After Saturday!

Filatov/Spezza/Michalek

Greening/Zee-bad/Alfie

Foligno/Smith/Neil

Condra/Konopka/Petr

Jared/Gonch

Philly/Lee

EriK/Kuba

Andy/Alex

That's 25 to start...

Note: David is close enough to stay in Bingo, this is good, as it did not look like that was the case early on @ camp...

Note 2: Da Costa will be on a short leash, so let's hope he does something in the "A".

Note 3: Coach Paul has (NOT) realized that Filatov and Jason are the same guy. (Puck distributors!)

Note 4: to the Special Team's Coach...Jason doesn't have the energy or the sacroiliac to play on the kill team, no matter what he tells you...he never killed anything in his life...we need him on the offence too badly...

The old boys are circling their wagons.

The numbskulls (the GMs) and the rest of the hockey old boys club are circling the wagons and are taking a stand on the Smith on Smith hit. It started with Babcock, he had to defend his player. Then you get guys like Maclean...and Yorkie even...blaming the puck carrier, YUK.

I say give him 1 game to placate the "Numbskulls" but to set the president that that hit is no more.

If you wanted to drill some kid at the park, on the out door rink, who was showing off, you waited 'till he gave you the "McNab Suffle" (Now called a toe drag.) and ya drilled the kid with your shoulder, it's actually one of the easiest dirty checks you can throw in hockey...the puck carrier is completely defenceless. He is suspended (note the term) in mid air hanging there. The only thing you have to watch is that, at the last nanosecond, you have to make a conscious determined lunge at the guy or you will sail right by him...

Come on Shanny it's your make or break call...

Definition of a Numbskull: That's a guy, whose head doesn't hurt anymore because he doesn't have to play anymore...as in no sense...no feeling...

Note: Example...Joe Palooka

Note 2 @ noon...Smith got 5 games...excellent Shanny...

It's not that bad!

We didn't have EriK or Philly...

Jason decided to take the night off...(First PK, ya gotta collapse to the net.)

Andy is terrific...

David is showing a little, too little, too late but the guy can play a little...

Jared may not be the Big Z but he is certainly our version of him...best clean body shot of the night...

Zee-bad will be one heck of a center ice man next year but will be fun to watch for his 9 games...

Gonch is no Norris candidate but he's 100% better than last season...

Coach Paul, ya gotta really take issue with the stick fouls, I know most of the kids and the sophomores are bushed at the end of camp but we are just not good enough to take all those chintsy penalties, they are too hard to kill off...

Filatov is good, very skilled but he's a puck distributor...

Chemistry, it looks like we got all the wrong guys playing with all the wrong guys...almost every non powerplay goal scored this pre-season was off a broken line...

So I guess it's back to #9 with #19 and Butler...Alfie might find Filatov interesting...

Konopke leads the DRAWMEN!

Zenon Konopke leading the draw takers everyday in a drill at the end of practice, excellent, something I have been advocating for years...let's see the pay off.

Note: one or two big D-men should be included in the Face Off drill as when your center is in the wrong dot and the Big Guy, I'm thinking of Jared, who shoots the other way, let him move in there and take care of business.

Note 2: It gets the D-men and the forwards involved together in another application of DEFENCE!

Hey Lloydy, the common folk usta have two days of qualification to get to play the "Royal", the good thing was the first two rounds were at Outaoais and the Hunt Club.

GM Doug Maclean, who we find out today was a school teacher and should know better, is washed up, no one young or old, wants to hear an old man rant day after day...he's ruined it, for me. That stupidity today was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Hold your breath Sid is back...

Yorkie/Doug, you boys are so wrong, dead wrong, head shot...head shot...head shot! The puck carrier  was pulling his head back...ya can't hit people like that anymore...

ONE DEGREE!

One degree of increase in the curve of your blade is the difference between post and in and post and out...message received by Big #9...

One degree of loft or off set which ever you prefer is the difference between cross bar and out or cross bar and in! Jason, ya lead the league in cross bars last year, so please take note, I think you have two maybe three already in preseason, we need the goals.

Alfie, when the hip is 100% and you are standing square again, it's 1 inch shorter and two degrees up right just like your 3 wood...like the old days...

Filatov uses a shorter stick, just like Gordie Howe, and it shows. It also allows you to shoot quicker so let 'er go...early and often.

It seems EriK has gone to a longer shaft (more power) I'm not sure I like it...he has power to burn.

"Come heyah an' looka yonder"...No suspension for Chris Neil, I can't believe it...Good call Shanny...your making those Tranna announcers look bad...they gotta lose that old goalie!

