Pre-season

I usually don't get too excited about the pre-season. But, I usually don't get any game televised coverage either; for some reason the Sens/Rangers game was on MSG last Saturday. It was great! It's nice to see the prospect players play some-what regular shifts. And since the Sens have a new coach, that throws in another angle of interest. Alfredsson was a scratch for the game, but it was rumored that Jesse Winchester was getting a shot at playing with Heatley and Spezza. Well, he did and he looked good. Not great, but not out of place either. A few of the Sens new defensemen got burned and Schubert continued to be a literal "hit or miss" defenseman. Schubert will crush people with checks or gets caught flatfooted.

My boy Fisher scored a goal and he was paired with fellow wrecking balls Neil and newcomer Jarkko Ruutu. These guys looked like the best line on the team. Granted, it's not hard to have chemistry when the gameplan is to hit everyone and battle for the puck.

The game itself was penalty filled, as the refs looked to be re-enforcing the tight interpretation of obstruction calls. That was a bit of a downer, since most teams haven't focused on special teams play at this point in the pre-season.

Brian Elliott looked good in his 20 minutes of work. It was only one period, but even the Rangers telecaster were commenting on his ability to control/hold the puck. He was a Hoover vaccuum with rebounds. I think he deserves to start next game. We'll see what the coaches think.

Bottom line, I'm pretty excited about watching hockey again.