Senators Prospect Roundup: BSens, Grant and Dzingel

Back at it after their All-Star break, the Binghamton Senators went winless on the weekend, a disappointing turn that saw them grab a point before being stung in overtime on Friday. Robin Lehner spent the few days in Miami, in case that interests you. I decoded that from his tweets, which are sandwiched by smiley faces and exclamation marks. Not as effusive as Filatov's formspring account, mind you.

Binghamton faced off on Friday against last year's first round playoff opponent, the Manchester Monarchs. Naturally, the game went to overtime (five in a row for these two teams), but finished with a Monarch goal with Stephane Da Costa sitting squeamishly in the penalty box. Mike Hoffman was Binghamton's top performer on the night, finishing with a pair of points, while Andre Petersson saw his impressive run stop, despite the six he threw on net. By the scoresheet, Binghamton's powerplay was 1-for-7, but they negated their first one only seconds in. The powerplay has been a strong suit for the B-Sens over the last few weeks.

David Rundblad had a point against the BSens as the Portland Pirates handled Binghamton fairly easily on Saturday night. The Coyotes' affiliate directed 37 shots against Lehner, while Binghamton put two past Justin "was-supposed-to-be-quite-good-but-didn't-pan-out" Pogge in a 5-2 loss.

Derek Grant:

Considering he was a fourth round pick in 2008, much was made of Derek Grant coming into this season. Emerging from a two-year career at Michigan State, Grant was a pretty unknown commodity for Sens fans. When Corey Pronman included Grant in his top-ten list of Senators' prospects, some started paying a little closer attention to the former BCHL-er. A player gifted with some terrific hockey intelligence, Grant has not translated his play into strong, consistent offensive output. This does not seem to have been lost on Coach Kleinendorst- Grant was a healthy scratch one and a half weeks ago when the B-Sens were playing some of their best hockey. KK may not have wanted to tamper much with his winning lineup, but it was not much of an endorsement of Grant's numbers. Grant did put up an assist this weekend.

Ryan Dzingel:

One of the Sens two seventh round selections, Dzingel is Ottawa's highest point-getter in the CCHA (Max McCormick, Jeff Costello, defenseman Chris Wideman), Dzingel has taken off in his first year at Ohio State. His 21 points through 27 put him in a tie with four others for 24th overall in league scoring. This is not a league like any in the CHL (especially, especially the QMJHL) where top scorers easily hover around 2 points-per-game, leaving us gazing at Jean-Gabriel Pageau's numbers with giddy senses of wonderment. To put it into some perspective, Blue Jackets' 3rd rounder TJ Tynan healthily leads the pack with 38 points in 29 games. On to Dzingel- he's a seventh round pick, and playing well. He isn't skyrocketing above his class- many of the other drafted players leading the charts were picked in the 6th and 7th rounds, with a few exceptions. He trails Riley Sheahan (1st round pick of the Red Wings) by one point.

Miscellanea:

• Take a gander at the weekly Senators prospect update. It's like this, only without my commentary!
• Jakob Silfverberg has 39 points in 39 games- five more than last season, despite having played fourteen less.

• Mika Zibanejad is healthy.
• Matt Puempel is not. He has been out for a month with the second concussion of his junior career. According to this unfortunately titled article in the Peterborough Examiner, he has begun light exercises, but is still not symptom-free. Concerning.