Sens at Land’s End

I did not see this game due to Centre Ice assiness (I am really not happy with my cable company right now). I heard it, though, and what I heard was pretty interesting. Antoine Vermette scored his first goal in the last 894 games. Daniel Alfredsson left midway through the second period after being hit from behind by Jere Lehtinen (no idea whether it was a questionable hit or not due not not seeing it, but Lehtinen was not penalized). And Jason Smith scored the winner for Ottawa in overtime.

Jason Smith. He of the 42 goals in 977 career games. It was, as TUC said to the OBC, nothing less than a Christmas miracle.

This merits a present.

Christmas for the Sens!

Jason Smith

As you may know, Jason Smith got his nickname “Gator” because he’s a huge fan of the University of Florida Gators. That’s why I thought he should have this cute little Florida Gators Official Dancing Mascot Plush Toy. It is 8″ tall and dances a jig to Smash Mouth’s song “All Star.” I think Smith will love it! Included with the toy is a pet alligator to wrassle.

Daniel Alfredsson

I don’t know how severe Alfie’s injury might be. All I know is that he left the game after getting hit and didn’t come back. He also had to be helped off the ice. As Alfie gets older, he seems to become more and more vulnerable to little nagging injuries, such as the bone chip he had removed from his knee earlier this season. He also has to deal with the whims of stupid people like Mark Bell, Francois Beauchemin, and now Jere Lehtinen. The Sens don’t like playing without their captain. In fact you could even say they’re almost incapable of playing without him. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is. And so, for Alfie this year, I have two gifts. First, the healing abilities of Wolverine. Alfie already has somewhat accelerated healing (see: missing only one game after knee surgery earlier this season) but he’s no Wolverine. In the second X-Men movie, Wolverine gets shot in the head and gets up a few minutes later. That’s pretty awesome, and I think Alfie should be able to do that too. (It would be neat if he could also grow his hair like Wolverine’s, but that is not necessary.) Second, Lucy’s healing potion from the Narnia books. Alfie shouldn’t need this for himself with his Wolverineness, but he can share it with teammates like Jesse Winchester, who missed his second game in a row today with an “upper body injury,” and keep everyone in perfect condition. The way this season is going, the last thing the team needs is injuries.

Now begins the long road trip as the Sens have been evicted from the friendly walls of Scotiabank Place until after the new year by a bunch of teenagers.

I can’t be the only one who thinks of David Puddy from Seinfeld every time I hear about the Devils, can I? “El diablo!” I also say “Gotta support the team” a lot. Alright then, moving on.

Breaking the Opposition. One of Gary Galley’s keys to the game for the Devils was “Score early, opposition is fragile.” Before he’d even had a chance to say that, the Devils scored a goal 40 seconds into the first period, at which point I’m pretty sure I saw the Sens shatter into 20 little man-sized piles of shards of broken glass. Well done, Devils. Well done.

Bad to Worse. So that was a great start for our heroes. And it was all downhill from there. The Sens tied a season low with only three shots in the first period. They were down 2-0 by the first intermission. In the second, Jarkko Ruutu went in on a shorthanded two-on-one with Chris Kelly and scored a nice goal to bring the team within one. Just as it seemed they might be getting a bit of momentum going, however, Christoph Schubert to an asinine holding penalty — no really, I know how unlikely that seems but I swear he did. The Devils scored 10 seconds into their power play, and even better, it was one of those very demoralizing last minute goals. To recap, then, the Sens allowed a goal in the first minute of the first and the last minute of the second.

Remember When At Least Our Defense Was Good? Luckily, the two goals they gave up in the third were harmlessly scored during the middle part of that frame. Phew! Except, OH WAIT!! Allowing goals in the middle of the period is still bad! And the Sens have now given up four or more goals in three of their last four games. They also allowed the Devils three power play goals today. It seems like only a few days ago I was thinking about how if they weren’t scoring, at least they were keeping the puck out of the net, and if the power play sucked, well, at least the penalty kill was alright. You know why it seems like only a few days ago that I was thinking that? Because it was only a few days ago! What happened?!