Post lock out/new rules + old D-men = ?

It took a couple years but the game has truly changed...Speed kills...

Post lock out/new rules + old D-men = Tough Times.

Don't get me wrong I still love our thirty somethings on DEFENCE but we're caught we got two too many.

Sophomore forwards don't support their defencemen/goalie as they should yet!!

Why is everyone afraid to tell David he is stinking the joint out...it might have helped him had he been told early on...

High performance/High speed skill is a gift it cannot be taught...look up under Zee-bad in your hockey glossary.

Let's see the full squad I am starting to doubt myself...

Big game for Mr. Rundblad...

- we love David's skill level but...the SENs have a plethora of offensive D-men right now with a large group of sophomores to protect and play defence behind.

- #7 could end up in Canada, Sweden or the US of A depending on the game tonight...

- let's be honest based on his play thus far he couldn't make his old team in Lycksele, Sweden right now...

- this man is not EriK, he's 20 years old and I think he needs another full year to grow and harden.

- the big league forcheck has shown his big ice, Euro approach to the set up and break out...

- his offensive confidence is not matched with an equal amount on DEFENCE.

So...we don't really need him right now (9th on the depth chart) so let's not ruin the kid! If he is sent to Bingo he's not coming back this year.

If he shows anything DEFENSIVELY against Tranna, I'd love to be the first to eat crow!

What about...

What about my man Cowen with EriK...#4 & #5 and Gonch and Kuba...Carks starts up stairs.

Chris Philips, Gonchar and Filip all should get some games off.

How about Mika, I think he makes the team AND he gets Alfie and Michalek...

#7 needs another year, he's only 20, let him go back to Sweden and harden up. I think the "A" will be a nightmare for him right now.

I'd show 'em the league video and then start working on the stick fouls, we look like we're at the "Wood choppers ball" out there and it's been like this every game in the pre-season...the ZEBRA will not even have to invent the calls if this keeps up.

Coach Paul is a pro, we love a coach who when everything is not exactly going according to plan has the patience to stay off the (young) players...

Alex Auld can still play a little...

We have a pretty big team, just like the Bruins, it will start to show late in games...if I were the Leafs or the Habs I would want to stay home too.

"Come heyah an' looka yonder" the Buffalo guys (D'Arcy Regier) say now that Tim Connolly is not an offensive juggernaut anymore but that he was transitioned to a DEFENCIVE Specialist...Burkie, ya gotta start reading the scouting reports...

Love Carkner but...

Don Brennan is correct about Matt Carkner but I think his hockey fighting career is just about over and his hockey playing career is about to continue...

Note: As we told you at the time, there was an other's (fighter) career ended in Pittsburgh last year also.

I think it's time for the big fellas, if they cannot contribute otherwise, to take a seat. Pronger will run rampant for twenty games until Shanny suspends him out of the league.

"Come heyah an' looka yonder" Nick "the Palooka" Kypreos pays over $25,000 for his two Leaf Season tickets...as Perry Maison usta say "I rest my case!"

As they are already half way, I hope Alf and Z-bad don't decide to keep right on goin' home! Joke...

Doug, you are retired, done, too old...no one cares about your opinion anymore! Think young...

To Chris Stevenson...Last year, Milan Michalek, 18 goals in 66 games, 9 posts playing on one leg...put him on balance, two legs, increase his curve by one degree and give him 82 games on the second line equals 22+8 and only one post = 30 goals.

The "Big Man" factor!

We got a fairly big DEFENCE but Jared gives us the "Big Man" factor.

Guys like "Mad Max" and Kessel just want to stay home for our game.

"Come heyah an' looka yonder"...Pronger should be suspended before the season even starts just on general principles and for stealing the Captaincy from a good kid in Philly. Pronger thinks he is a politician...a corrupt politician...

Leafs aren't as good as they were last year...see ya Ronnie...

Jared Cowen is the best draft choice Burkie ever missed...

Nikita is going to be alright, he's a keeper...a lot of Russian forwards play great defence they just play higher than we do in both zones...

Claude Julien and Jacques Martin sittin' in a tavern in Navan drinkin' beer and talkin' hockey, bore ya to tears...I gotta go home...hypothetical thought.

Coach Paul should/will/shall institute a last minute 6 on 5 drill...it seems we just don't lose cover on one guy but there is always two forwards open at our net ready to tie the score...

Remember Nikita says: "In the dieing seconds the puck does not die with me!"

Remember 2, we are better than those Tranna guys think we are...

I count EIGHT!

Hey Don, I count 8 defencemen.

