GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Edmonton Oilers - 9:30PM EST. Tuesday, March 10, 2010

GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Edmonton Oilers - 9:30PM EST. Tuesday, March 10, 2010



Go West, young Sen!

Ottawa (36-25-5, 77 pts, 2nd in the Northeast and 5th in the Eastern Conference) head out on a 3-game Western road trip, starting with the Edmonton Oilers (21-38-6, last everywhere) Tuesday night at 9:30PM EST. Although the Senators managed to get a single point in a shoot-out loss to Leafs on HNIC, they extended their post-Olympic losing streak to 3 games – all of them to non-playoff teams. The flu-ravaged Senators were short-handed to start the game, as call-up Zack Smith did not get to the rink until midway through the first (while Fisher was missing a few shifts puking, or getting an IV or both). Understandably, few players had standout games (Leclaire and Sutton come to mind), as the effects of the flu were evident throughout the lineup. Early indications are that this is a 24-hour variety, so the Sens should be ready for Tuesday night. Although the Sens are safely in 5th place with a 7 point lead, 4th place would mean home ice advantage in the first round. For a team that is 3rd best in the league at home, this could mean an extra round (and at least 2 more guaranteed home-game gate receipts). They need the 2 points.

Not much to say about Edmonton. Just look at their injury list and be thankful that (if?) you’re not an Edmonton fan, as this has been a season to forget. That said, the Oilers are on a two game winning streak, even though they have only scored 3 goals in their last two games.

Game Coverage
TV: SNet-E, SNet-W
Radio: Team 1200
Web: check ATDHE.net and Justin.tv

Latest updates:
“We thought that he was letting us know how many shifts he had.”
- Ottawa's Chris Neil on Toronto's Colton Orr, who up three fingers after a fight with Matt Carkner signifying his three wins over Carkner this season.
- Zach Smith was reassigned to Binghamton; both Alfredsson and Regin are expected to play.
- Garrioch says he expects Leclaire to start. Leclaire sounds like "eclaire" -- coincidence?

Lineups

Ottawa
Edmonton

Ottawa Key Injuries

F Nick Foligno (Broken leg, mid-March)
D Chris Campoli (lower body, mid-March)
Filip Kuba (lower body, questionable)
Daniel Alfredsson (flu, questionable)
Peter Regin (flu, questionable)

Oilers Key Injuries

Ryan Jones (knee, questionable)
Ethan Moreau (neck, day to day)
Ladislav Smid (neck surgery, remainder of season)
Jean-Francois Jacques (back surgery, remainder of season)
Sheldon Souray (hand infection/surgery, remainder of season)
Ryan Stone (knee, on IR)
Ales Hemsky (shoulder surgery, remainder of season)
Nikolai Khabibulin (back surgery/stupidity, out indefinitely)

Game Day Previews:

NHL.com
ESPN.com

ESPN Stats Comparison


Media Links:

Official Sens Twitter
SensTVOnline

GO SENS GO!!!

Anyone else notice that Spezza took the ceremonial face-off before the Leafs game? Wouldn't the duty usually fall to one of the alternates? Or did he get the 'A'?

haha khabibulin injury- stupidity

wprager wrote:Anyone else notice that Spezza took the ceremonial face-off before the Leafs game? Wouldn't the duty usually fall to one of the alternates? Or did he get the 'A'?

I'm thinking they wanted someone from each team who has played on Team Canada, or a high profile Canadian player because I don't Dion Phaneuf has played for Canada in the Olympics, to take the faceoff since they were honoring Canada's Olympians.

In the last GDT I clicked on the game day preview links and noticed that some of them carried the same story -- word for word. Specifically, the Sens site had the same story as the NHL one. I think there was one other, which could have been SportsNet -- but when I checked just now they no-longer have the preview on, just the recap.

So, in order to streamline the GDTs somewhat, this is what I am going to do this week (Clutch is welcome to follow my lead when he's back).

I'll include links to ESPN.com and NHL.com's game-day preview pages. I'll also paste the text for one or both of them in separate posts for some in-line reading (I don't know about you, but I rarely click through on links).