You know, I’m not really happy with any player on this team right now. But there is one person in particular I’ve just had it with. I don’t mean to scapegoat anyone: suckage of this magnitude can only come from a full team lack of effort. This guy, though, has severed my last nerve. That’s why he gets a special mention in today’s instalment of …

Christmas for the Sens!

Go away, Schubert!

Christoph Schubert, you are officially dead to me. That was the very last stupid penalty I can stand to see you take in a Sens uniform. Consider this me, offering you a one-way ticket out of town. I don’t care where you go. Anywhere. Go win a Cup in Detroit, or retire and open a deli in Sudbury! Whatever! I don’t care, as long as you just. Get. Off. My. Team!

A few player notes, via Sportsnet: Brian Lee has gone back to Binghamton, while Cody Bass has been called up. Ilya Zubov will not play tomorrow because of a visa problem. Anton Volchenkov will be back, but Jesse Winchester is hurt (Winch! Nooooo!) and Dean McAmmond is still not ready to play.

According to the Sportsnet article, these are the lines for tomorrow night’s game against New Jersey:

Vermette – Fisher – Alfredsson
Heatley – Kelly – Foligno
Ruutu – Spezza – Neil
Schubert – Bass – Donovan

Right then.

In other news, I’ve decided to try mixing peanut butter cups with lima beans in my blender and then put the result on spaghetti. These things are all edible — all foods I enjoy, in fact — so I thought I might as well just eat them together. Sure, it might make me sick. But it might also become a culinary sensation. I guess you never know until you try.

Another lacklustre effort from the Sens last night results in a 4-1 loss to the Thrashers. The Thrashers! Remember beating them 5-1 about two weeks ago? Or did I dream that?

This latest crapfest found the team being put through its paces at a “rough” practice this morning by coach Craig Hartsburg, who called yesterday’s performance “very poor” and criticized the team for failing to make even one good pass during the game. Reporter Brent Wallace, meanwhile, referred to the team playing “emotionless hockey” in a story for TSN. And that’s exactly what it was. With the exception of Chris Neil and Jarkko Ruutu, who both deserve credit for at least trying to get the team going with a big hit and a fight respectively, no one in an Ottawa jersey looked remotely interested in winning.

Bryan Murray says he’s been looking into making a move of some kind, but does not expect anything to happen until after the NHL roster freeze ends on December 27. Until then, the solution appears to be a bit of line juggling from Hartsburg. Oh, I know what you’re thinking: Line juggling! Really?! From a Sens coach? HOW ORIGINAL!! Which is pretty much what I’m thinking. However, there is a fresh twist here as, rather than just taking one member of the Pizza Line (Daniel Alfredsson) and plunking him down with some new linemates (Mike Fisher and some other dude), Hartsburg will take the fairly radical step of putting each of Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza on a separate line.

In a video report on the Ottawa Sun website, Hartsburg frames this move in a positive light: “I believe in all three of them, and I think all three of them can maybe help a line be better.” But reading Bryan Murray’s comments on the situation gives a somewhat different impression:

“I watch a number of players who have played at a very high level – certainly regarded around the league as top quality players – and I don’t think we are getting the results from them we have to get,” Murray said.

“We can point fingers at anybody (management or coaches) around them, but the bottom line is good players should be good players, unless they are playing hurt or unless they have reached a stage in their career where they are on a downward decline or whatever that may be,” Murray said. “I don’t think that is the case here. Certainly that’s why we made commitments here to get continued improvement and results from them, and it is astounding that we don’t score goals, in particular. We have that ability and that’s not the coach, that’s not the manager, that’s not the teammate – that’s the player doing, to their best of their ability, what they can do.”

Ouch. That “downward decline” thing looks like a not-so-veiled dig at Alfie to these eyes. It will be interesting to see what new line combinations the coaching staff comes up with for Friday’s game against New Jersey and how they perform and, if they fail to perform, how long they last. I guess Sens fans are about to find out the answer to the question of whether three big ones are better than one big three.

Eat it, Tampa!

Yes, with a win over the last place Tampa Bay Lightning last night, the Senators proved that they are, at most, the second worst team in the NHL.

Victory!