Silver Nuggets: October review and looking ahead to November

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:00 PM EDT in Silver Nuggets

October is over and done with and it went surprisingly well in the end for the Senators. Ottawa went 1-5 in the first six games and 6-0 in the last six games. As I mentioned before, the Senators were trailing almost the entire time in the first six games (78.7%) and led only 0.8% of the time. During the streak, the Senators lead 30.1% of the time, trailed 25.5% of the time and were tied for 44.4% of the time. Overall in the first twelve games, Ottawa trailed 51.9% of the time and led only 15.6% of the time. So now that you know that Ottawa escaped with a 7-5 record despite only leading for 15.6% of the minutes played, who is responsible for their success?

The Main Players: Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek and Erik Karlsson. What can you say about these players, they were spectacular and are the three best players on the team. Spezza leads the team in points with 15, Michalek leads the team in goals with 8 and Karlsson leads the club (and the NHL) in assists with 12. I don't want to imagine where the Senators would be without these three players. Of the 36 goals the Senators have scored, 25 of those goals have involved at least one of these three players and often more.

The Supporting Cast: Sergei Gonchar, Filip Kuba, Chris Phillips, Colin Greening, Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Neil. Gonchar has really been turning it up lately and he now has 9 points in his 11 games. Kuba has been solid in both ends of the rink and playing against the opposition's top lines with Karlsson. Phillips is having a much better season with a reduced role. His partnership with David Rundblad is allowing him to spend a lot less time in his own zone. Greening has been a very pleasant surprise on the top line and already has four goals. Alfredsson has come up with the plays when the team needed it the most, he will be missed while he is hurt. Neil, while annoying me at times, has largely been good and sparked a couple of rallies.

Looking ahead to November, the schedule is a lot tougher. Eight of the twelve games are on the road, including a six-game road trip with stops in western Canada. For what is worth, seven of the eight teams in a playoff spot on the morning of 1 November 2010 finished in the top eight last season.

Also thanks to Erin, we can have seats in the lower half of the 300 level for the 22 December against the Florida Panthers for $31. Email me at the address on my profile if interested. We are in the 20 people range now! Links after the jump.

Tonight's game

Game preview. (Ottawa Sun)
Some what of a split on the panel tonight. Five predict a Boston win, three are going with Ottawa. Peter went with 3-1 in favour of the Bruins. Poor Ian Mendes has a 3-9 record. (Senators Extra)
Lines today: 1) Greening-Spezza-Michalek, 2) Foligno-Da Costa-Butler, 3) Condra-Smith-Neil, 4) Filatov-Winchester-Konopka. (Allen Panzeri)
Brian Lee is a scratch for the seventh straight game. Defensive pairings remain the same. (Allen Panzeri)

General Sens News

Jason Spezza feels the two losses to Philadelphia and Colorado helped the club. Had the club lost them in close games, the team might not have realised it needed to change things. (Senators Extra)
Bryan Murray isn't happy about Wojtek Wolski not being disciplined for his hit on Daniel Alfredsson. Alfredsson will be out of action for at least one week. (Senators Extra, Ottawa Sun)
Wayne Scanlan looks back at the Senators winning streak and how they won each game. (Ottawa Citizen)
Chris Stevenson feels the Senators recent success is largely because of their ability to move the puck out of their zone quickly. The David Rundblad pass for Colin Greening's goal was particularly impressive. Stevenson also thinks Jason Spezza has been the best centre in the NHL so far. (Toronto Sun)
Another one of Ottawa's puck movers, Erik Karlsson, is a restricted free agent at the end of the season. We've previously had a discussion here about his contract extension, here is another look. (Welcome To Your Karlsson Years)
The Senators didn't know what to expect, but they are not surprised at their recent success. A major part of the success has been their power play. Colin Greening has been standing in front of the net on the power plays, and it is going to get tough for him tonight to do it against Zdeno Chara. (Ottawa Sun)
Mika Zibanejad is back in Sweden and doing interviews in Swedish. I am only posting this so you can watch him speak Swedish. (Dragskott)
After each game, Gord Wilson interviews a player in a segment called Senators All Access. After the Toronto game, it was Robin Lehner. Lehner, wearing a Binghamton Senators shirt, was impressed with the atmosphere and made a point to say the Ottawa fans were better than the Toronto ones. He also has no hair. (Ottawa Senators)

General Hockey News

You know who else is a big fan of Alexander Ovechkin aside from me? Wayne Gretzky is, judging by this stick received by the Capitals public relations guy. (Sergey Kocharov)
How bad are things for the 15th place Bruins? Just four months after winning the Stanley Cup, they are on board with Fail for Nail. Note: Yes, I know they are joking. (Stanley Cup of Chowder)
The Detroit Red Wings signed Niklas Kronwall (best known for Kronwalling Dany Heatley) to a seven-year $33.25 million extension. (Yahoo!)