We all know the Sens have a history of making goalies look really good sometimes, and this should be no exception. Deslauriers' a good young goalie and shutout the Devils last night while playing on the league's worst team.

Sens have to play every game as if they are playing in game 7 of the SC finals. They seem to lack the intensity and motivation to play a consistent 60 minute game.

Dash wrote:We all know the Sens have a history of making goalies look really good sometimes, and this should be no exception. Deslauriers' a good young goalie and shutout the Devils last night while playing on the league's worst team.

Sens have to play every game as if they are playing in game 7 of the SC finals. They seem to lack the intensity and motivation to play a consistent 60 minute game.

That would work if the sens didn't have a lousy record in game 7s

sens4win wrote:haha khabibulin injury- stupidity

Dash wrote:We all know the Sens have a history of making goalies look really good sometimes, and this should be no exception. Deslauriers' a good young goalie and shutout the Devils last night while playing on the league's worst team.

Sens have to play every game as if they are playing in game 7 of the SC finals. They seem to lack the intensity and motivation to play a consistent 60 minute game.

Yeah exactly, I said I was gonna look at each game from the Toronto game to the end and see what their record would be. So far they're 0-1, tomorrow they had better even the first 'series'. That's how this team should be looking at it, each game needs to be a playoff game, each 7 game block should be looked at closely, what did they do right, what did they do wrong, that kind of thing. This is a huge opportunity for them, the East is full of opportunity.

Tomorrow should be a well played game by the Sens, there's no excuses.

Imagine staying up to watch this and it turns out to be a stinker and a loss.

9.30 eh... nice, I can watch Lost and just miss the 1st 15 minutes of the game

Holy moly! We have 2 back to backs in one week. Hopefully everyone is healthy and ready to go.

22nd - MTL
23rd - PHI
26th - BUF
27th - FLA

SensGirl11 wrote:Holy moly! We have 2 back to backs in one week. Hopefully everyone is healthy and ready to go.

22nd - MTL
23rd - PHI
26th - BUF
27th - FLA

Good thing we have two #1s.

Here's the game day preview from NHL.com. If you want a laugh, read the next-to-last paragraph:

Oilers aim for third straight; Senators try to snap skid
Monday, 03.08.2010 / 7:46 PM
Brian Hunter - NHL.com Staff Writer
SENATORS (36-25-5) at OILERS (21-38-6)

Last 10: Ottawa 5-4-1; Edmonton 3-7-0

Season series: Second and final meeting of the regular season between these teams. Ottawa won 4-3 at Scotiabank Place on Nov. 10 as Jason Spezza scored the decisive shootout goal.

Big story: Break up the Oilers! Seriously, though, as a difficult season in Edmonton winds down, Pat Quinn and his troops have some reason to smile after consecutive wins over Minnesota and New Jersey, each impressive in its own right. The Wild are in desperate need of points as they chase a Western Conference playoff berth, while the Devils are fighting for first place in the Atlantic Division.

Team Scope:
Senators: This is Ottawa's fourth game out of the Olympic break and the Senators are still looking for their first win. The offense has been sluggish since NHL play resumed, with the team managing just one goal in each of its three previous games. That includes a 2-1 shootout loss on Saturday to visiting Toronto, the basement team in the Eastern Conference.

"It was a tough game," said forward Chris Neil, who scored the lone goal despite being one of several Senators affected by a flu bug that recently hit the team. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to play tonight but the guys battled through it and we were able to get a point out of it but it would have been nice to get two."

Oilers: Jeff Deslauriers probably wishes he could play the Devils every game. The second-year Edmonton netminder has allowed just one goal in two career starts against New Jersey, and on Sunday he recorded his third shutout of the season in a 2-0 win at Rexall Place. Gilbert Brule and Marc Pouliot scored the goals. This is the best run for the Oilers since a five-game winning streak to begin the month of December.

"What we had before was a bit more of a negative situation, but the break just cut the mood and everybody had a time to relax and refresh their mind," Deslauriers said. "After the break we came here, we started working hard, and we changed a bit our system. Everybody had to be on the same page and now it's getting better. Everybody is more comfortable in it and we just have to work together to win hockey games."

