FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-MacLean made two changes before this one and I would expect there will be more changes ahead of tomorrow night’s game in Columbus. Mark Stone and Curtis Lazar sat out Sunday night’s game and I would expect both to be back in the lineup tomorrow. Neither Colin Greening nor Erik Condra had much of an impact on the game although they did have a couple good third period shifts on a line with Zack Smith.
-Jared Cowen has been a press box regular for a couple weeks now but must be getting close to a return to the lineup. Whether he’s in Ottawa’s long term plans or not, the team will want to get him back on the ice. If there really are teams interested in taking a chance on Cowen, you would assume they would like to see him play a couple more games first.
-On that note, there are certainly a couple candidates to come out of the Ottawa line up. I thought both Patrick Wiercioch and Mark Borowiecki had a tough time against the speedy Chicago forwards. Both play the left side and both could probably benefit from watching a game from the press box. Veteran Chris Phillips didn’t have his best game either but I really don’t think he’s coming out of the lineup anytime soon.
-Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!
-It’s been a theme throughout the early part of this season and it was an issue again last night. Shots against. Although Ottawa was able to get it going a bit in the third period, they still allowed far too many shots on their goalie. Right now, Ottawa is giving up 36 shots a game. Only the Buffalo Sabres have allowed more so far this season. I do think it’s a little early to panic, especially against a team like Chicago, but at some point soon that number has to start trending downwards.
