and Ray has given up 10 goals in his last 6 starts. His SV% over that stretch is .945. Maybe these numbers could push Pascal a bit?

I remain hopeful.

Yep, no question, they're gonna have to come out, guns a-blazin...firing on all cylinders- especially Pascal. Even with three of their offensive weapons out, Philly is a deep team. It sure would be nice to roast Emery. I'm gonna say we lose this one 5-4 in OT. Of note- Cheech will get two, both setup by AK.

for some reason, this moring, i feel we have a shot. i have a feeling the flyers might come in a little overconfident behind those 4 games won.

I just have a feeling, Ottawa 2-1, both scored by Michalek (Emery may not be familiar too much with him. Just sayin

Well, they know Emery, so they should be poised to take advantage of his huge rebounds...

Tonight's game will be Clouston's 50th game as head coach of the Ottawa Senators.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Clouston+hits+50th+game+running/2212497/story.html

Let's get him a win.

GO SENS! I hope we can pull this one out.

One thing I would tweak with the lines would be to have Cheechoo play with Fish and Kovy on the 2nd line and leave the Foligno-Regin-Shannon line intact. It seemed on Cheechoo's first goal of the year that he had some kind of chemistry with Kovy, let's see if it is something they can build on. No?

Let's also hope that Kovalev starts to put up some goals!

Michalek is due for another hat trick too!