Ottawa Senators TIDBITS & QUICK HITS!

spader wrote:Ha. I love the sense of humour:

Craig Anderson ‏@CraigAnderson41
Slow start tonight, but what an ending! Just had chicken parm, fingers still intact. #winnerwinnerchickendinner #noknives @Buccigross

Oh man that is awesome. That accident happened last time he beat the Caps. Hilarious.

Grapes giving some love on Twitter:

"Anderson is unbelievable every time he plays. He holds the Senators in there. He is there MVP right now and should be the #1 star"

tim1_2 wrote:Grapes giving some love on Twitter:

"Anderson is unbelievable every time he plays. He holds the Senators in there. He is there MVP right now and should be the #1 star"

Preach!

So, latest word is that Spezza's "upper body injury" is his back. Possible surgery needed. This could be bad.

Ugh.

If Spezza is out for the season it's going to be a struggle to make the playoffs, no question. That said, all the other teams are going through similar problems with guys being banged up and Ottawa has enough talent to make it. Can't replace Spezza.

shabbs wrote:So, latest word is that Spezza's "upper body injury" is his back. Possible surgery needed. This could be bad.

Ugh.

If it was good news they wouldn't be dodging questions about it.

I suspect it's bad, they're just trying to find out how bad.

BooBoo: No post-game update on Jason Spezza but Paul Maclean did say Sergei Gonchar will make the trip.

Good night to give Gonchar the night off.

Sens have a two-game road trip coming up:
- Carolina on Fri @ 7pm
- Montreal on Sun @ 2pm

Then they are home for 4 straight.

The Sens schedule is beyond favourable.

Yeah, take advantage now.

shabbs wrote:Sens have a two-game road trip coming up:
- Carolina on Fri @ 7pm
- Montreal on Sun @ 2pm

Then they are home for 4 straight.

I'll be watching these ice hockey matches with great interest.

NEELY wrote:The Sens schedule is beyond favourable.

Other than Boston, though, who is left? We lost to Tampa when our rusty/nervous backup couldn't hold a 2 goal lead, twice. And we lost in a shootout to Pittsburgh. The Rangers and Flyers are not the same teams on paper as they are on the ice. Who else is left that we haven't been tested against? That's pretty much it: Boston and Pittsburgh, and we held our own against Pittsburgh, and most of our bad history against Boston has to do with Thomas.

Feb. 28 we'll begin a road trip with games against the Bruins and Flyers, and after visiting the Leafs we'll end it against the Rangers. Will that be "The Test"? If we do well on that trip will we finally be able to say it's not the schedule?

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:The Sens schedule is beyond favourable.

Other than Boston, though, who is left? We lost to Tampa when our rusty/nervous backup couldn't hold a 2 goal lead, twice. And we lost in a shootout to Pittsburgh. The Rangers and Flyers are not the same teams on paper as they are on the ice. Who else is left that we haven't been tested against? That's pretty much it: Boston and Pittsburgh, and we held our own against Pittsburgh, and most of our bad history against Boston has to do with Thomas.

Feb. 28 we'll begin a road trip with games against the Bruins and Flyers, and after visiting the Leafs we'll end it against the Rangers. Will that be "The Test"? If we do well on that trip will we finally be able to say it's not the schedule?

While Thomas certainly had our number, Rask is a great goalie as well. The Leafs games will be tough as well if they continue to get scoring from unlikely sources.

If we're without Spezza for the long term, well...we'll certainly be relying more on Jimmy OB to provide some more offense! It'll have to become scoring by committee....

Rask isn't great, yet. The Leafs have lost Lupul for an extended period of time.

But, yes, we will need goals from every line, and every defensive pairing. Think of it, though, we had 3 rookies on D (too lazy to look up actual games played but they are rookies in my opinion), two more in the top-six (Zibanejad may have started on the 4th line against Washington but he was playing top-six minutes), and a ref who appeared to have it in for us (can the NHL fine radio announcers for abuse of on-ice officials?) Against a team described as "hot" coming in. Sure, they played their backup, and he struggled, at times, but even with all those power plays the Habs managed 1 goal.

I would say Rask is great, but he also has the benefit of playing for a really solid Bruins team (the same advantage Thomas enjoyed). I get your point though, and this is the first year he'll have to carry the baggage as being the starter. We'll see. His numbers so far this year are great.

The refs (ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THE LINESMEN) had it in for the entire game. They were terrible. Even the linesmen were blowing offside calls and refusing to DROP THE PUCK (channeling my inner Don Cherry) for the faceoff...it was hard to take, but it went both ways at least.

Montreal is a mirage, Markov has 3 GWG and a 40% shooting percentage. That bing said they were tired last night and barely showed up.

It'll be a different game at the Bell Centre.

I want to see how we do against Rangers and Boston.

BooBoo: Senators have called an 11 AM media availability with Bryan Murray to update Jason Spezza. #Sens

This does not bode well...

SensChirp says he's hearing it's long term.