Ottawa Senators

ShareThis The Ottawa Senators continue their playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Which team will come out on top? Our prediction panel weighs in. ShareThis

ShareThis With the Senators returning home down two games to none in their best-of-seven series versus the Penguins, the organization is going need whatever lift it can get from its fans and the return of its No. 1 center to the lineup. ShareThis

ShareThis With his team down 0-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins and in need of a saviour, Ottawa Senators centre Jason Spezza will make his return on Sunday for Game 3. Coach Paul MacLean also confirmed that Craig Anderson would be the starting goalie in this crucial game. Anderson was pulled for backup Robin Lehner after giving [...] ShareThis

Coach MacLean confirms Jason Spezza will be in the lineup tomorrow — Ottawa Senators (@NHL_Sens) May 18, 2013 Needing to win 4 of their next 5 games against the Penguins, the Sens need all the help they can get, cue the return of their star centerman. Spezza should provide a big boost to the league's worst offense and 20th ranked power-play who, despite having the 4th highest 5-on-4 shot rate in the league, has often looked stale and underwhelming. After getting off to a hot start, Kyle Turris was forced into the first line center role after Spezza was injured in game 5, a tough spot he didn't sign up for. While he'll probably be bumped down to the second line to play with worse linemates and won't get as much PP time, Turris should benefit from not having to face team's top players as often. This year Turris' most faced opponents were Dion Phaneuf, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, and Milan Lucic. Last year with Spezza in the lineup he faced Dennis Seidenberg, Joe Corvo, Mark Streit and Matthew Carle the most, with Spezza tasked to take on top-pairings. While injuries and poor shooting luck could be to blame, Milan Michalek has struggled on Turris' wing this year, and including playoffs, has just 5 goals in 30 games. With the emergence of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, MacLean now has to move one of his centerman to the wing to make room for Spezza. My guess would be Mika Zibanejad, as he could take Latendresse/Kassian's spot on Smith's left wing, or Conacher's spot on the second line, since he played on the left side for Binghamton during the lockout. It's unfortunate because Zibanejad has played so well at center this year, but I think his north/south playing style might actually be better suited for the wing. As we've seen with Karlsson, we shouldn't expect too much from a player who hasn't played since January. Even if he does get off to a slow start, Spezza's return does give the Penguins something else to think about , and hopefully a little hope for a team who has their work cut out for them.

In order to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators have to play a near-perfect game. For the second time in two tries, they didn't, and it resulted in them being on the wrong end of the scoreboard yet again. Once again this was a game that left you saying, "If the Senators could just be a little better, they could beat the Penguins." The problem is that they have to be a little better everywhere at the same time, because their opponents are just too talented to give them easy opportunities, and that's what the team keeps doing. Last game, despite good 5-on-5 play, the penalty-killing unit and power play unit didn't come through and the team lost. This game, despite good efforts from the penalty-killing and power play units, goaltending didn't come through and the team lost. Sens Zero: Craig Anderson Anderson easily had his worst game of the year for the Sens, and it came at exactly the wrong time. This was a game where the Senators desperately needed Anderson to give them a chance to win, because they almost played well enough to win. But Anderson instead acted as thinly-veiled Sens Killer Sidney Crosby's personal shooting target, as Crosby lit up Anderson for a hat trick. Anderson lasted just 21:05 in this game, and he wasn't pulled because the team needed a spark--he was pulled because he was off. The Senators made the playoffs on the strength of their goaltending, and to have it falter--not just regress, but falter--at this point is terribly frustrating. Of course, it doesn't help that the player who tore Anderson up is Crosby, who happens to be the best player in the world. Anderson misjudged how quickly he could close his five-hole against the speed of Crosby's shot on the first goal, and that obviously stuck with him for the second shot, where he tried to anticipate what Crosby would do instead of just playing the shooter. Cheating away from the near post, expecting a pass, Anderson instead invited Crosby to shoot. The third goal was simply a rocket that no goalie would have a realistic chance of stopping. But at that point, the damage was done and Anderson had to go. Sens Hero: Robin Lehner Both Lehner and Anderson faced 21 shots. Anderson stopped 18, Lehner 20. Lehner threw out a huge save early in the second on Jarome Iginla, and it really seemed to give the Senators momentum. Lehner was everything Anderson wasn't: Calm. composed, efficient. It's no surprise the Senators were able to claw back within one goal. It's like confidence matters or something. Still, Anderson is the goalie that will start game 3, and there shouldn't even be a debate about that. The good news is that Lehner proved yet again that he's going to give the Senators an outstanding chance to win the games he starts next year. The Senators have two starters. Sens Killer: Sidney Crosby Held pointless in game one, Crosby single-handedly destroyed the Senators tonight. His destruction of Anderson has already been documented, but he simply toyed with thinly-veiled Sens Zero Erik Karlsson throughout the night. Evgeni Malkin picked up the slack in game one, and then Crosby does all the damage in game two. How is that fair? Who can shut both guys down? Sens Hero: Special Teams Though the Senators only got two power plays and gave up six--more on that later--the units that were ineffective in the first game of the series had a major rebound in this one. The power play unit took care of business, scoring a goal by winning a faceoff cleanly, moving the puck quickly, and taking a shot before Tomas Vokoun got set. Goal. And though the penalty-killers gave up a goal--the Crosby rocket--holding them to one in six attempts is no joke. The Penguins had been operating at 36% in the playoffs, and were held to 17% on the night. You simply can't ask for more than that against this unit. Sens Hero: Colin Greening Greening scored a goal and almost had another, but for an outstanding toe save by Vokoun. Greening likely would have notched an assist on

