Karlsson Recalled, Lee Sent Down

The NHL career of Senators' rookie Erik Karlsson resumes tomorrow in Boston.
In a game that will decide first place in the Northeast Division, Coach Cory wants to have his team firing on all cylinders and obviously feels that Karlsson has more to offer than the much maligned fellow defenseman Brian Lee.

Lee has struggled to find his niche in the NHL thus far in his young NHL career. Is he a puck moving, offensive defenseman? Is he a big, bruising stay at home guy? Is he a power play quarterback? At times, he seems to try to be all three and all three aspects of his game suffer. This has been the story of his career thus far for the former first round draft pick. The kid has the talent and the toolbox, he just needs to put it all together and point it in the right direction.

Karlsson, on the other hand is what he is. A slick skating, offensive defenseman with a great shot from the point on the power play. Although undersized, the young Swede can be a very useful player to his team. Since being sent down to the Sens' AHL affiliate in Binghamton, Karlsson has tallied 11 assists in 12 games while showing a little jam collecting more than his share of penalty minutes at 22 while compliling an even plus/minus rating.

Here's hoping that Erik has adjusted to the North American game as with this call up, he will have 10 games of NHL experience which triggers the first year of his entry level contract.

Sens Put Colombus in a Straight Jacket 2-1

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I've been very busy. I promise to have a full team assessment shortly.

Pascal who? Backup Brian Elliot was brilliant in the win and Jesse Winchester continues to impress. The injury depleted Sens played a strong game to get the win. Great team game that we have come to expect from this year's edition.

The Sens are now winners of 4 of their last 5.

Here are some highlights from tonight.

Sens Bolt Past Lightning 3-2 (OT)

Spezza scores the winner for the Sens after having 2 called back in the dying minutes of the 3rd.

Neil demolishes Hedman.

Hard fought, entertaining game. Here's some highlights.

Leclaire Steals a Point for the Sens

What a crappy ending to an entertaining game! Nice to see the referees flex their small-man disorder urge to play God and decide the outcome of a game by calling a weak penalty in overtime to go along with awarding a 5 on 3 powerplay to the Preds with 2 minutes to go in regulation. Disgusting.

In any event, the Sens were badly outplayed through periods and were down 3-0 with Leclaire being the only reason it was that close. He made some spectacular saves late in the period to keep it do-able with a 3 goal deficit.

Enter the 3rd period where the Sens showed some guts and character by tying it up before it was half over.

The teams then traded goals with the Preds having what appeared to be the last word on their generously awarded 5 on 3 powerplay with a minute left in regulation time.

Enter Mike Fisher who worked his guts out along the boards in the dying seconds, finally kicking the puck to Alfie who quickly dished it to Phillips who scored the tying goal with 2 seconds remaining to gain Leclaire the point he deserved.

Welcome overtime where Carkner is called on a questionable trip as he himself was falling. Powerplay goal by the Preds, game over.

Tough finish for a goalie and team that hung in there and never quit. 5-2-1 is a pretty good start to the season.

Next up: The Savard and Lucic - less Bruins on Saturday. Should be a helluva game.

Sens Hypnotize Habs 3-1

The Ottawa Senators dumped the Montreal Canadiens in Alex Kovalev's return to the Bell Center.

Scoring for the Sens: Neil, Alfredsson and Kovalev.

OK, this was a pretty boring game and the difference was, once again, Pascal Leclaire.
The Sens were completely outplayed in the first half of the game with Leclaire completely stoning the Habs. Montreal outshot the Sens something like 10-3 in the first, yet the game ended 1-1 after a late Montreal goal. Montreal then gave up a powerplay marker to Captain Alfie and appeared to lose their mojo after that. Kovalev iced his former team's dream of a 3rd period comeback and that was that.

A decent road win for the Sens, lulling their opponent to sleep while allowing their goalie to shut the door. I can't even count how many shots were blocked by Sens' defenders. Nice job.

Who would have thunk that Alex Picard and Matt Carkner would be the 2nd pairing?

All you "fans" who wanted to trade Alex, I hope you enjoy your crow. I liked him last year and like him more this year. He and Carks make a great pairing. Alex seems to play with a little more confidence out there knowing Big Country has his back.

