The Sens jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Colin Greening and Marek Svatos, his first in 13 games since being picked up on waivers but were unable to hold off a desperate Canes team who scored two quick ones in response.
After a stretch where the teams combined for three goals in just 55 seconds in the first,the pace settled down in the middle frame. That was until Chad Larose scored his second of the game on a shot McElhinney would probably like back.
Carolina took a 4-2 lead on a pretty goal by Cory Stillman and while Spezza set up Karlsson for a beauty late in the third, the Canes held the Sens off the rest of the way. 4-3 the final.
Rookie defenceman Patrick Wiercioch struggled in his NHL debut. He skates well and seems to make good decisions with the puck but he struggled in his own end. Looks like a player that will need to get stronger this off season. Certainly didn't help having Filip Kuba has his defence partner.
Jason Spezza was far and away the best player on the ice for the Sens. He picked up a couple more assists and was a force on the puck. He has taken his game to another level since returning from a shoulder injury and has been contributing offensively on a nightly basis.
You never want to cheer for your team to lose but with the Sens and Avs fighting it out for 29th, a loss by the Ottawa Senators certainly wasn't the worst thing in the world.
Below is a look at the way the bottom five looks after the Sens loss in Carolina.
| NY Islanders |
74 | 29 | 33 | 12 | 70 | ||||||||||
| Florida | 73 | 29 | 34 | 10 | 68 | ||||||||||
| Colorado | 72 | 28 | 36 | 8 | 64 | ||||||||||
| Ottawa | 73 | 27 | 37 | 9 | 63 | ||||||||||
| Edmonton | 73 | 23 | 40 | 10 | 56 |
I still think Colorado is looking like geniuses with this trade
Lee has been a quiet but pleasant surprise over the second half of the season imo. Never really figured him for a shutdown D-man with his skill set when he was drafted, but he has looked very good in the role with Phillips. Considering he's still so young and with all of our other D prospects coming up, we are loaded to the gills. It will be interesting to see how the Sens break camp with D next year, especially with the pairings.
Chirp,
Any news on the swedes and there playoff run
-rundblab
-silfverberg
-petersson
If they are eliminated, do you think the sens will bring them to ottawa to watch the last 10 games. they would prob like them to see how it is in the nhl, a little like they did last year during the playoffs.
cant wait till the draft and July 1st.
Lee and Phillips have looked great together, give them the rest of the year and we might see this as our shutdown pairing.
Phillips Lee
Gonchar Cowen
Karlsson Rundblad
I think Wiercioch will spend one more season in Bingo, and the sens will have a good idea where he will be in 2012-2013.
Not necessarily too much of a difference either though. Both are tall, could use some bulk, smooth skating and have some offensive upside. I think Weircioch and Lee will develop into very similar players.
Anyhow, you're right in preaching patience. The fortunate thing for us now is we'll have the depth to allow Both Weircioch and Gryba to really develop in the AHL without having to rush them into the show.
Or any prospect for that matter. A lot fans kept saying that Lee is a bust, O'Brien is a bust, etc. Lee may not be better than Marc Staal or Anze Kopitar but sheesh...give the guy time to develop. He's 23 years old. If we didn't see progress by 25, then you have a case for a bust label.
He'll be playing for a new contract !
This summer he will be able properly recover from his recent injuries and then have a full training camp.
He'll play well enough in Ottawa to get something decent at the trade deadline.
Another season with Bingo couldn't hurt Wiercioch. That's the beauty having many D-man prospects.
The team we have now is playing 10 times better then a few months ago.
Go Sens Go
Because then we wouldnt have a shot at Landeskog
It was all about giving a young prospect a taste of the NHL, so he knows what to expect and what he needs to work on.
Mission accomplished. Do the same with Gryba now.
In 83 games with the Leafs, Phaneuf has 9 goals and 36 points
6.5M cap hit til 2014
In 68 games this year, Karlsson has 12 goals and 43 points.
The leafs have 11M going to Phaneuf and Komisarek. Just makes me feel awesome.
We aren't drafting Landeskog.
Next year's third line:
Foligno - regin - greening
Chirp, or anyone who knows.. is the plan to have our top pick play in the big league next year? Just curious if there has been talk and i know this is premeditated considering the daft has not occured.
Murray has said he expects our pick to play in the NHL next year. I doubt we'll fall to 4th pick this year - realistically, we're 1st-3rd (depending on our luck).
It's likely that RNH, Larsson or Landeskog will be on our roster next year. Of those 3, Hopkins is the most likely to need AHL 'seasoning' - the other two are generally considered NHL-ready.
Eric Gryba should have gotten called up instead of Wiercoch. I thought the plan was to have Gryba called soon anyways, then why Wiercoch? Still years in the AHL away for him in my opinion.
If McBackup made the saves he should have made this would have been a closer game.
He's somewhat of an enigma, McElhinney. He's played decent overall in his starts with the team, but I'm not completely sold yet that he can be a solid back up. There's a reason as to why he's bounced around in the league for so long.
Hopefully Murray can get a better backup for Anderson in the off season. I don't know what it is, but I'm just not completely sold on him yet.
Anyways... one step closer to RNH!
It would have been a closer game??? It doesn't get any closer then 4-3... what were you watching...
true but McBackup still wasnt very good
---------------------------------
Oh.sorry.just pretend I was never here.
