UPDATE: Craig Anderson will get the start in net for Ottawa. Phillips will not play and Chiasson and Borowiecki will indeed return to the lineup.
The Senators continue their 4 game homestand Thursday night when they host the Minnesota Wild at Canadian Tire Centre. Bad news for the Wild, but fortunate for the Senators was the news yesterday that Minny's best forward and highest scorer Zach Parise would not accompany the team on their road trip with an upper body injury.
Minnesota comes in with a 7-4-0 record, thanks largely in part to their 5-0 start at home, a streak that came to an end as Pittsburgh handed them their first home loss on Tuesday. They have been a rather average 2-3 on the road, which is where they now find themselves for the next three games.
Ottawa played one of their best all-around games of the season on Tuesday, parlaying a dominant first period (although they didn't score) into a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, snapping a modest two game losing streak where they didn't play well against Chicago and Boston. They deserved a better fate after peppering Jimmy Howard with 16 shots in the first and didn't get discouraged after Howard turned them all aside. They weathered the inevitable storm, took the lead, lost it but still found a way to win in regulation.
Craig Anderson was back in top form, making 30 saves and keeping his team in the game during a second period stretch where the Wings took control of the game. However, as has been the trend, look for Robin Lehner to take his turn in the net. Lehner is coming off a loss in Boston where he didn't have his "A" game, and he will look to match Anderson's bounce-back ability.
Darcy Kuemper has great numbers in the Wild net, with a GAA of 1.77 and 3 shutouts, but most of that damage was done early on in the season. The Wild have allowed 3 or more goals in 4 of their last 5 games.
The Wild power play has been pretty much powerless, going scoreless in their first 9 games (0 for 28) before netting a pair against the Stars 2 games ago. Parise's absence will not help them in that regard. On the flipside, the Senators have pushed their power play over 20% and into the top 10 in the league. The respective penalty killing units are pretty comparable, with the Wild sitting 6th (87.1%) and the Senators 10th (84.4%)
Chris Phillips left the Detroit game in the third period and didn't practice yesterday, so he is questionable to play tonight, while Mark Borowiecki participated in full practice and claimed he was ready to return if the coach decided to play him. Alex Chiasson also practiced at full speed Wednesday, so he could get back into the lineup with Erik Condra likely coming back out.
The game is on TSN5 at 7:30 pm.
"THE THIS" and "THE THAT" of Curtis Lazar
Coach Paul MacLean, always a little cryptic, made some comments yesterday regarding Curtis Lazar and the decision to keep the young forward around past the 10 game mark and at least for the time being, not send him back to junior. Without some context, they look like the ramblings of a senile old man. Here is the quote:
“One thing about the this and the that. He understands the this so if he wants to get to that he has to do this and he’s learned that very early in his career and he does this very well so now he might have a chance for that, whatever that is.…
To understand this soundbite in full, you have to go back a week or so where "the this" and "the that" became "the thing". "The this" refers to the ability to play the game properly, and to take care of things in his own end and learn the system, and to just play a solid game. Chipping the puck out of his own zone and into the opposing zone when needed and learning the little things that need to be done at this level to achieve success. That is the building block of Lazar's game that he needed to show to stick in the league full-time. "The that" is the confidence to play more with the puck and the knowledge of when to be creative. "The that" can and will become a big part of Lazar's game, but after 10+ years of a certain former Senators' centre not really doing "the this" very much and bringing a whole lot of "the that", I think the Senators just want to take it slow with Lazar and bring him along patiently and properly. Not really a bad plan, if you ask me, and I am a guy who was a long-time Jason Spezza apologist.
There was some talk of comparables for Curtis Lazar in the comments section of my post yesterday. Names like Justin Abdelkader, Wayne Simmonds and Dustin Brown were all mentioned, but I would tend to take it a step further and aim a little higher.
It isn't going to happen right away, and he might not get to that ultimate elite level, but I see a lot of Jonathan Toews in Lazar's game and that might be a better comparison or better target for what Lazar can eventually be. Lazar, like Toews, may never be the top scorer on his team, but he has the compete level and the head on his shoulders just like Toews and seems to have the compete level that the Hawks leader possesses, and the ability to play both ends of the ice and in every situation.
The biggest difference is, that Lazar always has a smile on his face, while Toews' stoneface earned him the moniker of "Captain Serious". So, if Lazar becomes a "Smilin' Jonathan Toews" I think it would be a very good thing, and to me it is not out of the realm of possibility.
What would be your long-term expectations from Lazar, and who would you compare him to?