Silver Nuggets: Fisher and Kovalev split up, powerplay shaken up

• Small lineup change for today, as Peter Regin moves up to play between Ryan Shannon and Alex Kovalev, while Mike Fisher moves between Nick Foligno and Chris Neil. Seems like an attempt to split up the offence into two scoring lines, but when will we see the reunion of the Foligno-Fisher-Shannon line? (Twitter)
• Who knows what to predict for tonight's game? Not the Citizen's prediction panel, which has possible scores that are all over the place. I hope Ian Mendes is right. (Citizen)
• "Thrashers struggling more than Senators"? That's a good sign, I guess. It's always good to be the less bad team. (CBC)
• For tonight's game, look for Fisher and Erik Karlsson to take the points on the first powerplay unit. The Sens' powerplay is now last in the NHL. (Sun)

(Read more... )

• Speaking of Fisher, he's in a tough position: As the team's leading scorer among healthy bodies, he's got higher expectations of point-production; then again, as one of two 'star' forwards in the lineup (along with Kovalev), the opposition's defencemen can focus almost solely on him. No wonder why he's scoreless in 13 games now. (Sens)
• UPDATE: Gotta love Don Brennan. He and some of his media brethren take some heat from two very frustrated goaltenders--Pascal Leclaire and Brian Elliott--and Brennan goes off the handle lecturing them on their inability to take criticism well. Which is a reflection of his own inability to take criticism well. (Sun)
• Allen Panzeri takes a good look at the situation the Senators find themselves in right now in terms of prospects. Namely, there aren't many, and even fewer of them are sure-fire NHLers, and a lot of that stems from former GM John Muckler's tenure. (Citizen)
• You can always count on questions about coaching when your team starts losing: SENS Town wants to know why assistant coach and powerplay guru Greg Carvel still has a job, and Five For Smiting wants to know why goaltending coach Eli Wilson is still in Ottawa's coaching stable.
• Duff thinks--in fact, is promising--that the Senators will miss the post-season. I don't want to believe it. (AOSB)
• Some crazy stuff down in Vancouver, with referee Stephane Auger's inegrity being called into question after a suspicious pre-game conversation and more suspicious third-period penalties on Alex Burrows and some other Canucks players. I'm intrigued to see how this pans out; Auger is not my favourite referee, but this seems like an accusation made on fairly stable ground. (Nucks Misconduct)
• Most of you probably know I really, really don't like Steve Downie because of the Dean McAmmond incident a few years back, but if he's ready to settle down and not be a douche, I'll be fine with him staying in the league and having some success. I'm still waiting for his apology, though. (Tampa Tribune)