Dude wtf ...?
Karlssens, agree on Greening but I think Foligno is too good at what he does to be on the third line anymore - the guy is a perfect compliment to offensive minded talented players. His amazing abilities along the boards, incredible speed, and ability to open space for his linemates is making him more valuable by the day, even if he isn't oozing of talent.
Spezza is the star any team needs to succeed, we can win by building around this guy. He proves it more each game and still gets the hate. mystery to me.
Weircioch was awful.
Quoting jasonontheoldsenschirp:
Islanders - 82 pts
Florida - 76 pts
Ottawa - 74 pts
Colorado - 69 pts
Edmonton- 63 pts
Yeah - after one NHL game I've decided that he sucks. Jesus man, give it time.
Gonchar Cowen
Karlsson Rundblad
This does look rally good if Lee keeps his play up. But he has always played really well with Philips. Remember that Pittsburgh series? I assume people are slating Carkner as #7? I see no reason why Cowan shouldn't start in the AHL. Then Kuba can be played, hopefully to have a bounce-back year, and traded at the deadline. That would be a good time to bring up Cowan I think - at least he gets some AHL experience before being thrown into the NHL.
According to @ian_mendes and @Scott MacArthur
#Sens are officially eliminated from playoffs with next loss or next #Sabres win or OT/shootout loss. #NHL
Thanks!!!
Also r.e. the draft: It seems that the team is into drafting whoever has the highest ceiling. That is either RNH or Strome. Honestly, I don't know which I prefer - RNH is ranked higher and he's a bit bigger, but there are concerns that he only seems to score on the PP and against weak teams. So I'm about equally excited about either.
Importantly, this means that i don't care if the Sens end up picking 4th - likely to take Strome. given that they sit 2nd, having played more games than Colorado, there is little to no chance of the Sens screwing up a top 4 pick by winning too much.
The moral (for me): finally, I can unambiguously cheer for the Sens to win for the remainder of the season. And that feels great.
BTW..good win by Elliot and the Avs last nite.
Tks
via James Gordon @ Citizen:
-Lehner on Anderson signing and his continued development:
"And it couldn’t be better than sign a goalie like Anderson, too, because he helps me a lot during practices. He talks to me. He gives me pointers and stuff like that. He’s a quality teammate — even if it takes me one year, two years, three years or even 10 years..."
I really liked this, considering many ppl were claiming he was being handed a job in OTT:
"I don’t see anything bad, in my stance, because to be honest, people haven’t expected me to go in this year or next year as the first goalie anyway."
I'm slighty comforted.
Good to know our young guns can learn from class veterans like Phillips, Anderson, Gonchar, Alfie, Neiler and Spezz.
-Grow SENS Grow!
I believe they also get a 3rd rounder if Nash wins 1 round and a 2nd if they win 2 (or more)
he's not on the ice to set up douche bag heatley or anyone else specifically and he's holding onto the puck a bit longer without trying to force a play.
nonetheless, we haven't heard from Patrick in quite some time and that is surely the best indicator that Spezza is playing the best hockey of his career.
Hax, not saying Weircioch's a terrible player, just that it was obvious from last night we need a lot more development time with him, which I've always tried to explain to people who've been slotting him into our top 6 next year...he's a guy who can be very good, but needs to develop a la Brian Lee.
-Skinner grabbing Karlsson's stick and then trying to act like he was hooked (refs need to get that out of the game by calling the stick holding more)
-Cole Blatantly tripping...Gree ning?...behind the net while we're trying to tie the game
-Cole basically tackling Nick Foligno behind the play to ruin our 6 on 5 advantage for 20-30 seconds or so.
Good game by the team last night. I think Wiercioch got a real good taste of the big strides he still has to make ... sadly he reminded me of Kuba back there, except with more potential and better skating ability. Still not sure why they were paired together, doubled up their defensive deficiency.
Spezza is GOD ... k now that I have your attention, nice to see some of you coming around. Every year he has improved in some way or another, and the leadership-matu rity level he's reached this year has been great to watch!
Give it up dude, we lost, thats a good thing!
Oh no worries here man, I was also rooting for the loss - but its always a shame to lose like that.
why wait? its pretty obvious this is Jason Spezza's team.
Agreed!
That was said when they were trying to justify the Fisher trade. No reason for that now. I would be surprised if our first pick plays here next year.
Dany Hately has 24 goals in 71 games played. They must have given him a reduced role playing with Jumbo Joe.
All three of them better pick up their defensive game or we're not going anywhere near the playoffs.
Also where is this offensive upside of Lee's? It's certainly not reflected in his point production, but I completely agree he is developing very well defensively.
A lot of that has to do with the partner he had in Kuba...
Love that quote.... Greening is becoming my fav player. He had better be with the Sens next season.
If RNH does not make the Sens -- it's back to Junior. He is not eligible for the AHL.
A lot of that can be attributed to the goaltending earlier in the season... when every mistake ended up in the net.
Since Anderson/McBack up have played I would be curious of the +/- of some of those players in just those games. I think it would tell a different story.
If you look at the +/- leaders you'll see plenty of names of guys just lucky to be on a good team. Reverse is true for many Sens. They've all had off years but you can't take +/- at face value.
As for Lee, it seems he's best suited to be more stay-at-home. He certainly has played much better since he basically decided to toss his weight around more and stop worrying about points.