GAME 4 - 2010 Stanley Cup GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators (1) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (2), Tuesday Apr. 20, 2010 - 7:00PM EST.

First, the absence of Alex Kovalev and Milan Michalek hurts Ottawa, but the absence of Filip Kuba for the playoffs is a far greater loss.

Erik Karlsson is going to be a star in this league for a long time, you can take that to the bank. And Andy Sutton is a solid dependable NHL defenceman with a knack for delivering thundering hits.But playing Top-4 minutes against either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin is proving to be a tough task for both players — it is tough on any NHL defenceman.

With Kuba out of the lineup, you can’t avoid the matchup so the Senators are going to need a harder game from their centres down low to help out the defence.

Second, I couldn’t help but notice how methodical Pittsburgh’s game plan was.

The whole night they chipped the puck out of their zone. Every single time at Ottawa’s blueline Pittsburgh chipped and chased and pressured Ottawa’s defence.

The Senators are at their best when they hem teams in with aggressive pinching from their defencemen. But Pittsburgh’s wingers played higher on the walls and didn’t allow Ottawa’s defence to force them into turnovers.

Ottawa played Pittsburgh just as hard and was just as physical, if not more, but the difference once again was Pittsburgh’s skill players were just better.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:
a healthy michalek for 82 games next year plus a healthy everyone could put us in the top 4 teams. it was a bad year for injuries if you ask me, i'm surprised we did as well as we did counting those. i also think we have to give leclaire another shot next year. with the level of tallent he has, i think he could take us far in the playoffs giving him time before hand to get hot.

Top 3, because we win the North East. And yes, you can quote me on that.

PKC wrote:
The Bruins are adding Hall/Seguin, Savard and Colborne next year. They also have a former Vezina winner as trade bait should they wish to go in that direction and they have tons of money to sign an impact free agent in the offseason.

SpezDispenser wrote:

PKC wrote:
The Bruins are adding Hall/Seguin, Savard and Colborne next year. They also have a former Vezina winner as trade bait should they wish to go in that direction and they have tons of money to sign an impact free agent in the offseason.

Colborne is still a long way away and their D is in shambles with Wideman out to lunch, so we'll see what shakes out. I feel confident that we can play with these guys.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:
a healthy michalek for 82 games next year plus a healthy everyone could put us in the top 4 teams. it was a bad year for injuries if you ask me, i'm surprised we did as well as we did counting those. i also think we have to give leclaire another shot next year. with the level of tallent he has, i think he could take us far in the playoffs giving him time before hand to get hot.

Top 3, because we win the North East. And yes, you can quote me on that.

RobbyJ wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:the trades for Heatley and Vermette look pretty darn bad now, don't they? Almost career limiting.

I would do both deals again without blinking.

SpezDispenser wrote:

PKC wrote:
The Bruins are adding Hall/Seguin, Savard and Colborne next year. They also have a former Vezina winner as trade bait should they wish to go in that direction and they have tons of money to sign an impact free agent in the offseason.

Colborne is still a long way away and their D is in shambles with Wideman out to lunch, so we'll see what shakes out. I feel confident that we can play with these guys.

PKC wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:
a healthy michalek for 82 games next year plus a healthy everyone could put us in the top 4 teams. it was a bad year for injuries if you ask me, i'm surprised we did as well as we did counting those. i also think we have to give leclaire another shot next year. with the level of tallent he has, i think he could take us far in the playoffs giving him time before hand to get hot.

Top 3, because we win the North East. And yes, you can quote me on that.

The Bruins are adding Hall/Seguin, Savard and Colborne next year. They also have a former Vezina winner as trade bait should they wish to go in that direction and they have tons of money to sign an impact free agent in the offseason.

RobbyJ wrote:

PKC wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:
a healthy michalek for 82 games next year plus a healthy everyone could put us in the top 4 teams. it was a bad year for injuries if you ask me, i'm surprised we did as well as we did counting those. i also think we have to give leclaire another shot next year. with the level of tallent he has, i think he could take us far in the playoffs giving him time before hand to get hot.

Top 3, because we win the North East. And yes, you can quote me on that.

The Bruins are adding Hall/Seguin, Savard and Colborne next year. They also have a former Vezina winner as trade bait should they wish to go in that direction and they have tons of money to sign an impact free agent in the offseason.

Thomas is going to be very tough to trade. He is a 35+ contract with several years remaining. They have about 6.5M to use next year 3.5M of which goes to Hall/Seguin. That leaves about 3M to resign Boychuk and Wheeler if they choose to.

N4L wrote:Im 100% behind this team, I just cant believe in a team with Jason Spezza as their go to guy, never have, never will.

Im looking forward to the next 5 years and the building process and the young guys coming in. Right now it's nice to wtch playoff hockey but the old go to guy is agining and the current one isnt really a go to guy.

For The Sens to have any shot at beating The Pens, Elliott needs to steal the series, not sure it will happen with a playoff rookie.

Flo The Action wrote:
another point is that we are missing 2 top 6 forwards and a top 4 D-man. the pens... leopold. i think the sens are battling pretty honourably(not so much in the last game) for where they are at and who they are facing. game 2 was a good game by the sens.