In case you missed last night, Alexei Kovalev got into a scrap with Francois Beauchemin. You have to love the heart shown by Kovie, in the pre-season no less, even if he did get owned. Shoutout for at least trying, but maybe stick to the more skillful type of play.
Thoughts on Kovie and the scrap?
Babydoll, seriously?
It was a spirited affair tonight, as the fake Battle of Ontario resumed, with the Leafs winning 4-3, after scoring a late powerplay goal from a selfish penalty taken by ol blue eyes with 3 minutes left. Not impressed, even if it is pre-season. With the loss the Sens fall to 2-4 in the fake hockey season.So that was that. Look for a few guys to be let go tomorrow before we head to the Big Apple to take on the Blueshirts in the first of a home and home to close out the fake season. Tonight wasn't the greatest effort, but there were some flashes of brilliance. So that's something to take away from the game.
With a goal and an assist, Chris Campoli wins the night.
Thoughts?
Let's get ready to rummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmble!!! Oh crap, I think I owe Michael Buffer like a million dollars now, oops. The fake Battle of Ontario resumes tonight at SBP, as both teams appear to be icing very close to regular season lineups. Thank God!and on the back end it will be:
The goalies will be Lehner and Pascal Leclaire, with Snoopy getting the start I've been told. Interesting to see, that Foligno has taken Regin's spot on the 2nd line for tonight. Let's see if Nicky boy can keep it up and clinch the Bochenski award.
For the Leafs the lineup will look like this:
Defence will be:
The Leafs will also dress their regular season netminders in JS Giguere and Gustavsson.
Should be an exciting game, with a number of jobs on the line for both clubs. This may be super overhyped prospect, Nazim Kadri's last chance to make an impression if he wants to play in the NHL season, so I imagine he will get some heavy ice time.
Thoughts on the fake Battle of Ontario tonight?
Today is the day we found out the fate of many of the guys at camp, and it wasn't good for a lot of them. The Sens, who for some reason had only cut 2 players so far, decided to clean house this morning and send numerous players packing. I would expect a few more to be shed after the game tonight as well.Thoughts on the cuts? Your fake GDP is coming later today.
Well that was a job, done! What a boring game, with the Sens falling 2-1 tonight. I'm sure the lack of talent + small ice didn't help things any either. This was one of the most boring games I had seen in awhile. It's almost like it didn't happen, since nothing really was newsworthy. If you didn't catch the game, consider yourself lucky. I appreciate what they're trying to do, but it's just a bad idea to play there. Luckily no one was injured.So back at it tomorrow, with a home game against the Maple Leafs at SBP. Most of our normal players will be playing then, so it will be a better game to watch. That's it for now.
Thoughts?
The Sens are back at it tonight, playing the Sabres in the 2010 Hockeyville classic in Dundas, Ontario. This is a big deal in a town of 24,000 but they won't be seeing many of our top players. The game is at 7pm and is available on TSN.and the defensive pairings will:
I imagine we are fielding such a weak lineup because A) it's not a home game for us and B) Most of the guys playing tonight are battling for a job. I would imagine cuts are coming tomorrow for some of these guys, so might be their last chance to impress.
Robin Lehner will start and is expected to go the full 60, with Brian Elliott backing him up. For the Sabres, the Dundas fans will get a treat, as Ryan Miller is starting and will go the full 60 as well.
This should be a pretty boring game, and I doubt it will be very pretty, but I will still watch because, well I want to see how we're progressing.
Thoughts?
Thoughts on Redden and the developments of today?
UPDATE @ 6PM: As per Redden's agent Don Meehan, Redden will report to Hartford and thus get his entire 6.5 million salary. I can't say I blame him. I would too.
With real hockey news to actually write about for a change, I've been sitting on a lot of links for the past few weeks. So now, like Nick Foligno exploding with goals, I am explaoding with information. Through a week and a bit of camp, I have to say, I love the look of our team, which is a great feeling to have. So without any major problems (minus Kuba injury), sit back and enjoy an extra extra long version of the links.-You know you're good when your former GM is praising you even after you left for more money.
-Call me crazy but what's the point of this?
-A feature on prospect Jared Cowen and another one here.
