GAME DAY #28: Senators @ Panthers - 7:30pm - Tuesday Dec. 8 2015

Almost immediately after "missing" a trip on Karlsson that had the Sens bench going Tim Peel handed out an interference penalty to Mika Zibanejad, and the Rangers had a 1-0 lead.  Then, after another "missed" call -- this one had Methot checked from behind head-first into the boards -- resulted in a few "C'mon ref!" comments, Peel added insult to near-injury by handing the Sens a bench minor for "abusive language" toward, of all things, the Rangers resident goon.  2-0 Rangers and that was pretty much all she wrote, as the Blueshirts rode Lundqvist to a 4-1, empty net-augmented victory.  Would have been nice to get at least a single point, but it was not to be.  Move on.  Tonight (tomorrow at the time of writing) is another night.

The Sens ride into Florida barely clinging to that third spot, as Boston, while still 2 points back, now has 2 games in hand.  On the other hand, they are just one point back of Detroit and, let's face it, I like our chances against the Panthers better than the Red Wings' against the Caps.

Once you get past Luongo, Florida really doesn't have much going for them.  Jaromir "Don't Vote for me, I Need Rest" Jagr is the team leader in goals, assists and points, and his 8+12=20 would place him 6th on the Sens.  On the other hand, it's easy to see that the Sens are sorely lacking depth, as once you get past the top five forwards and Karlsson, everyone else on the Sens roster is in single digits (by comparison, these same Panthers have 10 players with 10 or more points).  Apart from a solid #3/4 defenseman, the Sens' next most pressing need is to find some bottom six players who can put up a goal once in a while.  Prince, Lazar, Chiasson, Neil, Puempel and the rest of the defense have fewer goals than Wideman!

The Sens have cap space and they have a need.  Will Melnyk open up the purse strings to bring in some help, either on the blue line or to add a scoring threat in the bottom six?  No, Alfie, don't answer that.

GO SENS GO!!!

Whoa...the rare PRE GDT. Easy Walter, I don't want you burning out in the first half of the season.

Anyway, we'll beat Florida, no problem.

How old is tim Peel? Is he thinking of putting himself out to pasture soon, because he's clearly challenged.

tim1_2 wrote:Whoa...the rare PRE GDT. Easy Walter, I don't want you burning out in the first half of the season.

Anyway, we'll beat Florida, no problem.

That's not how this works.

We're getting F'd in the A by Florida. They've been playing some pretty strong hockey lately and until yesterday had won 5 straight. Doomed.

tim1_2 wrote:Whoa...the rare PRE GDT. Easy Walter, I don't want you burning out in the first half of the season.

Anyway, we'll beat Florida, no problem.

Tomorrow I leave the house at 7 (pre-school band practice) and pick her up around 8 after carolling or some-such.  I may not have much time to squeeze one out tomorrow, so was actually just doing this to make it easier on myself.

It's the ones you should win that you lose. Totally not a walk in the park. Better go in well prepared.

Flo The Action wrote:It's the ones you should win that you lose. Totally not a walk in the park. Better go in well prepared.

Disagree. We should go in planning to not exert too much energy and just generally take it easy. Roll to an easy 6-0 victory and move on well-rested.

Boston lost in regulation, so they remain 2 back and down to a single game in hand.

Yes, it's too early in the season for scoreboard watching but, hey, so what.

Both teams come into the game riding a 6-3-1 record over their last 10 and a loss in the last game, giving up 4 goals. Ottawa has scored 83 goals and is +5 in goal differential; Florida has scored 66 and are +1. In other words, they don't score a lot and they barely ever score enough to cover what they allow. Both teams have decent power plays with Ottawa at 21% (8th in the league) over Florida's 20.2% (10th). It's a different matter on the PK where Ottawa's 76.7% is only good for 25th overall, while Florida's 81% puts them in 14th place (not that long ago Ottawa was in 28th, and if not for the 2 PPG allowed in their last outing they'd be a spot or two higher than 25th -- in other words, their PK has been slightly better of late). Ottawa is still dead last in shots allowed per game; luckily Florida is in the bottom third of the league at producing shots.

tim1_2 wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:It's the ones you should win that you lose. Totally not a walk in the park. Better go in well prepared.

Disagree. We should go in planning to not exert too much energy and just generally take it easy. Roll to an easy 6-0 victory and move on well-rested.

12 - 0 if we make some trades. Lots of 'em.

Those 12-0 blowouts scare me because, as we all know, each stick is manufactured to score only a certain number of goals. So after a 12-0 blow out they might as well give out their real sticks during the Three Stars announcements instead of those stupid wooden fakes, because those sticks are likely all used up.

Seriously, I realize the sticks they use are probably $200 when they buy in bulk, so they don't want to had out those ones, but would it kill them to buy a few $40 composite sticks when they go on sale at Costco, have each player tape them up themselves to provide a little individuality, then have them use them for a couple shots over the course of a few practices so they look a little bit used. Those fake wooden sticks might as well be mini-sticks.

OK, everyone, this is important. Keep an eye out on something that happens in the game related to the number 5.

Prince gets the hook. Borrowicky potentially taking shifts on wing.

more to come