About the Senators - 03-15-11
A preview of the Senators.
When and where: 7:30 p.m., ScotiaBank Place.
TV: FSN Pittsburgh, SportsNet East.
Record: 25-35-9, 59 points. The Senators are in last place in the Eastern Conference and Northeast Division.
Leading Scorer: Erik Karlsson (right), 40 points (12 goals, 28 assists).
Last Game: 6-4 road loss to the Sabres, Sunday. Jason Spezza had two goals and two assists for the Senators.
Last Game against the Penguins: 3-1 home win, Dec. 26. Sidney Crosby scored for the Penguins.
Senators Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Karlsson. He has four points in his last two games against the Penguins.
Ex-Penguins on the Senators: Matt Carkner, D (Carkner was a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but never played with the NHL Penguins); Sergei Gonchar, D; Alex Kovalev, RW; Brad Lauer, assistant general manager.
Ex-Senators on the Penguins: Phil Bourque, broadcaster; Mike Comrie, C; Alex Kovalev, RW; Randy Sexton, assistant director of amateur scouting; Ray Shero, general manager.
Useless Senators Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Daniel Alfredsson has served as the Senators' captain since 1999-2000. The only other player to serve as Ottawa's captain for more than two seasons was former Penguins forward Randy Cunneyworth (1994-95 through 1997-98).
Best Senators Video We Could Find: Kovalev doing the moonwalk with the Senators last season after putting up four goals on the Flyers:
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Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (31-17-5, 2.35 GAA, .918 SV%) for the Penguins and Craig Anderson (19-18-3, 2.93 GAA, .909 SV%) for the Senators.
Injuries: For the Penguins, defenseman Matt Niskanen (flu) is out. Forwards Arron Asham (concussion), Mike Comrie (hip), Sidney Crosby (concussion), Nick Johnson (concussion), Evgeni Malkin (knee), Eric Tangradi (concussion) and defenseman Brooks Orpik (finger) are on injured reserve.. For the Senators, forward Daniel Alfredsson (back) is day to day. Forwards Milan Michalek (foot), Peter Regin (shoulder), defenseman Matt Carkner ("lower body") and goaltender Pascal Leclaire ("lower body") are out.
Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins primary lines against the Oilers Sunday were:
James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Dustin Jeffrey - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams
-With Niskanen sidelined, the Penguins are scheduled to make a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. We'll just list this as the Penguins' defense:
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
??? - Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy - Deryk Engelland
The Senators' primary lines and defensive pairings against the Sabres Sunday were:
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Bobby Butler
Erik Conrda - Ryan Shannon - Marek Svatos
Nick Foligno - Zack Smith - Chris Neil
*-Ryan Potulny - Jesse Winchester - Francis Lessard
Filip Kuba - Erik Karlsson
*-Derek Smith - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillip - Brian Lee
*-The Senators demoted Potulny and Derek Smith to Binghamton of the AHL. They did not practice yesterday.
Notes:
-Welcome back to Ottawa Alex Kovalev.
-"He plays a game that’s a skill game. He’s a puck-possession kind of guy. And the way teams check and how fast the game is now, it sometimes is difficult to have success as an individual. And sometimes it was difficult to read and understand where he was going to be." - Senators coach Cory Clouston on Kovalev.
-Lovejoy has played in 49 career games.
-Kovalev has 348 career points with the Penguins.
-Letang has 96 career assists.
-Staal has 96 career assists.
-Karlsson has 49 career assists.
-Svatos has 97 career goals.
-Just because we know you love it, we're including the shirtless, drunk, smoky photo of Daniel Alfresson to the right just for the heck of hit. Enjoy!
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(Photos: Karlsson-Paul Bereswill/Getty Images; Alfredsson-Photobucket)