Game Day - Philadelphia @ Ottawa, 7:30PM, Tuesday, October 18, 2011

VS
Who: Philadelphia Flyers @ Ottawa Senators
When: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 @7:30PM
Where: Watch it on Rogers' Sportsnet-East in the Ottawa region; or on NHL Centre-Ice in black out regions

Ottawa (1-4-0)

Ottawa has just one win, which came on home ice, defeating Minnesota in their home opener 4-3 in a shootout. Their last home game was a 7-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

The Senators are coming off of a 2-1 loss to the undefeated Washington Capitals Saturday night.

Milan Michalek still leads the team with 3 goals, and Erik Karlsson leads in the assists category with 6. Peter Regin's goal vs. Washington added to his team leading +/- which is now at 3. Chris Neil has 29 PIMs so far.

*The Sens are 0-1 when Dash creates the GDT. They are also 0-1 when he attends the games this season. Perhaps getting it up a day early will change their fortunes? *

Dash's Players-to-Watch:

Jason Spezza has 21 (6-15) points in 23 career games vs the Flyers and is a -1. Daniel Alfredsson has 48 (13-28) points in 41 games and is a -10 over his career vs Philly.

Injuries:

Sergei Gonchar D, Matt Carkner D, Jesse Winchester C, Bobby Butler RW

Philadelphia (3-0-1)

The Flyers have lost their last 7 meetings with the Senators in Ottawa, and look to avoid extending that statistic to 8. Both teams have undergone significant changes since their last meeting Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (a 5-2 win for the Senators).

The Flyers are coming off of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Los Angles Kings Saturday night.

Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with 3 goals and Chris Pronger leads with 4 assists. Former Senator Andrej Meszaros leads the team with a +3 and Zac Rinaldo has 23 PIMs.

Dash's Players-to-Watch:

Hearst, Ontario born Claude Giroux (who spent his junior career playing for the Gatineau-Hull Olympiques) has 8 (1-7) points in 11 games vs the Sens and is a -7. Daniel Briere, of Gatineau, has 30 (12-18) points in 38 games vs. Ottawa, and is an even 0.

Injuries:

Ian Laperriere RW, Andrew Rowe LW, Brandon Manning D, Blair Betts C

Good work Dash!

I'm calling a sens victory over the Phucking Philadephia Phlyers

Things I think we all want to see:

- Da Costa to get into a groove and hopefully put up a couple of points in support.

- Z-Bad have a huge effort and hit some of these little Flyers around a bit

- One of two things: either Michalek - Spezza - Alfredsson together from the get-go, or shifting Z-Bad down to 3rd line C and getting Regin in there with Spez

- Rundblad to continue his great play (that's right - great)

- Karlsson to continue his solid play at both ends (although a 4 point night would be cool too)

- Cowen to continue his solid play - NOTE: I'd love to see him get more involved in the offense, but he's clearly trying to get comfortable right now. Pre-season Cowen was much more relaxed, he needs to realize that it's all part of the learning curve and to relax

- Kuba to continue playing well - been relatively impressed

- He's big...he's bald...

Go Sens.

http://articles.philly.com/2011-10-16/sports/30286416_1_flyers-briere-danny-briere-full-disclosure

October 16, 2011|By Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Danny Briere is more than one of the Flyers' premier forwards. More than an integral part of their power play. More than someone who seems to play his best in big games.

He is also the unofficial Team Big Brother.

A year ago, Briere had been recently divorced when he asked teammate and fellow French Canadian Claude Giroux to move in with him and his three boys in their Haddonfield home.

Giroux has since opted for a place of his own in Cherry Hill, and Briere's newest housemate will soon be 18-year-old rookie Sean Couturier, another French Canadian. Couturier plans to move in with Briere in the coming days.

Does that mean Couturier will remain on their roster this year?

It's funny how the Sens started to play soooo much better with 5 d-men. Maybe that's what we should do from now on.

A few articles/notes that may have been mentioned elsewhere, but for sake of tomorrow's game, will repost with links here:

http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/10/17/auld-gets-the-call-for-a-second-game
Due to personal reasons, Craig Anderson will miss tomorrow's game and Alex Auld will make his 2nd consecutive start with Ottawa.

*Also notes Sergei Gonchar will miss the game tomorrow.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/10/17/winning-formula-sens-vs-flyers

Ottawa Sun Sports reporter Bruce Garrioch tells us what the Sens winning formula is for the game against the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night.

Lines, courtesy of http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/icechips/

Forwards:
Michalek - Da Costa - Alfredsson
Greening - Spezza - Zibanejad
Foligno - Regin - Neil
Condra - Konopka - Smith/*Winchester
*Winchester was the extra forward and will not play tomorrow.

Defence:
Phillips - Lee
Kuba - Karlsson
Cowen - Rundblad

Goaltenders:
Auld

Hate those top 6 lines. They don't work FFS.

Agreed. Switch Spezza and DaCosta, and Zibby with Regin

SpezDispenser wrote:HockeyScanner Wayne Scanlan
Sens coach Paul MacLean calls Sergei Gonchar's bruised ankle a "pain tolerance" issue. Translation: suck it up and play.

Nah that's okay, he can sit out as long as he wants. He's only hurting himself - mind you I don't know if it's even possible for him to devalue himself anymore than he already has. Refer to: Redden, Wade.

Dash wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:HockeyScanner Wayne Scanlan
Sens coach Paul MacLean calls Sergei Gonchar's bruised ankle a "pain tolerance" issue. Translation: suck it up and play.

Nah that's okay, he can sit out as long as he wants. He's only hurting himself - mind you I don't know if it's even possible for him to devalue himself anymore than he already has. Refer to: Redden, Wade.

Yeah...I'm afraid I agree. Sit out if you wish...gives more room for Rundblad to grow in the NHL and maybe slides Lee back in. Problem is, we want his value to go up because we want to get rid of the guy. Damn Catch-22.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Dash wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:HockeyScanner Wayne Scanlan
Sens coach Paul MacLean calls Sergei Gonchar's bruised ankle a "pain tolerance" issue. Translation: suck it up and play.

Nah that's okay, he can sit out as long as he wants. He's only hurting himself - mind you I don't know if it's even possible for him to devalue himself anymore than he already has. Refer to: Redden, Wade.

Yeah...I'm afraid I agree. Sit out if you wish...gives more room for Rundblad to grow in the NHL and maybe slides Lee back in. Problem is, we want his value to go up because we want to get rid of the guy. Damn Catch-22.

And the Sens were playing better without him, whether that was a fluke...not sure, it didn't seem to be. Rundblad was a whole new man on Saturday, the kid is making it tougher now for sure.

I'm afraid we are stuck with him regardless. Don't think anyone will take 35+, $5.5M player for another year, at least not a contender, and in that case, why would a non-contending team want him? Not to reach the floor since there are other ways to do that.