Ottawa Senators (13-10-4)

vs

Anaheim Ducks (10-13-5)

Television: Rogers Sportsnet

Gametime: 8:00pm Eastern Time

It's hard to believe that in 2007, both of these teams were vying for the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. It's fascinating to see how quickly these two teams have fallen into NHL irrelevancy. Oh well, since Ottawa's not the capital of Asshole Town, I'm not going to dwell on how the Ottawa Senators have completely defecated the mattress this western road trip. Instead, I'll just view it as a microcosm of Ottawa's systemic problem -- They're having a hard time winning games on the road this season. Away from SBP's confines, the Senators currently sport the third worst road record in the NHL with a 3-7-1 mark. Ottawa can ill afford to let this trend continue because their 24 road games in the second half loom more ominously than a Bruce Garrioch shadow in the dressing room. The only positive after tonight's game might be that this road trip will have come to a conclusion.

Here's my prediction that ran as part of the Ottawa Citizen's Prediction Panel. (To view the rest of the panel's predictions, click here.)

Senators 2, Ducks 4

Maybe it’s safe to say that the Counting Crows had it right when they penned that it would be a long December. It’s only one week in and already the Senators have lost all three games on this west coast road trip that has inexplicably taken them from California to Arizona and now back to California to face the Ducks. If it wasn’t for the recent play of Jonathan Cheechoo, this roadie would be an unmitigated disaster. You don’t need to be Gordon Bombay to recognize that Ottawa’s goaltending, effort and defensive zone coverage have been terrible lately. Instead of relying upon the efforts and production of their third and fourth line players, guys like Spezza and Kovalev have to step it up soon as the Eastern Conference standings tighten up. Oh wait, Montreal’s coming to town on Tuesday. I’ll predict Ottawa to break their losing streak then.

Arm Chair Coaching

Okay, I understand that it's fun as a fan to be cynical and criticize the coaching staff whenever you disagree with the line combinations or who deserves to be a healthy scratch. I get it. But for those sensationalist fans who feel compelled to start banging the fire Clouston drum after this four game losing streak, well...you can fuck right off.

Cheechoo

Considering his strong play of late and the deterioration of Jason Spezza's game, wouldn't it be fitting to see these guys play together at some point in the near future? Given Spezza's lack of production and the fact that Alfie and Michalek don't seem to need him to produce, maybe it's time to see if these two can develop some chemistry.

Lines (Updated @ 5pm)

According to Ian Mendes' Twitter, Brian Elliott will start tonight and although there are no lineup changes, there will be shuffled lines -- Spezza will play with Kovalev and Foligno while Fisher will Michalek and Alfredsson.

While there was a lot of concern that tonight's game wouldn't be televised, the Senators organization has sent out an email to fans who have subscribed to their Sens Insider products. Anyways, here are the finer details of the email:

The Phoenix Coyotes’ home game on Saturday, Dec. 5 against the Ottawa Senators will now be available to subscribers of NHL Center Ice and NHL.com’s GameCenter Live. Center Ice and GameCenter Live will air Jobing.com Arena’s in-house video feed along with the audio from the Coyotes’ radio broadcast.

You must be a subscriber to one of these services to view the game. If you’re not a subscriber, head to a friend’s house, family member or check with any Local Heroes or a nearby pub that would have NHL Centre Ice. Go Sens Go!

Tonight's Lines:

Michalek-Spezza-Shannon

Kovalev-Fisher-Alfredsson

Ruutu-Kelly-Cheechoo

Regin-Winchester-Foligno-Keller

Neil Still Out Another Two Weeks But...

...If you're wondering about some of tonight's lineup decisions, Allen Panzeri of the Citizen is reporting that Brian Elliott will get the start tonight while Alexandre Picard is doubtful. Due to Picard's shoulder injury, expect Chris Campoli to re-enter the lineup and assume Picard's position alongside Matt Carkner. For the first time since being called up, it looks as though Ryan Keller may be the odd man out. Even though Keller's averaging close to six minutes of ice time per game, he simply has to be better.