Who's hot: Ottawa goalie Pascal Leclaire had perhaps his best performance of the season with a 30-save effort against Toronto. … Brule has two goals and three assists in his last five games and is now tied for second on Edmonton with 14 goals. Deslauriers has stopped 50 of 51 shots over his last two starts.

Injury report: Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson and forward Peter Regin missed Saturday's game with the flu and are day-to-day, as is defenseman Filip Kuba with a lower-body injury. Forward Nick Foligno (broken leg) and defenseman Chris Campoli (knee) are on injured reserve.

Edmonton forward Ethan Moreau (neck) is day-to-day. Recently-acquired forward Ryan Jones tore his MCL and is likely to miss the rest of the season. Defensemen Ladislav Smid (neck) and Sheldon Souray (hand) and forwards Ales Hemsky (shoulder) and Jean-Francois Jacques (back) have already been ruled out for the season. Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin (back) and forward Ryan Stone (knee) are out indefinitely.

Stat pack: Ottawa forward Mike Fisher leads the team in game-winning goals this season with six and shots with 176. His 20 goals are one behind Milan Michalek for the team lead. … Ryan Whitney has been a minutes eater since arriving in Edmonton. The defenseman led the team with 26:20 of ice time against Minnesota and 25:46 against New Jersey.

Puck drop: The Senators made sure an important piece of their future will be staying put by signing 22-year-old defenseman Brian Lee to a new two-year contract on Monday, preventing him from becoming a restricted free agent at season’s end.

"It feels great," said Lee, who has four goals and 17 points in 77 career games. "Now I don't have to worry about anything but having fun, working hard and playing hockey. … It takes some of the pressure off."

Here is the ESPN game-day preview:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview?gameId=300309006

The Ottawa Senators have struggled to find their form since the end of the Olympic break. They hope a trip to Western Canada and an eventual stop in the Olympic host city will provide a spark.

The Senators begin a three-game road swing against Northwest Division opponents Tuesday at Edmonton, where the Oilers are looking to extend a modest two-game winning streak.

Ottawa (36-25-5) led the Northeast heading into the hiatus for the Olympics in Vancouver -- where it plays Saturday -- but has gone 0-2-1 since play resumed to drop two points behind Buffalo.

The Senators, who play 11 of their final 16 on the road, were able to grind out a point Saturday in a 2-1 shootout loss to Toronto as both captain Daniel Alfredsson and center Peter Regin did not play due to a flu bug that spread throughout the locker room during the past week.

"It was a tough game," said Chris Neil, who scored Ottawa's lone goal. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to play tonight but the guys battled through it and we were able to get a point out of it but it would have been nice to get two."

Both Alfredsson -- the team leader with 34 assists and 51 points -- and Regin are expected to play this game, and with the team relatively healthy ahead of this trip, coach Cory Clouston wants his team to focus on the task at hand.

"We've talked to the guys and told them we can't take (Edmonton) lightly," Clouston told the Senators' official Web site. "They understand the importance of just getting that first game under our belt, playing a real good solid game and knowing Edmonton is a tough opponent."

While that might have been a tough sell since Edmonton (21-38-6) has an NHL-low 48 points, the Oilers have won consecutive games due to the solid goaltending of Jeff Deslauriers. He made 28 saves before stopping 4 of 6 shootout attempts in a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday and followed that effort with a 22-save shutout in Monday's 2-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

"He's been really sharp in both games," Oilers coach Pat Quinn said about Deslauriers. "We were pretty good in front of him, too, but he made some big stops when he had to. He looked sharp.

"He wasn't sitting back like he does when he doubts himself every once in a while. He's not guessing right now. He is playing like he knows what is happening out there."

The Oilers, who have won just six of 33 (6-25-2) have not won three straight since a season-high five-game winning streak from Dec. 3-11.

Center Gilbert Brule, enjoying a career season with 14 goals and 16 assists, has five points in his last five games. He also scored the tying goal in Edmonton's 4-3 shootout loss at Ottawa on Nov. 10.

Ottawa has won five in a row between the teams -- two by shootout -- since a 3-1 road loss March 14, 2004.