-This is sad news, can we do what's right and get him in the HHOF already?
-In hindsight, this was premature.
-It seems that married life agrees with Fisherwood.
-Granted I am not a memerobilia expert, but this seems pricey still.
-Yet another reason why Alfie is so awesome.
-Raising 120k for an afternoon is pretty solid, good job guys.
-This is pretty sad if you ask me.
-Top 30 player in the league rankings, check out #21.
-Former Sen jason Smith pled not guilty to those ugly charges from a few weeks ago.
-An interesting take for our season preview. Prepare for lots of hate mail for that Alfie crack from Sens fans.
-An interesting video with some Sens rookies, good for a few laughs.
-Hometown boy Corey Cowick is livin the dream......until he gets sent to the AHL.
-Despite it being the Leafs, I still kinda find this to be cool.
-Very nice to see after years of being so bad that Bingo is gonna have a good team this season.
-While I'm not sure who Pickler is, I'm going to have to agree with this.
-For all of your Fisherwood fans, you missed out on this.
-And finally, a super cool piece on how each NHL team got their name. It is a really interesting read and cool to see why some are named what they are.
Hope everyone enjoyed the links.
Thoughts?
Ever wondered how they make the ice at SBP? Well wonder no more, as they show you how it's done in this cool time lapse video. Interesting to see all the work that goes into making the ice, especially the painting of the creases, lines and logo.
Now it's Sunday, so go watch some football.
Thoughts?
The Sens are back at it tonight, hoping to avenge last night's defeat to the Habs. It is of course, also the Sens first home game of the 2010-11 season, after playing three on the road, winning 1 and dropping 2. The game will be the first time we see new signing, Sergei Gonchar, in a Sens uni. I'm pretty excited for this, perhaps too excited for a pre-season game.
The career decline of former Senator Wade Redden, is now over, as the New York Rangers have finally put him on waivers. It is extremely unliekly that any team will be willing to pick him and his enormous salary up, which means he will be spending his career in the AHL if he wants his money.
Ok I was wrong. Previously I had hated on Leclaire's new red pads, saying they were ugly and I was not a fan. Well, after seeing them in action with a proper uniform, I have to admit I was wrong, my bad. I actually think they look really good with the road uni at least. Sorry Snoopy.
I didn't get to see this game, since it wasn't available on TV or online, so I don't have much to say about it, though the Sens did lose 4-2. The Ottawa goalscorers were Mike Fisher and Ryan Keller. With the loss, the Sens fall to 1-2 in the pre-season, which is not big deal.
Here we are TGIF!
Since it's an off day as far as games go, I figured I'd pass on a little off topic tidbit I received from a reader. This is a picture of his girlfriend, in a Sens jersey that she has fixed to make it a form fitting dress. Kind of a cool idea I thought, she at least gets points for originality, though perhaps not so great to wear to SBP during the cold winter months of the season.
The game tonight ended up in a predcitable fashion, with the Leafs rebounding to beat the Sens 4-1, in a much more entertaining game. Even though we lost, there were some positives to take away, which is really the goal of the pre-season isn't it? Jared Cowen looked solid, which is great news to me. Brian Elliott on the other hand, could have been a lot better. It seems he had one of those all too familiar nights, where he just lets in a bunch of softies. It was just one game, but he did little to prove Lehner doesn't deserve his spot so far. Let's hope he rebounds.Other thoughts from the game:
So that's it for fake game #2. The end result is what I expected, nothing to worry with that lineup we iced tonight. I am looking forward to seeing the big boys play this weekend against the Habs in a home and home. Maybe Carey Price will last more then 10 shots? Doubt it.
With the lone goal and a nice effort, Nick Foligno wins the night as my player of the game.
On to the next one.........thoughts on the game?
The Sens and Leafs tangle again tonight, after the Sens murdered the Leafs 5-0 in their own barn last night. Tonight's game should look quite different however, with many lineup changes for both teams, as always happens in the pre-season. Luckily for everyone, the game will be on TSN at 7pm tonight.The Sens defensive pairings will look like this:
Interesting to see the Cowen-Karlsson pairing tonight, that's where I will be focussing my attention for the most part. I will also be curious to see how Regin looks, as well as the Wick-Hoffman-Butler line.