SBP's Parking Lot Isn't As Bad As It Used To Be

According to an article by Ken Warren in yesterday's Citizen, Senators President Cyril Leeder held an informal media session and spoke about how improved the parking lot situation is at SBP this season. Leeder attributed several factors for this improvement.

The completion of the 417 expansion to Eagleson Road has created more lanes on the highway, resulting in a smaller "bottleneck" of traffic following games.

There are more traffic police officers working the roads outside Scotiabank Place, allowing for a better distribution of cars leaving parking lots. The bus parking dropoff and pickup locations have been moved to increase traffic flow and the club has added an additional exit at Lot 9, one of the largest lots outside the arena.

Interestingly, there was never any mention of Ottawa's average attendance being down 1,000 fans from this point last year.

Win An NHL Game Day Experience

A friend of mine passed along a link for a contest that sees four grand prize winners win a trip for four (4) to one of the following cities closest to the Contest winner’s residence, either Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto or Ottawa, four (4) tickets to a National Hockey League (“NHL”) game, 2 nights accommodation and $250 CAD cash. Travel dates and city will be selected by Sponsor in its sole and absolute discretion. If you're interested in entering the contest, click here.

In every professional hockey player's career, there comes a moment when you know you've made it as a player. For Senators prospect Erik Condra, that moment came following a 2-goal performance when he was arrested for urinating on a police vehicle.

Condra has been charged with disorderly conduct, a violation, after Binghamton police said he was walking on State street and an officer observed him urinating on a police vehicle.

Condra, 23, who lives on Reynolds Road in Johnson City but resides in the off-season in Detroit, was coming off a two-goal game when the incident occurred at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

He has four goals, eight assist and 16 penalty minutes in 23 games this season. ~ pressconnects.com

After graduating from the prestigious Notre Dame, wasn't Condra supposed to be a classy one who was considering a career in medicine instead of a professional hockey career?

Foligno A Healthy Scratch?

According to Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen, Nick Foligno is a healthy scratch for tonight's game against the Los Angeles Kings. Now, I'd hate to harp on the coach that has this Senators team off to a surprising start, but isn't this some kind of double standard for accountability?

For those wondering, Peter Regin will draw back into the lineup while Ryan Keller will likely man a fourth line winger slot and proceed to log five minutes of ice-time.

Who doesn't like a good conspiracy?

Well, thanks to the Ottawa Citizen's Wayne Scanlan, we may now have some theoretical insight as to why Brian Lee, in spite of some recent good play, was demoted back to Binghamton.

Note 3: An eagle-eyed Ottawa Senators fan witnessed an interesting exchange between defenceman Brian Lee and head coach Cory Clouston during the most recent home game, last Thursday's 2-1 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

According to the observer, Clouston marched down the bench in the second period to speak to Lee, who had just come off the ice at the end of a shift. Nothing unusual there, except that instead of just giving the usual player nod of agreement or understanding, Lee turned his head to speak back to the coach, and Clouston barked back at him again.

None of this would mean all that much if Lee had not been demoted to the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators the next day, while rookie Erik Karlsson was promoted to take Lee's place.

Lee did take an interference penalty early in the second period, and the subject of penalties was a touchy one last week, with the Senators implying they were receiving more than their share of minor infractions.

This much is indisputable. Lee had his butt basically stapled to the bench in the third period of that tight Columbus game. He played exactly one minute 27 seconds of the third. A matter of hours later, he was looking at Ottawa in the rear-view mirror, on his way to Bingo.

Ok, this story may be strictly conjecture and I'm 99.9% certain that Lee's two-way contract vs Chris Campoli's one-way contract played a role as well, but damnit if it's not entertaining to read and discuss. Carry on Wayne...

Lee had been playing pretty well since being called up on Oct. 29. He averaged more than 16 minutes per game, had recorded two goals and one assist and was a minus-1.

Senators general manager Bryan Murray told me from San Jose on Monday that the move was made with the big picture in mind, not any individual incident from the Columbus game, and that he made the decision, not Clouston.

"I decided to flip Lee and Karlsson," Murray said. "I thought Brian had not played with the confidence nor commitment we need from that position. We just want him to develop his game."