ShareThis Too much Sid, too little goaltending ShareThis

Team Period Time Note OTT PIT PIT 1 19:31 7 89 11 2 55 41 16 10 24 7 44 92 5v5 PIT 1 19:24 7 89 11 2 55 41 16 10 24 7 44 92 5v5 PIT 1 18:21 15 9 73 3 65 41 71 12 18 3 5 92 5v5 PIT 1 16:44 Crosby goal 93 25 33 3 65 41 87 9 14 2 7 92 5v5 OTT 1 15:33 15 9 73 4 61 41 71 12 18 7 44 92 5v5 PIT 1 15:23 15 9 73 4 61 41 71 12 18 3 5 92 5v5 PIT 1 15:09 15 9 73 4 61 41 71 12 18 3 5 92 5v5 PIT 1 14:12 7 89 11 2 55 41 16 10 24 2 58 92 5v5 PIT 1 11:39 22 9 2 55 41 48 12 10 2 7 92 4v5 PIT 1 9:34 44 11 4 55 41 71 87 12 14 58 92 4v5 OTT 1 6:45 Turris goal 7 11 9 55 65 41 87 24 7 44 92 5v4 PIT 1 3:26 14 15 25 2 55 41 46 48 27 3 5 92 5v5 PIT 1 0:24 7 11 9 3 55 41 87 9 14 7 44 92 5v5 PIT 2 18:45 Crosby goal 44 11 3 4 41 71 87 12 14 58 92 4v5 OTT 2 18:05 Greening goal 14 15 25 4 61 40 46 10 18 3 5 92 5v5 PIT 2 16:55 14 15 25 2 61 40 71 12 18 2 58 92 5v5 PIT 2 14:32 44 25 33 3 65 40 48 71 7 44 58

ShareThis Only minutes after Friday's 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Erik Karlsson politely answered questions after question about the defeat and his own disappointing performance. ShareThis

ShareThis OK, put your coaching hat on for a second ShareThis

I'm just going to throw everyone a bone right now who's made this gaffe, and assume that you were confusing these two when referring to "Cindy Crosby". I can't imagine there's anyone in this day and age, especially cheering for such a forward-thinking bunch as the Ottawa Senators, that thinks it's OK to refer to a player by a girl's name as an effective chant. Please, please, please! Stop calling him that. It's akin to booing the national anthem. It takes no creativity and has absolutely no class. It's saying that the worst insult you can come up with for a guy is calling him a girl. As if a) girls are less respectable in some way, and b) men who show classically (read "archaically") feminine traits are somehow flawed. It's disgusting, it's frustrating, it's angering, it's stupid. If you somehow have an idea that men are superior to women, you should probably get out of the 21st century. You don't belong with where this world's going. If you somehow believe that calling a guy a girl is an acceptable insult, then you probably should think about where that insult's coming from. And please, don't let comments degrade into nit-picking and saying that men always get shafted in divorce proceedings. Can we all agree to come up with more clever insults? Besides, in case you haven't noticed, the nickname hasn't slowed Sidney Crosby down. Not only is it highly offensive, it's ineffective. Let's find something more clever that'll throw him off his game every time he plays Ottawa from now on. Go Sens Go! I'm just going to throw everyone a bone right now who's made this gaffe, and assume that you were confusing these two when referring to "Cindy Crosby". I can't imagine there's anyone in this day and age, especially cheering for such a forward-thinking bunch as the Ottawa Senators, that thinks it's OK to refer to a player by a girl's name as an effective chant. Please, please, please! Stop calling him that. It's akin to booing the national anthem. It takes no creativity and has absolutely no class. It's saying that the worst insult you can come up with for a guy is calling him a girl. As if a) girls are less respectable in some way, and b) men who show classically (read "archaically") feminine traits are somehow flawed. It's disgusting, it's frustrating, it's angering, it's stupid. If you somehow have an idea that men are superior to women, you should probably get out of the 21st century. You don't belong with where this world's going. If you somehow believe that calling a guy a girl is an acceptable insult, then you probably should think about where that insult's coming from. And please, don't let comments degrade into nit-picking and saying that men always get shafted in divorce proceedings. Can we all agree to come up with more clever insults? Besides, in case you haven't noticed, the nickname hasn't slowed Sidney Crosby down. Not only is it highly offensive, it's ineffective. Let's find something more clever that'll throw him off his game every time he plays Ottawa from now on. Go Sens Go!