Silver Nuggets: Senators end pre-season with win; Final cuts tomorrow

The Ottawa Senators finish their pre-season schedule with a 2-1 win. Though they were thoroughly outplayed through the first two periods, Craig Anderson kept it a one-goal game. Then in the third, goals by Daniel Alfredsson and David Rundblad lifted the Senators to a victory. Had a Mika Zibanejad goal not been disallowed, it could have been a Swedish hat trick in the third. With the win, the Senators hold the sixth seed and are four points clear for the final pre-season playoff spot!

Here are today's links:

Last game

• Stats from last night via NHL.com (Box score, Play by play, Game summary, Face-offs, Shift report)
• Recap of the game. (Silver Seven Sens, Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen)
• Video reaction after last night's game. MacLean named Jared Cowen, Colin Greening and Mika Zibanejad as his best skaters. He also felt that the second and third period from David Rundblad was the best he's seen from him. One thing I want to say about Rundblad is, the guy has a really, really heavy shot. It's incredible. (Paul MacLean, Sergei Gonchar, Craig Anderson, David Rundblad)

General Sens News

• UPDATE: Kaspars Daugavins has been placed on waivers, likely in anticipation of an AHL assignment. (Renaud Lavoie)
• If David Rundblad is cut tomorrow, he will have to decide between the AHL and the Elitserien. Ottawa's best defenceman, Erik Karlsson, feels Rundblad should stick around in North America, as that's the only way he can play in the NHL this year. As an side, Chris Neil doesn't understand the calls for him to be suspended over his hit on Mikhail Grabovski. (Ottawa Sun)
• Paul MacLean says that not much should be read into lines used in pre-season, as he was experimenting as often as period to period. Colin Greening sees his role as creating space for his more skilled linemates in Jason Spezza and Nikita Filatov. With both Spezza and Filatov preferring to pass, Spezza thinks he might have to start shooting more but still continue his passing game, calling it his 'bread and butter'. Also, Peter Regin is understandably relieved his injury isn't serious. (Ottawa Citizen)
• Mika Zibanejad's play might have earned him the second line centre spot, but should the Senators consider using up a year on his entry level contract? If they chose to do so, Zibanejad and Cowen will both finish their entry level deals in the same season. (Pro Hockey Talk)
• So, Craig Anderson is 20-10-2 when facing 40 or more shots. He is only 78-96-2 when he doesn't. (The 6th Sens)
• The Senators will unveil their new jersey tomorrow morning, at 'Puck Drop' starting at 9 a.m. Hmm, 9 a.m. on a Saturday...in Kanata? It will start with a used equipment sale, followed by the jersey unveiling and then an open practice at 10:30. (Ottawa Senators)
• There will be a stream on the Senators website for the jersey unveiling and open practice, starting at 10:20 a.m. (Ottawa Senators)
• A couple of Senators show up in this fantasy hockey article, which mentions that drafters should rank Nikita Filatov and David Rundblad a bit lower. (Yahoo!)

General Hockey News

• Alexander Radulov ripped his coach to Evgeni Malkin...in public, on twitter. Ha! I assume it was probably meant to be a private message to Malkin, but that was great. (Yahoo!)
• Brendan Shanahan told Peter Mansbridge that the NHL will look into the role of fighting in hockey. While I find fighting of any sort in hockey to be disgusting, at the very least I think you have to get rid of the fights that happen for the following two reasons. 1) Guy plays three minutes a night and needs to justify being there, I label this the Colton Orr fights. 2) Guy tries to "get his team going" and starts a fight without having any real reason to be upset at his opponent. These are the Chris Neil kind of fights. (CBC)
• When Daniel Alfredsson returns to his home town of Gothenburg, he got a five minute standing ovation. Henrik Lundqvist will likely get a similar welcome today when he plays against Frolunda. The captain of Frolunda? His twin brother Joel Lundqvist. (NHL.com)
• The Kings finally resigned Drew Doughty, extending him for 8 years worth a total of $56 million. At an average of $7 million per season, this is above Anze Kopitar's $6.8 million that Dean Lombardi did not want to go above. After holding out for most of training camp, will this impact Doughty's season? (Yahoo!)