Isn't it also weird how Murray mentioned that the organization felt it was in Karlsson's best interests to develop at the NHL level but the organization's never really extended the same opportunity to Brian Lee?

Kings 3, Senators 2

Picking against the Senators in a game like this isn't as hard as I thought it would be for a number of reasons. Not only do the Senators have a poor track record on these Pacific Division roadtrips but after facing Heatley and the Sharks on Tuesday, they're probably mentally drained from having to deal with the attention and answer questions surrounding their former teammate. Even though their play didn't reflect it on Tuesday, my feeling tonight is that the Senators might lose a bit of that mental edge now that the Heatley issue is on the back burner for another season.

I've been a bit pressed for time in regards to content today because I've been prepping for the next podcast and aside from Bruce Garrioch picking up on the Columbus rumours that Mark Christopher alluded to yesterday, there's absolutely nothing really noteworthy to cover. Anyways, due to the lull and since I'm a bit of a statistic junkie who loves to use stats to objectify my own opinions, I figured that it'd be a good opportunity to look at the Ottawa Senators roster and contrast this year's projected stats totals with their career history.

Daniel Alfredsson -- 25 GP, 9 G, 17 A, 26 pts

In the last four seasons, Alfie has put up 103, 87, 89 and 74 points respectively. Based on his current production and assuming that he continues to play in every game, Alfie is on pace to put up 29.5 goals, 55.76 assists for 86.28 points. If our beloved captain continues to defy age, it will only further demonstrate that last year's dip in production can be attributed to the Craig Hartsberg's system.

Mike Fisher -- 23 GP, 10 G, 11 A, 21 Pts

Currently on pace for approximately 34 goals and 38 assists, Mike Fisher's still on his way to having a breakout season that should surpass his 23 goal and 48 point '07-08 season. Granted, he hasn't scored in his last few games, but this might be the year that he stops cockteasing Sens fans with the 50-60+ point promise.

Milan Michalek -- 25 GP, 15 G, 5 A, 20 Pts

Dany who? Milan Rouge is turning those goallights red at a ridiculous pace. Heatley might be the former 50-goal scorer but Michalek's Anonymous can unite when they find out that he's currently on pace for 49 goals and a whopping 16.4 assists. If Spezza could get his scoring touch together, Michalek should improve upon his totals.

Jason Spezza -- 23 GP, 2 G, 13 A, 15 Pts

Based on Spezza's current pace, he's projected to produce 6.96 goals and 45.2 assists -- both career lows. Maybe it's not too late to revisit getting on the Dany Who? bandwagon. I'm at a loss for where exactly to place the blame. Is it the fact that he lost his linemate? Or maybe he's still playing with a bad back? One thing's for certain, at no point during this season have I looked at Alfie or Michalek and said, "You know, their production is causally related to Spezza's play."

Alexandre Picard -- 24 GP, 2 G, 10 A, 12 Pts

Considering the amount of flack that Picard gets for his turnovers or unwillingness to get involved physically in spite of his size, fans shouldn't ignore the points that Picard has put up in the early portion of the season. He's currently on pace for 6.75 goals, 33.75 assists and 40.5 points.

Filip Kuba -- 17 GP, 1 G, 10 A, 11 Pts

Even though Don Brennan wonders whether or not Kuba's uterus is in proper order, Kuba is Ottawa's most consistent offensive defenceman. After leading the Senators blueline in points last year (3-37-40), Kuba's on pace (4.35-43.5-47.85)  to better last year's totals despite missing some time with an injury that was never really disclosed.

Alexei Kovalev -- 22 GP, 4 G, 7 A, 11 Pts

If there was a statistic for dangling through the neutral zone effectively before refusing to make a pass and then firing a shot into the shinpads of a defenceman, Kovalev would be a star. Unfortunately L'Enigma is on pace (14-25-39) for his worst season since 03-04 when he put up 13 goals and 29 assists for 42 points. Ah well, at least he signed a short term deal.

Chris Kelly -- 25 GP, 2 G, 8 A, 10 Pts

For a 3rd/4th line center, Kelly's 32.8 point pace would fall in line with his norm of 30-38 points. Too bad he can't elevate his anemic faceoff winning percentage totals of 40%.

