Sens at Land's End

My apologies to anyone who happens to be reading for my absence over the last few days! School and … well … a general desire to sleep have kept me a bit busy. However, I did catch the Sens’ first two pre-season games against New York, and am currently listening to their third against Philadelphia. It’s been a little hard to judge the team as a whole, given that half or more of the roster changes after each game, but I have a few comments:

• Could there possibly be a better way to start 08-09 than with a Heatley one-timer goal followed by a Spezza shorthanded breakaway goal? No, I didn’t think so.
• Schubert looked extremely weak in the first game. I just don’t know if there’s a spot for him on the team.
• Brian Lee also struggled in the first game. I can’t say that I noticed him as much in the second game so maybe it was just first game jitters.
• It fills me with dread to see Alfie and Mike Fisher injured this early on, and I’m clinging to the idea that the team is just being extremely cautious with them. Alfie seems to be playing quite well today, so that gives me hope.
• Jesse Winchester has done pretty well on the first line! I hope this experiment works out.
• It was weird and somewhat upsetting seeing Wade Redden in another team’s colours in the second game against New York. It got a little less upsetting when I watched him get badly beaten on the Sens’ goal though.
• Jason Smith: point-getting machine? Two make that three points in two games so far for the man with 0.17 points per game over his career.
• Let us all take a moment to ooh and aah over the coolness of Martin Gerber’s excellent new Darth Gerbs mask, and hope the fact that he let in the first shot he faced while wearing it today doesn’t put him off it completely.

After today’s game, the Sens have a home and home against Montreal on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, they’re off to Sweden where they’ll meet Frolunda on October 2, in what will be a very special game for Alfie. It’s nice to think that there are places other than Ottawa where Alfie’s greatness is truly appreciated.

The trip to Sweden means that the Senators have to get their roster settled quite quickly, and Bryan Murray told the Citizen: “we have to get our team selected probably by Saturday morning, at the latest.” The team made seven cuts today — forwards Ilya Zubov, Josh Hennessy, Dany “Not That Dany” Bois, Alexander Nikulin, and the recently-signed Ryan Shannon, as well as defenceman Mattias Karlsson and goalie Jeff Glass — leaving them with 30 players on the roster. They will most likely take the maximum 23 players to Sweden, which means we can expect seven further cuts. Unless something really surprising happens, my guess is that Greg Mauldin, Zack Smith, Matt Carkner, Peter Regin, Luke Richardson, Brendan Bell, and Brad Isbister probably won’t be visiting the Daniel Alfredsson Birthplace tourist attraction next week.