Go Sens!! Have a great long weekend everyone

I don't think this team can win without Alfredsson, but anything is possible I guess.

I'm saying 5-3 Red Wings and 4-2 Phoenix while Alfie is out.

Have a safe long weekend all.

GO SENS! Going to be a great weekend


Everyone have a safe gobble gobble weekend!

As much as I hate to lose our captain for a few weeks.......it may be a good thing.

First, its in teh beginning of the season. Get that knee fixed now rather than in the playoffs.

Secondly, it'll give someone the opportunity to step up and show what they can do with more ice. Actually, it gives a few people more ice and a few others the opportunity to take the reins and start leading.

Hopefully it turns out to be a giid thing.


For tonight though, I'm worried. The Wings are coming in angry after a big loss to the Leafs (who wouldn't be angry losing to them?). And, Ottawa will be nervous in their home opener after last playoff stinker.

I have a feeling the guys might try to do too much - be too pretty (no, I'm not looking at Spez, rather the whole team will try to be 'pretty', they always do that at home). Hopefully Hartsburg might've started to drill some (not all, we do need some pretty) of the prettiness out and replaced it with more of a lunchbox work ethic.

Go Sens! This is going to be a fuuuun weekend!

I think the boys will be just fine. I cannot wait. We are heading over around 6 to take in the festivities before the game. The place is going to he heaving. Its going to be an amazing time.

For those who are watching the game tonight, have an good time.

First sign that it's gonna be a long and cruel winter. Actually, it's the second sign. Here is the first, in case you missed it yesterday in the Toronto Sun.

Fan Fare
Letter of the Day
By SUN READERS

Last Updated: 9th October 2008, 2:55am

SENS SINKING LOW

Granted, the season is barely underway, but it seems the 2008-09 Senators are built with the pre-lockout dump-and-chase play in mind, much more than the game of nightly highlight goals and blinding speed that we have enjoyed the past three years.

But hey, just like government, mediocrity quickly sets when you operate under a climate of patronage appointments, which is exactly what general manager Bryan Murray has done. OK, it might also help if he refrained from losing stars to free agency for zilch or getting players one or two years too late. The team is thus left with an aging and lead-footed defence corps, two No. 2 goalies and an alarming lack of offensive punch past the Pizza Line.

Add to the mix a new coach already on his third NHL stint and you get an instant recipe for stiff pies, if not regular 8-1 routs by the opposition.

I'm convinced that 2008-09 will be the first of many consecutive seasons in which the Senators miss the playoffs. While this is bound to happen to any team during its long course, what if the Senators continue to ice a non-playoff team? When exacerbated by mounting fuel prices and lower disposable incomes, this could cause the season-ticket base to decrease to a level under 8,000.

Perhaps owner Eugene Melnyk would be wise to consider not spreading himself too thin with his pipe dream for a soccer facility in a hockey-only town and instead concentrate on getting his house in order.

Hopefully, he will come to his senses before handing out Christmas bonuses and realize that one cannot aspire to win a horse, er, hockey race with two old nags like Roy A. Mlakar and Murray at the reins. In the meantime, Eugene, might I suggest you switch your musical allegiances from the Eagles to Dire Straits?

Interesting letter JP, do you happen to know who wrote it? Mind you, on reading it again, I recognize it as a letter I have read many times, on the same theme, with a few facts and dates changed. So much for original thought.

Myself, I am looking forward to seeing how the team (and goalie) performs over more than a two-game stretch. I also think 3 points out of 4 is not a bad start.

I am with you Steve. I am not a Sens management fan but I still love the Sens; although, after watching the first period and witnessing Winchester not touch the puck once and scared to venture beyond the other teams blueline...I ask why is he in the lineup and Bass sent down? Apparently the coaching staff asked Bass to do more with the puck...shouldn't that apply to Winchester too...and if you don't touch the puck...nail someone please...Cody does!

Lots of jitters out there tonight. A lot of missed passes. Semms like the team has a very fragile confidence on the ice; they needed a good 4-5 shifts to settle down after each goal against.

However, I really loved the hustle and determination the team showed. I think we will be tougher to play against this season. Will it lead to more wins? Maybe, maybe not. But they will be more interesting to watch, in any rate.

And what a difference a year makes. Foligno looks like he gained a bit of speed and a lot of muscle out there. A lot of hard work, grit and determination. He was like a bulldog going for the puck out there......and that goal! Beautiful!

Gerber has to start looking bigger in the net. Even when he stands outside his crease, his arms and legs are so tight to his body that he looks frozen out there. The first and second goal were a bit iffy (I can forgive one goal like that per game, not two), but the third one he defiitely should've had if his stance was a little bigger, a little more fluid.

JP - You had a letter published in the Sun. Congrats. But, don't let it go to your head. (I had a few political letters published by the Sun and Citizen in my mid-teens, and boy, when it gets to your head bad things happen. I know from experience on that one.)

While I agree on your negative assessment of Murray, Mlakar is pretty decent. His biggest flaw is his loyalty to Murray.