Jarkko Ruutu -- 25 GP, 4 G, 5 A, 9 Pts

While he's still not immune from taking a dumb penalty or three, Ruutu is on pace to best his mark of 21 points last year. (His career high.) He's on pace to put up 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points.

Nick Foligno -- 25 GP, 5 G, 4 A, 9 Pts

Based off last season's strong finish, Nick was a logical choice for a breakout Senator this season. Unfortunately it seems as though Foligno has joined the company of Vermette and Eaves'esqe category of young Senators players who've failed to significantly progress past they had shown in their sophomore years. Nick's currently on pace (16-13-29) to fall short of last year's mark of 32 points.

Chris Phillips -- 25 GP, 3 G, 5 A, 8 Pts

While Phillips is on pace to match the best offensive output of his career -- 9.84 goals, 16.9 assists, 26.74 points.

Chris Campoli -- 24 GP, 1 G, 6 A, 7 Pts

Considering what Bryan Murray gave up to bring in Campoli and the fact that he's headed towards restricted free agency, there's no better time for Campoli to get his shit together. To say that he's been an underachieving disappointment is an understatement. He's currently on pace for 3.37 goals, 20.25 assists and 23.67 points.

Anton Volchenkov -- 11 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 Pts

Should we be surprised that Volchenkov's putting up his best offensive totals in the year in which he's headed towards unrestricted free agency? On pace for 6.18 goals, 24.73 assists and 30.9 points, Volchenkov's set to beat his career mark for points (21), even though he missed 14 games due to an elbow injury.

Chris Neil -- 22 GP, 4 G, 1 A, 5 Pts

Even though I still think his contract is too expensive, I'll give credit where it's due, Ottawa's 4-year, $8M man is playing well. However, with each passing year, it's looking more and more like that 16 goal 05-05 season was a statistical anomaly.

Peter Regin -- 19 GP, 3 G, 2 A, 5 Pts & Matt Carkner -- 25 GP, 2 G, 3 A, 5 Pts & Jesse Winchester -- 9 GP, 0 G, 4 A, 4 Pts

I'll omit critique here because I don't have much of a sample size to work with. Although it's safe to say that Carkner's better than the typical AHL journeyman.

Jonathan Cheechoo -- 25 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 Pts

Any time you want to break out of your slump Machu Cheechoo, let us know. His 6 goal, 6 assist, 12 point pace will establish his career worst. What does Ottawa do?

Erik Karlsson -- 11 GP, 0 G, 4 A, 4 Pts

Even though he's undersized and is pretty green, assuming Karlsson plays in every game moving forward, he's on pace to put up close to 30 assists.

Ryan Shannon -- 17 GP, 0 G, 3 A, 3 Pts

Based off of last year's second half under Clouston, Shannon was expected to provide some decent and affordable secondary scoring. In recent games, he's showing signs of life but more consistency is needed here.

Brian Lee -- 13 GP, 2 G, 1 A, 3 Pts

On pace for 10.76 goals, 5.31 assists, Lee was sent down and based off of recent rumours, we may not get a chance to see him again in a Senators uniform.

Earlier this morning, I touched upon how Dany Heatley did himself and the Senators organization a disservice by refusing to disclose any information or reasoning as to why he wanted out of Ottawa. Since his camp only revealed the details Heatley was dissatisfied with his role and his relegation to the second power play unit, Heatley wound up losing the public relations battle in hockey circles because it helped foster the perception of him as a spoiled twat. It also didn't help matters that fans microanalysed the situation and backed up the premise with objective statistics that the team and Heatley performed better while under Clouston's watch. For most fans, things didn't add up and we were left searching for answers to an inexplicable breakup that blindsided the organization.

Thankfully, because of the efforts of Bruce Garrioch, we finally have some more candid insight from Bryan Murray as to why Heatley wanted out. In comments made this morning by Murray, he said he believes Heatley had issues with his teammates’ roles, and wasn’t convinced the club was headed in the right direction.

“It was ice time, importance on the team. It was all the things that you guys wrote about. Dany certainly didn’t like the media pointing out things that he wasn’t doing. He seemed to be offended by that.

