Adjective du jour: "Rusty"
The Sens 2009-10 first game is in the logbooks, and it was rusty and disorganized. With the Sens testing some new blood and new formations, on the road, after an 8-day layoff, the results are not a huge surprise. In all fairness, serious kudos to the Rangers defense and to an amazing Henrik Lunquist who robbed a few of the Senators.
Bright spots
Not-so-bright spots
The defense, especially for the blue line noobs, was spotty. Both Carkner and Karlsson got caught flat-footed and out of position on two Rangers goals. I'll chalk that up to inexperience at this level of play. Let's see what it looks like around game 10 for those two. Campoli and Philips, on the other hand, both got caught pinching a little too deep which resulted in another two goals. Those are not inexperience mistakes. That's trying to do too much.
Unimpressive as well was the Foligno-Shannon-Cheechoo line. Although they managed a few good plays, they were never the depth theat they are meant to be. The line up looks good on paper, but a little alchemy is required to make it work.
The Rangers shook off their rust last night in their loss against the Pens. The Sens have hopefully gotten rid of their cobwebs tonight, and can move on to more coordinated play against Toronto on Monday.
Bright spots
| Spezza skated hard, got at pucks, and did a decent positioning job on his penalty kill shifts. He racked up an assist on a great forechecking play and feed to Alfie. He still has some issues with trying to thread impossible passes. The work of Pascal Leclaire was also good. The score could have been much higher without some savvy netminding. He seems to have a soft spot for shots to the roof of the net, and was beaten there three times. Fisher and Regin continued to impress me with their speed, and their playmaking skills in the offensive zone. The Sens' second goal was so quick that it virtually left no chance to the Rangers. And I really loved the work Ruutu, Kelly and Neil. They are a crash-bang-dump-it-in-and-check-like-hell type of line, and they got a few good opportunities because of it. |
 Jason Spezza |
Not-so-bright spots
The defense, especially for the blue line noobs, was spotty. Both Carkner and Karlsson got caught flat-footed and out of position on two Rangers goals. I'll chalk that up to inexperience at this level of play. Let's see what it looks like around game 10 for those two. Campoli and Philips, on the other hand, both got caught pinching a little too deep which resulted in another two goals. Those are not inexperience mistakes. That's trying to do too much.
Unimpressive as well was the Foligno-Shannon-Cheechoo line. Although they managed a few good plays, they were never the depth theat they are meant to be. The line up looks good on paper, but a little alchemy is required to make it work.
The Rangers shook off their rust last night in their loss against the Pens. The Sens have hopefully gotten rid of their cobwebs tonight, and can move on to more coordinated play against Toronto on Monday.
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