Silver Nuggets: Scoring the first NHL goal
On Thursday Tuesday night, Jared Cowen became the third Ottawa Senators player to score his first career NHL goal this season, joining Stéphane Da Costa and Kaspars Daugavins. The one player on the roster still waiting for his first goal is David Rundblad (but he won't get the chance tonight).
Cowen scored his first goal at age 20 in his 13th game, Da Costa did it at the age of 21 (in front of me no less!) in his sixth game and Daugavins scored at the age of 23 in his fifth NHL game. How does that compare with the other Senators? Erik Karlsson scored his first as only a 19-year old in his 21st NHL game, Nikita Filatov and Milan Michalek both scored at age 18 in their first career NHL games, while Jason Spezza took only three games as a 19 year old. Going way back, Daniel Alfredsson scored in his second career game as a 22-year old. It was on the road against the Florida Panthers that I have no memory of at all, but some of you likely do.
It's always a special moment for a young player to score his first goal and fulfill a life long dream. As mentioned during the broadcast against the Bruins, the player is never supposed to ask to get the puck, but the player's teammates always seem to know. David Rundblad is going to score sooner or later this year. There is a good chance Mika Zibanejad and Jakob Silfverberg get their first goals next season. Maybe, Andre Petersson will get a shot at some point this year as well. Here's to many more from our young players!
I am going to finalise the tickets for the Senators/Panthers game on 22 December by next week, email me the address on my profile if you still want in. Links after the jump.
Tonight's game
- Kaspars Daugavins is back and will replace Zenon Konopka in the lineup. The lines are: 1) Greening-Spezza-Michalek, 2) Foligno-Da Costa-Butler, 3) Daugavins-Smith-Neil, 4) Condra-Winchester-Filatov. (Sylvain St-Laurent)
- Brian Lee will also return to the lineup and replaces David Rundblad. The pairings are 1) Kuba-Karlsson, 2) Cowen-Gonchar, 3) Phillips-Lee. (Sylvain St-Laurent)
- Game preview. (Ottawa Sun)
- Everyone predicts a loss tonight except Steve Lloyd. Peter shockingly predicted Ottawa gets shutout. For shame Peter, for shame. (Senators Extra)
- Here is a pretty interesting article that shows how rare Daniel Alfredsson is. There are seven NHL organisations that started before or at the same time as Ottawa that have never had a player score 1000 points for them. Another four that have never had a player play 1000 games for them. (Black Aces Ottawa)
- The Canadiens are scared of the mighty Ottawa power play. (Ottawa Citizen)
- Shane Prince was named OHL player of the week after recording seven assists in two games. (OHL)
- Steve Warne appears to have given up on Nikita Filatov already, comparing his struggles to Colin Greening's success. While Greening has been impressive, it's worth mentioning Filatov is 21 and Greening is 25. Greening was no where near the NHL at age 21. (TGOR Nation)