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Comments

This isn't showing up on the main page again

Shows up on the RSS feed, and in the “Recent Posts” box within posts, but not on the main page at all.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 1:25 PM EDT reply actions

Hmm I just checked and it is there

Do you see it?

SBN is weird sometimes.

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions

It wasn't there, then it was, then it wasn't again. Then I posted about it.

But it’s there again now.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Ha, how odd.

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions

No realignment discussion links?

Seems to be a hot topic right now, especially with the 4 division setup talked about on Saturday night.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 1:44 PM EDT reply actions

Good point!

I can’t remember a link, but I saw one with Pens in our division. I like that!

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Here you go

Video of the Hotstove segment with Friedman talking about it – http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockeynightincanada/hotstove/video/#id=2162216125

Blog post by Friedman yesterday following up on the discussion – http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2011/10/realignment-plus-30-thoughts.html

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Well don’t just sit there, tell us what you think sir!

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I question the sensibility of deciding playoff spots within unbalanced divisions

I can’t see the teams in the 8-team division being as happy about that.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 1:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah it is completely unfair. And not just unfair in some years when a team is good or bad. It’s systematically unfair year-to-year.

What I would do is: top 3 from all 4 divisions make it, and the next 4 best teams across the league make it regardless of division/conference whatever you want to call it.

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions

It'd probably stick to within Conferences

4 wide-open wild card positions could make seeding a little messy. Suddenly you could have a 1st round match-up of Florida-Vancouver or Montreal-Los Angeles, when one of the teams gets seeded into the other conference.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I would also love to give the higher seed a huge advantage

5 home games out of 7.

Game 1: Higher seed
Game 2: Higher seed
Game 3: Lower seed
Game 4: Lower seed
Game 5: Higher seed
Game 6: Higher seed
Game 7: Higher seed

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions

I like this idea

But financially, no team would go for it.

Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs

by Mark Parisi on Nov 1, 2011 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree it is unlikely but:

- still keeps guaranteed 2 home games
- gives an extra game to the higher seed, so it is only a real disadvantage if you think you will always be a lower seed long term.

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions

There'd only be a 50% chance you'd be the higher seed in any given round

If I were an owner, I wouldn’t stake my future on a coin toss.

Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs

by Mark Parisi on Nov 1, 2011 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions

I dont understand this where is it from???

Dont most sports go home for game 1-2,6-7 and away 3-5 thats what is done in the NBA finals anways

by Beanster on Nov 1, 2011 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions

The NHL does home for 1-2, 5, 7, and away for 3-4, 6. That way no matter how many games the series is, the team with the better regular season record has equal or greater numbers of home games. That said, it increases the amount of travel necessary, so I can see why the other system is tempting.

by spez_dispenser on Nov 1, 2011 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Something like this is the AHL model, right?

Didn’t Bingo make it in last year as the best in a wild card race?

by sensory_experience on Nov 1, 2011 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions

...and I hit enter before I was done

I DO like the idea of divisional playoffs though.

Though it certainly comes with some benefits for a lot of the western teams – fewer games out of their own timezones, and mostly N-S travel with only minimal E-W travel.

The Penguins and Flyers aren’t happy about the idea of being split up, but Toronto and Detroit survived just fine.

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Toronto will survive any where

Detroit has a lot of national following too. I guess Pittsburgh does too now, so yeah they will be fine.

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions

That's the point

Philly and Pittsburgh aren’t new franchises. They don’t need the rivalry to develop a strong fan base at this point.

And besides, sometimes with fewer games, the rivalry can be stronger. I personally felt the Leafs-Habs rivalry lost some charm when they went from 2 games a year to 8 (and eliminated the chances of “the” Stanley Cup pairing happening again).