For the Leafs, no Phaneuf tonight, but their top line of Kulemin-Bozak-Kessel will be playing, as well as Beauchemin and Komisarek too. Unknown goalies Reimer and Scrivens will split time in goal.
Thoughts on fake game #2?
Be sure to follow me on Twitter during the game for a bunch of jokes and updates. @SensTown
I know it's early, but I had to get this chirp in to all the Leafers out there. This is of course in reference to their performance last night, a 5-0 loss to a very undermanned Sens team.
Well that was nice to see, as the Sens C team destroyed the Maple Leafs tonight 5-0 at the ACC. If I was a Leaf fan right now, I'd go ahead and pencil in 6 years not making the playoffs in a row and 44 years without a cup.So that was fake game #1 in the bag. I know a lot of you weren't able to see it, but you didn't miss much, although it's always good to get a win in your first fixture of the season. With 24 saves and the shutout, Robin Lehner wins the night as my player of the game.
To anyone else who saw the game or listened to it on the radio, thoughts on the Sens performance this evening?
Finally we're here, game #1 of the pre-season, as the "Sens" take on the Leafs. I used the quotation marks because once you see the lineup, you will see that it's more of our AHL sqaud than the Senators, but nevertheless, hockey is back tonight.
A few weeks ago I posted a pic sent into me by a reader of Pascal Leclaire at some camp, wearing some new red equipment. The emails came flooding in, hoping that they were just for show and not for this season. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but they have now been confirmed that he will wear them this season. The photo above was taken at training camp, so that's what he will be using unfortunately. I have to think it will look quite weird when he wears the home red jersey and he is litreally head to toe red. Oh well, I just hope he plays well.
This was the lovely sign that welcomed us into SBP to pick up our 2010-11 tickets. The sign was meh, but I didn't care. I was just happy to be back in that dark, cold arena again. As always, click on any picture to enlarge them and enjoy the tour.
This is what the cover of the new seasons looked like. I had very low expectations of what the tickets would look like this year, but I have to say, they came through again and did a good job. I'll post a a few examples of the new tickets later this week for all of you that are curious.
It's hard to believe that these weren't immediately snapped up for 800 at the used equipment sale. Considering all the bad luck they brought with them, they probably should have been cremated. Although I did hear later on that the guy who did end up buying these got hit in the face with a puck an hour later.
First sighting of some 2012 All Star Game swag, in puck form of course. These will be collectors items one day, as these don't feature the Canadian flag on the peace tower, like the final product will eventually have. You have to admit that the Sens did a really good job with this logo. I love it.
This was the set up for the hot stove question period with the Sens brass. The stage is pretty crappy looking but whatever, not a big deal. It sure was nice to see the ice back in again, but weird to see the boards with no advertisements on yet. It's hard to see but if you look closely (click on pic to enlarge), you can see the new seamless glass they installed as well.
Yes that is a 6ft tall Daniel Alfredsson bobblehead, do not adjust your eyes, you're not crazy. How scary would it be to come into your dark house one night and see that out of the corner of your eye? And why the hell does he look like one of the Sedins.
Not going to lie, I was a bit taken back when I saw a game used Peter Bondra stick for sale at SBP. What, no Cunneyworth one's left?
Not really a shock to see these in the clearance area. Even less surprising is that next season he will be working in the Sens Store.
Milan Michalek looking a little too jovial, but hey, just good to see him back and healthy. I don't care what anyone says, he was hurt for way longer then was admitted. Look for a breakout season from Mach 9 2.0
This was the line for the Jason Spezza booth. All of these people were waiting to get Giggles' John Hancock. So much for him not being popular right? The turnout it a smidge better than the now "legendary" Spezza rally this summer.
And this is what my view was as I was leaving. The front of SBP, with Alfie staring me in the face. Not a bad way to go is it? Funny how much I missed a concrete building so much. I can't wait for the new season to get underway. The wait is only a few more days, it's going to be be amazing. Bring on the 2010-11 season and get ready for a training camp photo diary coming soon too.
