Senators Ups and Downs: Week 8

Today's biggest down arrow goes to the injury-prone Mark Parisi, who is out with an upper body injury. So today you get the substitute teacher. Be nice, and don't throw pinecones at me.

Biggest gains: Zack "Z. Smith" Smith

Coming in to this week, Z. Smith had not scored since March 8, 2012. Coming out of this week, Z. Smith has two goals. He got some time on the top line, such as it is, and played very well with Daniel Alfredsson and Milan Michalek. It probably won't last forever, but right now Z. Smith is on fire, NBA Jam style.

Biggest losses: Kaspars Daugavins

Scratched for both games this week, making it nine healthy scratches on the year. It's not that Daugavins has been bad, he's just been on the rotating scratch list on the bottom lines. He's less likely to score than Mark Stone, and on a team starved for goals, frankly Stone is more valuable on the ice than Daugavins. At least he has plenty of friends in the press box. Just stay away from the Double Down.

Goalies	Trend	Notes
Craig Anderson		Still injured, but retains his post atop the NHL goalie leaderboard.
Ben Bishop		Only played one game and was terrible. He'll bounce back.
Robin Lehner		Got his first win of the season, taking the coveted title of "Best Student of Michael Lehner" from Henrik Lundqvist.
Defensemen
Andre Benoit		Had an assist and didn't really screw up too much, but didn't do anything special.
Jared Cowen		Hanging out in the press box staring at his phone. Pay attention and learn something, Jared!
Sergei Gonchar		Three assists and is now on a three-game point streak. It's nice to see him finally stepping up.
Matt Kassian		Ugh. Why?
Erik Karlsson		Seen walking around with two running shoes. Try not to rush back too quickly, Erik.
Mike Lundin		Went 26 seconds this week before no longer being the most recently concussed Senator.
Marc Methot		Only a neutral because he was already the most competent defenceman left standing.
Chris Phillips		Seems to really hate the Rangers' Micheal Haley since he racked up 19 penalty minutes in one fell swoop going after him.
Patrick Wiercioch		Looks more and more like a legitimate NHL player every game. Scored an elusive first-period goal, giving the Senators an even more elusive first period second goal.
Forwards
Daniel Alfredsson		See "Teemu Selanne."
Erik Condra		When Erik Condra is on, he is on. One of the best Senators against Toronto with two primary assists.
Kaspars Daugavins		See "biggest losses."
Dave Dziurzynski		Reignited the fighting debate after being knocked unconscious by Frazer McLaren 26 seconds into the game against Toronto. Suffered a concussion, unsurprisingly. Could have been way worse.
Derek Grant		Down arrow as in literally sent down to the minors. Scored the winning goal for Binghamton on Sunday with 3 seconds left in the third period.
Colin Greening		It's nice when Greening scores. Lots of shots, lots of hits, and had some chemistry with Erik Condra.
Guillaume Latendresse		Who?
Milan Michalek		Two assists in his first two games back. Michalek can accurately be described as one of the few remaining talents on the team.
Chris Neil		No longer on the power play and suddenly the Senators start scoring. Correlation!
Jim O`Brien		Despite being the active leader in goals at the time, Jim O'Brien got scratched one game this week and then won zero faceoffs against the Rangers. Dammit, JOB, you had one job!
Peter Regin		Sure, you were good last week, but what have you done for us lately? Was -2 and had only two shots on goal this week.
Jakob Silfverberg		Seems to have regained a bit of his confidence. Scored the winner against New York with five minutes left.
Zack Smith		See "biggest gains."
Jason Spezza		Sounds like recovery is going well and he's on the fast track to returning. Could be as few as two weeks.
Mark Stone		Stone was on the ice in the final minutes down 5-4 in his first NHL regular season game.
Kyle Turris		Won a lot of faceoffs, but didn't score. Come on, Kyle, even Zack Smith scored!
Mika Zibanejad		Another goal for Zibanejad. He's showing some real potential and is starting to look more and more worthy of his draft ranking.