GAME DAY: Ottawa @ Tampa Bay Lightning – 7:30PM EST, Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Ottawa (44-31-5, 91 pts, 2nd in the North East and 5th in the Eastern Conference) continue their Florida “vacation” as they drop by Tampa Bay for a light work out with the Lightning (31-36-12, pts, last in the South East and 14th in the Eastern Conference). On Tuesday night the Sens gave their Captain a night to remember as they scored 5 times en route to a 5-2 win in Alfie’s 1000th regular season game. Alfie was given a “night off” with just over 14 minutes of ice time, but he still collected an assist. Chris Neil was the talk of the night with a Gordie Howe Hat-Trick and an extra assist “chaser”. Erik Karlsson continued his hot streak, scoring a goal.

Steven Stamkos is the only bright spot in an otherwise forgettable Lightning season. The sophomore centre is just one goal behind Sid and Ovie for the “Rocket” Richard trophy. Wouldn’t that be something? Just not Thursday night, OK? OK.

Game Coverage

TV: SNET-E,SUN (HD)
Radio: Team 1200
Web: check ATDHE.net and Justin.tv

Latest updates:

Kuba had surgery on his ailing back and will miss 4 weeks or more.
Michalek should be ready to go, and rumour has it that we may also see Cowen.

Lineups

Ottawa
Tampa Bay

Ottawa Key Injuries

Milan Michalek (leg, probable for Thursday
Filip Kuba (back surgery, out a month)

Lightning Key Injuries

Paul Ranger (personal, out until at least early April
David Hale (lower body, out indefinitely
Victor Hedman (lower body, questionable)
Matt Smaby (back, out until at least early April)

Game Day Previews:

ESPN Preview
NHL.com Preview

ESPN Stats Comparison


Media Links:

Official Sens Twitter
SensTVOnline

GO SENS GO!!!

I had to put this one out extra quick (lost my edits 9/10th of the way through the first time) so if there are mistakes, deal with it.

Awesome! That is awesome.

Now that Dash is having fun ... I think I need to upgrade my internet access

Although I have to say, with chrome the site loads a hell of a lot faster. I just can't live without live bookmarks.

Are the images taking up too much bandwidth?

I've been using Firefox for a while now, and I recently tried Chrome and not too sure which is better.

I think I have Chrome on my "work" computer, but I do not use the internet on that much.

Dash wrote:

very cool! i guess we know where he gets his shot from. Erik "lightning" karlsson

That could be a nickname for him -- lightning, since he's pretty quick.

At least this game isn't on TSN so we don't have to hear how brilliant Stamkos is if he fires a puck at the net and it ricochets off of 2 or 3 players and into the net and hear how it was such a nice shot and a brilliant play as baldy gushes over Stevie S.

Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/11824348955

shabbs wrote:Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/11820798871

It's good to have you back. Prages and I neglected the twitter page as you may have noticed.

Are you going to stick around for a while or is there another hiatus coming?

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

shabbs wrote:Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/11820798871

It's good to have you back. Prages and I neglected the twitter page as you may have noticed.

Are you going to stick around for a while or is there another hiatus coming?

I'll be around. Just not as regularly as I used to be.

shabbs wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

shabbs wrote:Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/11820798871

It's good to have you back. Prages and I neglected the twitter page as you may have noticed.

Are you going to stick around for a while or is there another hiatus coming?

I'll be around. Just not as regularly as I used to be.

:KKK:

shabbs wrote:Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/11820798871

You guys should look at doing in-game updates to see if more people would visit the site. You should also include other key hash terms like #ottawa and #hockey that come up on trending lists.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:At least this game isn't on TSN so we don't have to hear how brilliant Stamkos is if he fires a puck at the net and it ricochets off of 2 or 3 players and into the net and hear how it was such a nice shot and a brilliant play as baldy gushes over Stevie S.

Meh, I don't really care. We've proven pretty much all of the analysts wrong by placing 5th -- which is exactly where most of the GMH residents placed them. And if not for a couple of injuries and that bout of stomach flu we would be leading the Division and sitting in 3rd, vying for 2nd. Elliott won NHL Player of the Week honours three times, and has pitched 5 shutouts in 54 games (he'd have 7 if he played as many games as Brodeur, and that would put him in the top-3 in the league) -- and that's behind a defense with a career AHLer, a rookie and a few guys that would be 7-8 on most defensive teams (Campoli, Picard, Lee). I think Elliott has proven McBaldy wrong when he said that Elliot is not now, nor will he ever be an NHL #1 goalie.

The bonus (for me) of not having it on TSN is that I get to watch it in HD