Ok.

I was at the game, the pre-game stufff was great and we looked solid and gritty through two.

I just have two comments, three actually:

This team is completely lost without Alfie.

Spezza must be injured because he can be much more dynamic than he is now.

Gerber made my heart skip with each rebound he made, I almost cried when he let in that third goal.

Sigh...go Sens against Phoenix!

I don't like the number of shots they give up. I go back to "who is supposed to stop the opposing teams"? Our defence looked frantic out there. Vermette was the best guy on the ice and Winchester the worst. Can someone please explain why he was on the power play? Can someone explain why he is on the top line...he didn't touch the puck in the first period or hit anyone! Spez and Heatley are playing short handed...Ruutu is a 4th liner at the very best and Winchester isn't an NHLer at all. What is the rational...check out other top lines in the league, you wont find a 6 goal scorer on the top line. If Winchester has potential (he played Junior B, was never drafted by a major junior club and scored all of 9 goals his last year in university) why not let him show it in the A?

I think jet leg and the fatigue factor is why we lost. Even Angry Al on the team this morning raised this silly insane alibi. Steve Warne will be on and on tomorrow about fatigue.

No matter how you look at, the last goal was very weak. Gerber is mediocre second string goalie, no more, no less.

Sens simply do not look like a solid team without Alfie.

I don't buy the jet lag excuse.

Pittsburgh, New York, Tampa also went overseas. New York is 4-0 (!) Pittsburgh played the Devils very close.

We're just an average team now. And there are still players that get away with a lot of bad habits based on rep.

Hopefully they make the playoffs this year...they likely won't advance unless thei upgrade the goaltending though.

No. No excuses. Not this year.

If the goaltending let us down then the organization has to say straight up "we didn't get the goaltending we need to win" or "the defense has to stop imitating pylons in our zone."

If the team starts making excuses now, then we're finished.

Bobby is right. Winchester looked like he didn't know what he was doing out there. He isn't a kid - he's 25 and has experience under his belt. I'm hoping it was just first game (at home) jitters.

wow folks....I must admit, some of us must have been watching a different hockey game and different games so far this season. I, personally, am much more impressed with our presence this year - I recall so many of you bitching about that last year. We have played three games this year - let the boys settle down this year and figure their way - there were a lot of changes this year. Gerber...I am not gonna go there, but i will simply say that when you get 40 shots against you, the puck is bound to go in here and there. Bad bounce, good bounce...whatever...they will go in....

I'm with you Ja. The sky is certainly falling for some chicken littles. It's October for goodness sake. I'm not saying that this team will be great this year, or that they'll even make the playoffs, but its still very early for a team that made a ton of changes this off-season. The goaltending is a different issue, and this organization's never had top-notch goaltending, except in the Hasek days.
This year's team might not make the playoffs, after 12 (?) some years, which has to happen in every organization. It'll be very interesting to see how this fanbase reacts when that day comes.

There are certainly positives...Foligno rounding out is one, the general toughness is another.

On the other hand, there are alarming warning signs:

-Inconsistent goaltending
-Spezza turning over the puck as regularly as he scores
-Spotty secondary scoring
-Team lacks direction without Alfredsson

Go Sens against Phoenix, but...missing the playoffs and having it blow up in their faces may well be a positive, in that Murray will be exposed and so will the players.

I thought Detroit exposed the Sens defense as being too slow & lacking in any puck movement skills. Gerber is pathetic, even when he stops the puck he looks lost. Now I'm not a Sidney Crosby fan but how can these clueless refs allow him to be mugged, game after game, by plowhorses like Jason Smith? We are sliding back to the same old same old, where lesser players were allowed to nulify the best players. In a game lacking in entertainment, this lack of protecting the stars is a fatal mistake.

Sens next game is Friday vs Phoenix. I was a bit shocked to hear on the Team 1200 that apparently Wayne and Janet are having marital problems. I am now wondering if these marital problems will be a factor if Phoenix loses or will the RUST Factor (Sens will have played twice in 12 days) will offset Waynes woes. You can bet money that the media, and the Team 1200 will remind us big time about this so-called Rust Factor.

Who made this schedule? 2 games in 12 days? Rust is not an excuse, and no one better use it. My worry is the team must have a hellish stretch somewhere in the schedule that makes up for this downtime.

Jim - I agree, we have to make sure the clutching and grabbing and tackling stay out of the game. In Crosby's particular case, however, there's only so many times the kid can cry wolf to the refs before they turn a blind eye, if you know what I mean. He probably won't get the calls until he matures a little more. I'll let others decide if that's right or wrong.

Ja, Dennis - With the Sens its just so easy to go into Chicken Little mode. We've see the same weaknesses, the same mistakes, the same lax attiude for so long now, that it feels like Groundhog Day in Sensland sometimes.

But, you're both right. The stay our boys are playing out there is different from the last two years. More grit, more feistiness, more sense of urgency. Their confidence is still somewhat fragile at this point, but there are a lot of positives.