Yesterday I told you Filip Kuba hurt himself at practice and you were able to see him limp off the ice. I said it looked bad and he would have x-rays, well the results are in and it isn't good. He has a broken right leg and will be out a minimum of 5 to 6 weeks. Shit!
With a new season upon us, the changes are everywhere. From new jersey numbers to new players, to a new mask for one of our goalie, Brian Elliott. I haven't seen this anywhere yet, so consider it a minor Sens Town exclusive from todays first day of training camp. Here's a little rundown of the new lid for Kid Ells. The back of the mask is similar to last seasons, featuring the vintage O logo that so many of us love.
At the centre of the mask, it's a familiar looking character in Casey Jones from the Ninja Turtles, that was heavily involved in last seasons mask as well.
The side view features the current main logo in a shiny gold paint, which looked way better in person. Overall, the new mask just looks cleaner compared to the more cartoon like one he had last year, while still maintaining the same theme of Casey Jones.Well that didn't take long. Just 15 minutues into our first practice of the 2010-11 camp, often injured Filip Kuba was in fine form, injuring his leg and needing to be helped off the ice by trainers. According to Bruce Garrioch, he hit a rut in the ice and has hurt his right leg, but the extent of the injury is not yet known. He will be going for x-rays later today and then we will know more but it does not look good for him, or us for that matter.
Sens Town was attending the practice and was there to exclusively film him being helped off the ice. Great start to the season eh? Remember to follow me on Twitter. There will also be a few photo diaries upcoming for those of you who have asked.
Thoughts on the incident? Can we cope without him yet again?
YES!!!!!!!!!
With the All Star Game being officially awarded to us yesterday, many of were hoping that this would also mean a brand new scoreboard for SBP, but it won't be happening it seems. According to Bruce Garrioch, Melnyk doesn't plan on investion in a new one in time for the 2012 game. And who can blame him. We're only one of the only remaining teams in the NHL without a proper scoreboard, while claiming we're hockey country and that we have the best fans. So why not put our money where our mouth is so to speak.
I know I like to rag on the Senators organization from time to time for messing up seemingly easy tasks, but I do it out of love. You see I love the Senators and I want them to be the best they can be at all times, but I'm also fair.
So all summer I've been contemplating which player I should put on the back on my new home jersey. I've been looking at all the different factors, like how much I like the player, likelyhood to be traded, years left on their contract etc. Well I couldn't come to a decision I was 100% comfortable with.
In really weird news, former Senator, and a former personal favorite of mine, Peter Schaefer, will be attending the Vancouver Canucks training camp on a tryout basis. This comes as a surprise to many, since most thought the 33 year olds NHL career was done, after spending last season riding the buses in the AHL.
Though not officially announced yet, Sens Town has learned that Ottawa will indeed be awarded the 2012 All Star Game. It will be announced at a press conference Wednesday at 11am, that will feature Eugene Melnyk, Cyril Leeder, and of course the commish, Gary Bettman.
Shoutout to Sens blue chip prospect Patrick Wiercioch, who today turned 20 years old. He celebrated his birthday with a 7-3 win earlier today against the Chicago Blackhawks at the rookie tournament in London.
This is what Sens GM Bryan Murray had to say about the Spezza situation from this summer. Unbelievable! Maybe there was a little bit of exaggeration on your part? Ya you definitely wanna run to the media and let everyone know the star played wanted out, when he didn't. What an amazing move.........NOT! I'm really starting to feel like the media aspect of being GM has passed Murray by. He doesn't seem to know when to keep his mouth shut and not tell every single detail to anyone who inquires.
For all of you who are starved for some hockey action, today is a good day. The annual Sens rookie tournament begins later today in London, Ontario, as your Senators take on the Pittsbirgh Penguins rookies at 2pm. This is the first of 3 games they will play and if you happen to be in the area and want to check it out, then you can purchase your tickets here. The other 2 teams participating are the hated Toronto Maple Leafs and the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.
I know it's summer and I know there isn't much to talk about yet, but that's no excuse for our city's 2 biggest newspapers to get so incredibly sloppy. If you closely at the parts I've underlined in green (click to enlarge), the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun, are both running the exact same story, and a very unoriginal one at that.