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I also think we'll see CBJ or Nashville come east, not Detroit

by B_T on Nov 1, 2011 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

SBNation has a story on realignment:

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/11/1/2529597/nhl-realignment-history-expansion

by DW19 on Nov 1, 2011 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions

I've advocated trading Spezza because the team doesn't have a winger capable of maximizing Spezza's talent

Although it’s early, the play of Michalek has me rethinking this stance. The addition of Greening to that line is really creating space for the playmakers, and they’re living up to their potential.

Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs

by Mark Parisi on Nov 1, 2011 1:50 PM EDT reply actions

Michalek and Greening: Making Mark think again since October 2011

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

I've been seriously impressed by Greening.

He wasn’t the one (of the young guns) who I expected to continue/improve his strong play this year. I was wrong.

by sensory_experience on Nov 1, 2011 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Wolski

It has already been discussed, but I think it looks bad on the NHL that Wolski got nothing. People have been saying that after being tough in pre-season now Shanahan is wussing out in his sentences. I tend to agree.

by DW19 on Nov 1, 2011 1:53 PM EDT reply actions

Movember

Hey mods – is is okay if I solicit donations for my Movember page here? Or would that be frowned upon? I can also make a Movember Fanshot if that’s better and everyone participating can post in there and if you wanna donate, that’s the place to look?

by The Tif on Nov 1, 2011 2:55 PM EDT reply actions

I wouldn't have any objections to a fanshot

Comments aren’t usually the place for those type of things.

Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs

by Mark Parisi on Nov 1, 2011 3:07 PM EDT up reply actions

This is absolutely true

We fully support Movember, and as long as you link to a legitimate sponsorship page, a FanPost or FanShot would be the right place for it.

We also must insist on ridiculous moustache updates.

Silver Seven | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail | eBay

by Peter Raaymakers on Nov 1, 2011 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Awesome thanks all!

by The Tif on Nov 2, 2011 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

I would suggest a FanPost instead of a FanShot

No one notices a FanShot unless it is front paged. :P

An Ottawa Senators supporter in Toronto, Ontario. I am cool like that.

by Adnan on Nov 1, 2011 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Hmmm....

We’ll see about that!

by spez_dispenser on Nov 1, 2011 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions

That Karlsson, what a joke.

Only leading the league in assists by 1? Pfft, the guy should stick to KISS cover acts.

by Smiles on Nov 1, 2011 3:43 PM EDT reply actions

Here's a link for some early 2012 mock drafts

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=74628

My early pick (Disregarding Fail for Nail talk) would have to be for Alex Galchenyuk, if we finish in the 24-27 range.

by Smiles on Nov 1, 2011 3:53 PM EDT reply actions

Surprising...

Every one of those mock drafts has Ottawa picking a forward. One of them even said that we have to take a forward because our crew up front is aging, which is ridiculous. Alfie is aging. Outside of that, I don’t really see that we have a problem there. We’ve also pretty clearly stocked the prospect pool with good forwards last draft.

Certainly if we end up picking 1-5 and there’s some elite forward on the table, we gotta take him. That said, this draft has been hailed as the year of the defenseman (and Nail). Now, we’re all used to looking at defence as a point of strength in our prospect pool, but our best prospects have graduated to the big league, and we’re looking at losing Kuba and possibly Gonchar this year. Borocop, Gryba and Wiercioch are decent prospects, but they aren’t enough. Unless Murray can grab Yakupov, Galchenyuk, Forsberg or Grigorenko, I’m betting that both our first and second round picks are going to be D.

by spez_dispenser on Nov 1, 2011 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Valid points

and I somewhat agree, my favourite second option is currently Griffin Reinhart. Having said that, I’m actually hoping we see something akin to a run, like in fantasy drafting. If Murray, Dumba, etc go quick, I’m hoping some other GM’s will start drafting the other D-men to ensure they don’t miss out. If that happens, there’s a good chance someone like Forsberg, Frk or Grigorenko slips a bit. And I still think our primary need is at forward. We’ve restocked the cupboards, but not with blue-chip prospects. Z-Bad and Silfverberg are the only ones really and Puempel, Noeson and Petterson – while solid prospects – are anything but guaranteed NHLers. If you look at our D, we have Karlsson, Cowen and Rundblad as very solid, young options – that’s fully half the D corps they dress each night. We’re nowhere near that % point for our forwards.

by Smiles on Nov 1, 2011 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions