Worked for the Sabres right?

Thanks to Twitter follower @1mattstephenson for bringing to our attention the news that Alexei Yashin and his actress/supermodel wife Carol Alt are making themselves available for charity.

By visiting the website CharityBuzz.com, the public can bid on a number of opportunities to spend time with celebrities. You can play a round of golf with Alice Cooper, learn the art of falconry (the fuck?) from Robert F. Kennedy or you could win the following... 

Damn, who wouldn't want to spend time with a faux-HHOF and a woman who has been in feature films like To Rome With Love, Howard Stern's biopic Private Parts or the unforgettable Beyond Justice.

The plot summary sounds enthralling. 

"A woman's ex-husband, who is the son of an Arab chieftain, kidnaps their teenage son and brings him back to Morocco, where the boy is to be made the leader of the tribe. The child's mother hires a mercenary to get her son and bring him back to her."

Considering the highest bid to this point is only $500, I feel compelled to place a bid; that is, until I catch myself, realizing that Mark Gandler will inevitably involve himself in the process - requesting that Yashin holds out for a larger bid.

As such, I offer my heartiest congrulations to the eventual winner, Mike Milbury - who I have no doubt, will massively overpay for Yashin's services. 

You cannot squeeze blood from a stone, but the Senators are about to try and squeeze some goals from one.

This afternoon, the goal-starved Senators announced that Mark Stone has been recalled from the Binghamton Senators. In 38 games during this AHL season, he has 8 goals, 21 points, with a meager 1.37 shots per game rate. It should be noted when taking stock of these numbers that Stone hasn't received many prime offensive minutes, playing down the lineup and used in a defensive posture.

Now what has he done in his professional NHL career?

Glad you asked.

If we extrapolate that one glorious assist from the one game that he played in -- game five of Ottawa’s Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup versus the Rangers -- across the remaining 25 games of this 2013 regular season, it means that Stone is on pace for a hell of a year with Ottawa.

Of course it’s ridiculous to carry any expectations on Stone to carry the offensive load, since he’s pretty much spent the bulk of this AHL season playing on the team’s checking line with Derek Grant and David Dziurzynski (which you can read Richardson discuss here). But, this is where the Senators are - desperate for offence and looking for a spark. 

When it comes to sports journalism in Ottawa, Le Droit’s hardworking Sylvain St-Laurent deserves more attention. I’m sure some of this is attributable to the language barrier that some non-bilingual Anglophones may experience, but if you’re not already, follow Sylvain on Twitter (@Syl_St_Laurent) and give his work a read.

That being said, on his sports blog published on the La Presse website, Sylvain posted a near 10-minute interview with Senators GM Bryan Murray regarding management’s approach to the 2013 NHL Trade Deadline. Expect the bulk of this interview to be featured in an upcoming piece, so keep an eye out for that.

From the YouTube video accompanying the blog post, here’s a transcript of the Murray interview.

As always, my thoughts are in bold.

When pretty much all of the Senators’ best players succumbed to injury, the natural reaction for many was to write off this shortened 2013 season and hop aboard the tank. And really, who could blame us?

We expected the team to have a difficult time scoring without the likes of Milan Michalek, Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson - and they have dutifully lived up that astute assumption (1.77 GF/G the last nine games). But I'm not sure anyone expected the team defense to hold the fort as well as they have.

Bishop and the Lehner have stepped in seamlessly to replicate Craig Anderson’s gaudy first half numbers.The defencemen and forwards have done an admirable job clearing pucks, and keeping shots on the outside. Also Eric Gryba is routinely playing 20+ minutes and yet the Sens have continued to bank points, somehow.

For a team that spent the past two seasons sporting the 24th highest goals against per game rate (GA/G) in the NHL (2.99 in 2010/11 and 2.88 in 2011/12), coming into this afternoon’s game against the Islanders, Ottawa has allowed 1.81 GA/G; good enough for the league’s second best mark.

The style responsible for their recent success is a definite contrast to the exciting run and gun 11/12 Senators - fronted by the league's fourth-best offence. The team at present is essentially Nashville but less talented. They're staying in games with stingy defensive hockey that hasn’t been seen around the nation’s capital since the days of Jacques Martin behind the bench staring up at the clock. (though I'm sure Jacques could do without some of the shots against totals of late)

After a morning hearing, Brendan Shanahan, the NHL's Director of Player Safety suspended Harry Zolnierczyk four games for his hit on Mike Lundin.

Shanny's explanation:

"As the video shows, as Lundin carries the puck through the neutral zone, Zolnierczyk comes onto the ice for a line change. As Lundin enters the offensive zone, he cuts to the middle and dishes the puck to his wing. Zolnierczyk, who has Lundin lined up, moves in for the hit. However, instead of delivering a hard, legal check, he launches prior to the check, making significant contact to Lundin’s head; this is charging.

In all areas of the ice, players still have the responsibility to keep their head up and expect to be checked. But, what no player should expect is that his opponent will launch upward, off the ice and into his head.

 It is important to note that although Lundin is bracing for the hit and trying to minimize its force by stopping. It does not significantly change his position prior to this illegal check. What’s more, while we often see players lift up off of the ice after delivering a check as a result of the impact, this is not one of those cases. Zolnierczyk launches before contact is made.”

It's a tough break for Lundin, who has clearly struggled to find a place in the lineup, and then gets knocked out after 53s of TOI in his return after a few successive healthy scratches. Hope his whiplash isn't too major.

With 7:31 left in the third period, the 40-year old Daniel Alfredsson was ejected from a National Hockey League game for the first time in his NHL career.

The event occurred when Chris Phillips skated back to the redline to collect a puck that the Flyers had chipped out of the defensive zone. After retrieving the puck in the area between the bench but inside the redline, Phillips dumped the puck back into the Flyers’ zone before absorbing a hit from the side by Zac Rinaldo, a player best known for his using a mirror to take pictures of himself.

Phillips was not hurt on the play, but Alfie, as any good captain should, took issue with the hit on a vulnerable player. A crosscheck upside Rinaldo’s cranium later, Alfie accumulated 15 minutes in penalties; establishing a new career high and registering his first match penalty.

Alfie has had misconducts before: 

- In Game Two of the 1998 Eastern Conference Semifinals versus Washington, Alfie received a holding the stick penalty with his team down 5-1 with 8 minutes left in the third period and a 10-minute misconduct for arguing the call with the referee.

- He also received a 10-minute misconduct during the December 23^rd game versus the New York Rangers when teammate Martin Havlat was slapped with a two-minute holding penalty.

But never a game misconduct. 1152 games, 420 goals and 1093 points into a NHL career, it's hard to believe that there are benchmarks left for Alfredsson to accomplish during the regular season, but yesterday was a first for his storied career.