The exciting chronicles of Dan Ellis and twitter finally came to an end late Wednesday night, as the goalie decided to quite twitter and close his account. With the way he's reacted the past few days since this erupted into quite the shit storm for him, it's no wonder he handle his departure so eloquently.
It was has to be categorized as nothing short of shocking, all round good guy and former Senator Jason Smith, has been charged with 2 counts of domestic abuse by Calgary Police. To make matters even more surprising, the victims of the alleged abuse are his wife and his young daughter.
Shoutout to secondcityhockey.com for sending me this hilarious picture of Dan Ellis. Well played. I know this has been beaten to death somewhat, but screw it, I still find it funny, so I'm sure some of you do too.
The Dan Ellis twitter fiasco was still in full effect today, as the goalie tried to stop the bleeding, but came across horribly again. Instead of simply apologizing, he rationalized his decisions all day, coming off just as ignorant as he was the night before. He even took a shot at our buddy Puck Daddy. Time to take responsibility for your actions Dan. To see the attempted damage control, click the pic above to enlarge.Thoughts?
The world is a crazy place now, you have to watch your back more than ever, especially if you're someone famous, or in this case at least known. You have to watch what you say and watch what you do, because you never know when TMZ might show up, or even someone with video camera on their cellphone for that matter. Up until last night, Dan Ellis was known only in the hockey world, and even then he was hardly a star. That all changed Monday night, when he ironically didn't seem to understand the value of hard work and money on Labor Day of all dates. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, the quick death of an athlete's reputation. As always, click on the picture to enlarge them.
And here's how it all began, when millionaire NHL goalie Dan Ellis starting tweeting about how unhappy he was with all his millions. People of course took offense to this and the hilarity began with the now legendary topic #DanEllisProblems, which just put this guy on blast all evening. It was really something honestly. I highly suggest looking it up on Twitter and reading through them all. You gotta love the guy who replied at the top of the page, he's laying in to him. This was the start of the end for Danny boy. It turns on that people who struggled through the worst economy in more than 50 years, who buy the tickets and jerseys that pay his salary, don't really like hearing another spoiled millionaire athlete complain about the burden of being rich. Who knew right? Oh well, you know like the homie Puff Daddy says, Mo Money, Mo Problems.
So this is around where he realized that people didn't find what he said funny and he decided to put his tail between his legs and try and minimize the damage, only it actually got kinda worse. Here's a pointer in PR Dan. When you find yourself in a situation where you have said something stupid, apologize right away and actually say sorry. Do NOT try and blame the people for taking it the wrong way or saying that your warned them, then saying if you don't like it do me a favor and unfollow me, and even worse still, after all that doesn't work, try and make some lame joke/threat about how you're going to go back to writing boring stuff. Did he hire Tiger's PR guy? No one said hockey players were smart. Here's a prediction Dan, you have a meeting with Stevie Y in the next few days and you get an earful, your account vanishes and you won't be tweeting anymore, so don't worry about what to tweet from now on.
These are one of the first batches of tweets to get involed in the crucifying of Dan Ellis. He hasn't seen this much attention since...........well ever. If you look closely, I may have even dropped a gem in there as well.
These were some of the very early jokes that came in. I'm not gonna lie, although there were some good ones as time went on, the best ones came when there were less people involved. These are all gems, one after another, completely unedited.
I loved the Norfolk references, which is of course where their AHL affiliate is located. It seems that people will be genuinely cheering for him to be sent down this season. I also really enjoyed the peasants crack from a fan of his former team. I do however, award the gold medal of this batch to the at least I'm not a millionaire athlete burn. Hilarious!
These are more of my favorites and they had me cracking up non stop. It goes to show you how funny fans can be, if there's a subject worth their talents. I particularly loved the crack from MLSE of all people.
And I think this pretty much sums it up doesn't it? Keep in mind this is coming from a respected hockey writer for the Minnesota Star Tribune in Michael Russo. People aren't exactly sympathetic to millionaire athletes and their alleged hard lives, when many people are struggling to make ends meat, especially when that millionaire is completely mediocore and on his 3rd team in 2010 so far. 
