Weekly Preview - 25/10/2010

What you've missed

Another up and down week for the Ottawa Senators. A really poor performance in Pittsburgh and an extremely poor performance against Montreal, with a great team effort against Buffalo sandwiched in between. By now, it's all par for the course for the Sens and their inconsistent ways. What will they turn out effort-wise next week? Well, whatever it is, it's likely to last at most a game or two, and then completely change!

My attempt at humour aside, congratulations are in order to Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson, who notched up 1000 points on Friday. And credit where credit is due, Alex Kovalev actually showed flashes of how dangerous he can be when he wants to. But someday, hopefully soon, we'll get to see this team give 100% effort for longer than 1 period of hockey. If they don't...they will find themselves looking up at the rest of the conference.

In other games around the league:

- Nashville continue to go about their season with quiet determination, and they are the only team yet to lose a game in regulation. Last night, they held on to an early lead to beat current East conference leaders, Tampa Bay.

- Minnesota are an astonishing 10 for 19 on the PP at Xcel Energy Arena so far this year. This week, they easily accounted for Vancouver at home (3 for 3 that night with the man advantage), but were blown out when visiting the west coast just days later. The PP that night? 0 for 4.

What's coming up

The Sens will set up camp at Scotiabank Place this week with a 3 game home stand, going back to their traditional Tues-Thurs-Sat schedule. On Tuesday, they will take on Phoenix (7pm, Sportsnet). Thursday sees Florida roll into town (7pm, Sportsnet One), and on Saturday they host Boston (7pm, CBC).

The past couple of weeks, I have said "it's early in the season", but at some point this team must battle back and start to win games. At this time, the Senators are 27th (!!!) in the NHL, ahead of only New Jersey and Edmonton. And the Oilers have only played 6 games so far. This week is crucial, even more so than usual because the Sens shouldn't have any excuses. Both the Coyotes and the Panthers have just 1 more point than Ottawa, and should be winnable games at home. If they manage to get those wins, the true test will be Saturday night's game against Boston. So far, with the exception of Friday's game, the Sens have been seriously burned by division matchups. This NEEDS to change if Ottawa has any plans on being a contender this season.

Injury wise, Pascal Leclaire skated for the first time since his injury on Friday, but realistically shouldn't be back until at least the middle of this week and may in fact be rested longer, especially given his injury history. Filip Kuba has also started skating on his own, and he is still on track for a return next week or the week after.

In other games this week:

- San Jose have really struggled coming out to start the season. This week will be a statement for the rest of the season, and their schedule can do them no more favours than it has. They have 2 home games against New Jersey and Anaheim, and Sharks fans will no doubt expect them to win both with ease.

- Calgary have defied most of the critics out there and are currently leading their division. They also shore up at home this week and have games against 2 of their rivals Edmonton and Colorado. The North-West so far has been wide open (see what I wrote above about the Wild) and that's not likely to change at this stage of the season.

- Tampa Bay find themselves sitting on top of the East conference, but after Wednesday's games against Pittsburgh, they will head out on a 4 game tour of the West conference and play 9 of their next 12 games on the road. A tough test for sure.

Who's hot

- John Michael Liles (Colorado) has yet to be kept scoreless this season. He has 10 assists on the season.

- Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay) leads the league in scoring so far at 8 goals and 15 points.

- Tim Thomas (Boston) refuses to go quietly - in 4 starts, he has 1 shutout, a GAA of 0.75 and a save percentage of 0.978!

Who's not

- Antti Niemi (San Jose) gave up 3 goals on just 5 shots last night, and his GAA for the season is at 4.5

- Simon Gagne (Tampa Bay) has not scored this season and sits at a frosty -8. But he is not the worst +/- player so far. That would be Joe Thornton (San Jose), who despite scoring 7 points is at -9. 6 of those points are on the powerplay (which doesn't count towards +/-) so I guess he has an excuse.