He may have had a problem with some of his teammates. I think he felt that a couple of veteran guys, in particular, were more recognized than he was. That seems a little far-fetched to me.

I think it just came down to the fact I don’t think he thought our team was great. He thought going to a different location — and a good team like San Jose — might put him close to winning a championship.” ~ Ottawa Sun

In summary, Dany doesn't do backchecking. Nor does he evoke a work ethic in practice. We're talking about practice man. Practice. As long as he scores goals and flirts with 40-50 goals, who gives a fuck? Dany wanted to be paid and recognized as a superstar but was uncomfortable with how veterans like Chris Neil had more clout, even though they had one-eighth the talent. And finally, Dany Heatley's a frontrunning son of a bitch who prefers the easy ride in life.

Paraphrasing Murray on Team 1200

You'll have to excuse the short-form nature of this recap, he was only on for 15 minutes with Steve Lloyd and Jason York but covered a variety of topics.

• The three talked about last night's Grey Cup game and the too many men call that cost the Riders the game. They reminisced briefly about Don Cherry's Bruins and their infamous game against the Habs where Lafleur scored. Blah blah blah.
  
• Segueway into late heroic antics and Milan Michalek's goal against the Bruins on Saturday night. Even though Murray felt the team dominated the play for the first period, he felt that they were fortunate to get a point after playing a lousy last 40 minutes. The conversation shifted to Ottawa's misfortunes in the shootout and Murray said that even though the shootout is entertaining for the fans, he hated the fact that teams lose out on points because of it.
• If Tim were making this post, he'd make some artsy comment about one of his favorite tunes, The Ice of Boston by The Dismemberment Plan. Anyways, Murray, Lloyd and Mr. Lu Lu Lemon briefly discussed the poor ice quality in Boston and how bad it could be during the next few games during Ottawa's road trip on the Pacific.
  
• Erik Karlsson gets brought up. Murray was never concerned with the ten game threshold that kicked in the first year of Karlsson's entry level deal. Murray mentioned how it's best to do what's right for Karlsson, saying that he needs to develop at the NHL level and he alluded to the fact that Karlsson had 12 points in Bingo. He also mentions how Ottawa's desperate for some offence from the blueline and that Karlsson looks ready and willing to compete from his observations during practice. (Which is awesome, because that's something I look for in an undersized, green defenceman as well.)
  
• Bryan continues to mention that Volchenkov will play tomorrow night and that the decision is up to Clouston whether or not Karlsson will be a healthy scratch tomorrow or for the rest of the trip. (I think there's a better chance that I'll be buying a Heatley San Jose jersey than this sequence of events unfold.)
  
• When Brian Lee's demotion is brought up, Murray mentions that management and the coaching staff felt that Lee had lost his way in the last four games after a strong start to his recall. Murray maintains that Lee needs to develop and reflect confidence in his play, so that's why he's going back to Bingo to play some significant minutes against lesser competition. Murray does mention that this isn't a kiss of death and that Lee will be recalled at some point this season. Somewhere at that moment, Chris Campoli's balls ascended into his torso.
  
• Even though Brian Elliott took a shot to his forearm and had to leave practice early, Murray reaffirmed that he will not miss any time and will be expected to carry the load until Pascal Leclaire is healthy enough to play. When Jason York asked Murray if Mike Brodeur would see some time, Murray bluntly responded with a "I hope not."
  
• Apparently Murray wants to see Elliott run with the ball in Leclaire's absence since he feels that he has shown considerable progress since last season.
  
• The three briefly touch upon Heatley but Murray reiterates that he's moved past the issue and that he feels that the Senators have developed into a better team and are competing better as a team. (The emphasis in the last sentence is on the word team.)
  
• On the topic of Michalek and Cheechoo, it turned into a Michalek love in. Verbal fellatio from everyone concerning Michalek's complete game. Murray is pleased with Michalek's start since the organization had projected 25 goals from him. While Cheechoo continues to produce at a slightly above Muckaltian rate, Murray praises him for his good work ethic and attitude. And here I was thinking Chris Neil was the most overpaid character guy in the League.