Paddock is Sticking with Winning Line-up

At the begining of the year the Senators’ new coach John Paddock, like last year’s coach Bryan Murray, wanted to balance the Senators’ attack.

He kept the line-up fairly static through the first 9 games but as the games neared their end, Shean Donovan and later Randy Robitaille began getting more ice-time at the expense of rookie forward Nick Foligno.

The lines to start off the year:

Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley

Foligno-Fisher-Neil

Kelly-Vermette-Eaves

Schubert-Donovan-McGrattan

With the signing of Randy Robitaille, the 4th line has changed slightly:

Schubert-Robitaille-Donovan

In the last game against New Jersey, after Heatley took a few cheap shots, Paddock decided to protect his stars by rotating tough guy Chris Neil with Spezza and Heatley on the top line.  One of the major assets of John Paddock is not only the fact that he can roll 4 lines but he can also rotate players lines 1 through 4 without much problem.  How many team’s leading penalty in minutes leaders can also play alongside their top two point producers?

Until the top line gets entirely shut-down by an opponent’s checking line there really isn’t any reason to change it up.

Still looking for a 2nd line centre

The sweepstakes for Peter Forsberg just wont go away. Always on the hunt for more veteran “championship” leadership, Peter the Great’s name is always on top of Sens’ fans wishlists.

While some fans take the high road on Forsberg and insist that if something isn’t broke, then don’t fix it. However, with virtually the exact same team as last year, do the Sens really have what it takes to win it all this year? While their record thus far is incredibly impressive, everybody knows that regular season success doesn’t necessarily mean a Stanley Cup.

Forsberg is apparently looking for a 3-year $15-million contract. However there’s another potential 2nd line center that may be available in the next few weeks, with a Stanley Cup ring, with 15 20-goal season, with sound skills in both zones and who has 2 years (after this one) left on his contract worth half of what Forsberg is asking.

That player? Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars.

After the ‘C’ was taken away from him last year a slow start has demoted him to the 4th line in between Steve Ott and Todd Fedoruk this year. At 37 years old, he’s definitely showing signs of age but there is no doubt that he has at least 1 more Stanley Cup run in him. The best part about Modano is that his cap hit is only $3.5 million since his contract was front loaded when he signed it.

Although Dallas is not in the running for one of the Sens’s two goalies, they could benefit from one of our younger players up front or a big defenseman on D.

Gameday: at New Jersey Devils October 27th, 2007

A few notes following tonight’s game:

- This game had a playoff atmosphere right from the drop of the puck. The Sens did really well in weathering storm and jumping out to a lead early in the 2nd.

- Gerber played well but struggled with a few saves in the early going. Once settled in he still over played the puck a few times but all-in-all a great effort. Especially considering that his last start was 9 days ago.

- Coach John Paddock is really using Randy Robitaille well in the early going. Robitaille is showing that he can log solid shifts 5-on-5 and on the Power Play. He plays very on the 4th line with Schubert and Donovan and Paddock slides him up on late in the game for some shifts with Mike Fisher. I hope Paddock wont forget about Robitaille once McAmmond’s shoulder returns to game shape.

- Daniel Alfredsson had another great game and was highlighted a few times by the New Jersey announcer’s for his solid play in both ends. While Vincent Lecavalier has been praised in the Media about his all-around style of play, Alfredsson continues to quietly lead his team every night.

Forsberg to Ottawa?

Could it really happen?

Mike Comrie was supposed to come in and fill the void last night but he ended up playing the vast majority of the games on the wing.  The year before that?  Tyler Arnason.  Before that?  Take your pick:  Radek Bonk who turned into a “defensive specialist” with Montreal… Bryan Smolinski who oddly enough also turned into a defensive specialist with Montreal…  Todd White who only had 9 goals that year.

Enter Peter Forsberg! A healthyForsberg helps any team in the NHL.  A select few teams, which Ottawa is one of them, could actually slide him comfortably at #2 and still be productive.  We have 2 snipers on the team that need a setup man.  Jason Spezza has shown that he can feed Dany Heatley and with Forsberg in the lineup he could very easily setup Daniel Alfredsson in the same light.

He’s unwilling to give definite time line for his return but Ottawa fans can rest assured that he’ll at least get a phone call from Bryan Murray if he decides he can play.

Did Emery do enough?

In another chippy, hard fought battle against their former head-coach, Jacques Martin, and the Florida Panthers then Ottawa Senators once again clawed their way to a victory. With the win, the Sens increased their league leading record to 8-1.

The game was the first at the NHL level since losing Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year for Ray Emery. Was it enough for him to regain his position as the Sens’ number 1 goalie? For the most part, he was untested during the game. Sure he made 32 stops in the victory but of them came from Florida’s defencemen and let’s face it… any team with Jacques Martin as a head coach probably wont be generating much offense.

Regardless of Emery’s play, I believe he will still get the start on Saturday against New Jersey. During the Team1200’s pre-game show, one of the announcers made a very good point. Ray Emery played spectacularly in last year’s playoffs against New Jersey, so why not give him another shot? The month of November will be a very busy one for the Sens as they start off the month with 6 games in 10 days. We can expect John Paddock to continue playing his goalies in tandem until one of them separates himself from the other.

Once again, fans and media in Ottawa will have 6 days to play guessing games until the next game.

As a side note, Patrick Lalime made 28 saves at the Air Canada Centre to beat the Leafs. It was his first game back at the ACC since his imploding during 2003-04 playoffs against Toronto.