Jason Spezza? Hello? Where are you?

Amazing the team is winning WITHOUT their number one centre firing isn't it.
That speaks volumes to the depth up front on this team.

Sens are still first in the division.... houda thunk that too?

Sens Jolt Lightning 7-1

Well, well, well.... The hard work pays off for Mach 9, Milan Michalek. After buzzing and threatening all season, he breaks out for a hat trick including 2 shorthanded goals. I wonder when the last time Heatley scored 2 shorties in one game? Just sayin'.

Also scoring for the Sens were: Picard, Foligno, Kovalev and Ruutu. Meanwhile, Alfredsson and Ruutu had 3 point nights.

The Sens were completely dominated by the Bolts during the first 3 minutes of the game until Alexei Kovalev got the good guys on the board and it was all Sens from there.

Leclaire was solid when called upon stopping 16 of the 17 shots he faced. The Bolts also had one disallowed by the much maligned "kicking motion" rule. Guess who the Ottawa defenceman was who was burned on both plays? Rookie Erik Karlsson. I like the guy's skills, I really do but he really looks lost out there. He needs seasoning in the minors to learn the North American game. He really does. I feel bad for the kid. He was cock of the walk when he arrived in town and now is constantly hanging his head. His minutes are decreasing and he needs to be "the guy" somewhere. I remember saying when he was drafted that he was 2-3 years away and I stick by that. He'll be a good one, but just not now.

Speaking of rookies, Matt Carkner continues to impress. He played a solid game and logged some big minutes. Coach Cory really seems to be spreading the minutes around, however. Top ice getter was Alex Picard at 24:24, but after that, all the other defencemen seem to be around 20:00 with the exception of Karlsson at 16:00 or so. On the forward side, Michalek led the way with 18:00, while everyone else was logging 14:00-16:00 with the exceptions of Donovan, Neil and Foligno who were closer to the 10:00-11:00 range mostly due to the fact that they do not kill penalties. Pretty balances attack, I must say.

Highlight of the game? Carkner absolutely pounding Steve "the rat" Downie. Nice to see. In other pugilistic news, Neil got the better of Wilson while Phillips took a rare major penalty in fighting Konopka. While lagging behind in both size and experience, hats off to Chris for holding is won against Tampa's "Big Z"

Another highlight? A-Train Volchenkov continuing his stellar play and absolute demolition of NHL rookies by hammering Victor "Sylvie Bernier" Hedman into the boards. Welcome to the NHL, Sylvie. Keep your head up, ya big wuss.

Is it too early to say that Michalek is the best Sen ever to don the number 9?
I'd like to point out as well, Jason "Giggles" Spezza is really starting to pick up his physical game. I had to double check the number on the back of the jersey when he flattened the Tampa defenceman on the forecheck. Keep it up, Giggles. Your "personal stats" may suffer, but your team will be better for it. His play in all 3 zones is the best of his career. He is becoming a "complete" player and is starting to look more and more like someone named Stevie Y every day.

Next up... who cares... I'm going to bask in this one for a couple days.

Sens iced by Penguins 4-1

Well, all good things must come to an end and for the Sens, their modest 3 game winning streak crashed to a halt last night at home against the defending Cup Champs.

The 4-1 score wasn't indicative of the effort level however as the Sens buzzed all night and hit numerous posts in the process.

Like I said in the preseason, a Michalek-Spezza-Cheechoo line could be super and I was proven correct last night. That line was by far Ottawa's best and accounted for the team's lone goal and a beauty at that by Milan Michalek.

Alexei Kovalev seemed to take one of his patented nights off and hopefully having him surrounded by probably the best team players as line mates in Mike Fisher and Captain Alfie they'll drive him to be more consistent.

A totally deflating goal to make it 3-1 Pens when Leclaire had his first brain fart as a Sen was the difference here in the game.

Matt Carkner continues to impress with his simple yet effective play while Chris Campoli and Erik Karlsson continue to scare the crap out of me when they have the puck in their own end. At least the latter has an excuse in being a rookie and is probably best served to learn the North American game in Binghamton enabling a call up for a legit NHL'er in Brain Lee.

Next up.... Tampa Bay on Thursday. Look for the boys to bounce back.