In the past few games, the Senators have started to play with character and determination. Even against the “high powered” Rangers, we played a good game that I still believe we should’ve won. We had one of the most entertaining games of the season against the Leafs and Leclaire showed why he’s our clear cut #1 goalie. And then two nights later we took advantage of a depleted Penguins roster and finished them off 6-2 with another solid performance by Leclaire and the rest of the team.
However, the road is only getting harder and as good as we’ve been playing we still need to be better. The Eastern conference battle is hard and tough and every point lost is a spot closer to missing the playoffs. Yes even this early. We still don’t have one of our best/toughest defenseman and now we just lost one of our heart and soul guys for up to 8 weeks. Donovan may only be a fourth liner but he’s a guy that goes out there and earns every minute of ice team. He’s also a guy that all the team roots for and wants to have on the team just for his great personality. He might not affect the team performance significantly but nobody can deny that he will be dearly missed on the team. Volchenkov should be back mid this week and hopefully by the time we play the New Jersey Devils. Another missing piece is Alexei Kovalev who has gone to Russia to attend his mother in law’s funeral. The word is that Kovalev shouldn’t be missed much because usually after a good game (he played absolutely great against the Pens) he disappears for another few. So technically he’s MIA anyways.
On the other hand, our PK is going back to being superb and Leclaire has seemed to find a good groove and has managed to make some spectacular saves at key times. We knew you’d come around at some point Snoopy . Our PP is still a mess and honestly I just can’t understand why. Other than the fact that Campoli refuses to keep the puck in when he’s put on the PP blueline, the team is really trying but it seems to be more painful to watch a PP than it is to see the Sens PKing; they’re certainly getting more chances on the PK too. Hopefully it’ll come around along with our dreadful shootout record, you’d think with the number of amazing shooters we have we’d be a deadly shootout team.
Another honourable mention goes to Mike Fisher. And no I’m not referring to the fact that Carrie Underwood mentioned his name on the Ellen show. He’s playing inspired hockey and looks like a true #1 centre. Not to mention, he looks great when out on wing as well. He hasn’t lost a bit of his heart, determination and toughness but instead he’s added to his qualities the fact that he can score some pretty goals. Now I’m still the biggest Spezza fan but at this point I think Spezza has no place on the Canadian Olympic team and Fisher should be taken a good look at instead.
Tonight is a rather important game, first off we’re coming in with a lot of momentum that we need to maintain in this tough stretch of games coming ahead and we need to take advantage of a Capitals team that hasn’t been playing well in order to take over the top spot in the
As with my previous article, I shall list my 3 impressive and unimpressive players:
Impressed:
1) Pascal Leclaire: even if it’s only based on his play in the third period against the Leafs, he’s the #1 star of the week for me. He is truly entertaining to watch, even when he does let in the bad goal or two, you can’t deny he makes saves that we have never seen from Emery, Elliot or Gerber before.
2) Mike Fisher: not only is he one of the few bright spots on out PP with 5 PP goals already, he also has 3 game winning goals and 19 points so far; only one point behind the team leading scorer Captain Alfie. All that without losing his charm of great hits, hard work and off course good looks :P
3) Chris Phillips: 800 career games later, and Big Rig is still considered one of the best and most respected shutdown defensemen in the league. He may never win a Norris trophy but the guy goes out there every night and proves his worth and does all he can at every chance possible. Even without his long time defensive partner, he has managed to play absolutely great hockey for us. And even when he has a bad game/period, you know he’s coming back at the earliest chance to redeem himself.
Didn’t Impress:
1) Chris Campoli: I won’t be too harsh on the kid but he is just not playing good hockey. And he’s been doing this mistake for the past few games that is just killing me. The coach put him on the blue line on our PP and he holds the puck in when it gets to him and then he loses it at the same second. Until he can hold the puck in for more than 2 secs on the PP, I will continue to rant about it.
2) Jason Spezza: yes, he has improved greatly regarding his work ethic and his defensive play but we still need more from our “#1 center”, we need those goals Spezz.
3) Ryan Shannon: all my love for this kid last year has disappeared and now we’ll probably have to see more of him with Dono out. He doesn’t hustle anymore or play any smart hockey like he did last year. I think he can improve but I’m not a very patient person. Clouston favoured him over Dono in many games and it cost us, let’s hope the Dono injury doesn’t do the same thing.
The Tough Life
Love the picture!
But ya love it when the team rallies and celebrates with the goalie
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