I think Bryan likes to play with 6 but he will pay seven to stay off the floor.

Cowen/Phillips

Gonchar/EriK

Carkner/Lee

Filip/Rundblad

Rundblad will return to Sweden to get bigger and stronger and bone up his courage to face NHL forwards. He's pretty good but he needs another year for his confidence.

Kuba should start up stairs as he plays best with lots of rest and when he comes riding to the rescue of one of our downed warriors.

Carks and Brian Lee will just plug along as the 5-6 pair and the second set of penalty killers...cool. calming, efficient.

Jared will provide Chris Phillips with the Big Z factor...two big men muscling those small Hab Forwards. Note: I would have played Cowen against "Mad Max" last night...Jacques would have had a heart attack.

And finally...Gonch and EriK better have the puck 90% of the time or Andy is going to run out of jokes for them.

We like Jason's offense a lot but...

Last year we gave up a ton of leads in the last minute with Jason out there in the face off circle trying his best.

We were 4 and 10 in over time. A two way job for your first string center.

And even with a bit of a streak on the PK, over all it was no good, #19 is not a Penalty Killer, he will get lots of 5 on 5 and PP ice time. Save the man's back.

Andy was very good but we gotta play better in front of him.

We do not have an NHL second line center man.

The ZEBRA are continuing to condition us for the regular season.

We better continue to bring Alf along slow...22 minutes after 7 months is too much.

I wonder if Coach Paul will have the patience to allow us (the kids) to gel?

It usta be every one who was decent could play well and well into their mid to late thirties...now not so much...speed kills!

Here they come!

Butts will get some shooting tonight playing with other first liners Jason Spezza and Nikita Filitov.

After the preseason and with Butler's arms about to fall off with all that shooting, Jason will instruct Filitov to take a few shots himself just to change up their attack.

Dilemma...what to do when Alf and Milan make Da Costa look like the Jean-Claude Killy of hockey? I think even I could play center with those two guys.

When you are playing too many games in a row @ training camp and some obscure coach keeps asking you your name you know you are on your way down...we have two D-men in that position right now.

Joe Palooka (Kypreos) and Maclean are like two guys that go back to Tranna get struck by the ugly stick, sprinkled with "Dummy Dust" (by their Ferry God Mother not the Coca-Cola salesman) and fall into a pile of horse manure. They don't know Ottawa, they cannot even pronounce the names of our players yet they continue to pontificate about the Senators and the League in general but are unable to advise Burkie and his six little elves. Neither one of you guys could put a patch on Shanny's ass! Oh ya...get ready to eat some crow.

Not dirty?

Better Shanny, your making your predecessor look like a piker and that's good!

Hey Doug, we know you signed him to an NHL contract, but c'mon. When your own bio says you are the dirtiest player in the League with single season penalty records in the "Q' with Halifax, in the "A" with Syracuse and in the NHL with the Sharks. This is exactly the kind of "Big Fella" the game has to move on from. Staged fighter, serial offender...dangerous to himself and every defenceman in the league. He's not fast enough to get there on time so he's always late which disrupts every one's timing and man you better not have a failure to execute because you are then his meat.

Yorkie says: "Get your shoulders square and get up on the wall." Shelley was so late that, that poor old Leaf had enough time to misplay the puck, scrape the wall, come back off the wall about a foot before getting squashed by a 235lbs freight train with no brakes. Note: When you brake your nose like that it drives bone and cartilage up into your brain.

Preseason yuk!

Nerves...bad ice...the Boston system...makes Exhibition Games frustrating to watch.

Mika saves his job.

Gonchar looks quick, rested, refreshed.

Jared is ready. Great first pass.

Nikita, early on, had the two best defensive zone plays by a forward. This is good.

Brian Lee is making it a tough decision.

Da Costa looks little.

Petr skated miles but...


Nick Foligno looks more confident.


Coach Paul...think Neilson Modified Umbrella (PP).


It's time, lets see Jason and Alfie.

Mika is it Finnish or Swedish?

Mika Zibanejad. Is his first name Finnish or Swedish?

I think he looks like a big, strong, skilled, dangerous, hockey playing Iranian Shiite, in a complementary way. As a nick name he will probably become known as the "Ayatollah" and again in a good way reflecting his force and mental toughness.

The Ayatollah's strength in his big legs and hind quarters reminds us of Ed Hatoum, very strong lower body, very strong on his skates.

Watch this man develop.

Three lessons from Jared.

Lesson one...Jared says if you want to score goals, shoot the puck at the net. Actually just watch EriK!

Lesson two...if Phaneuf starts up, apply a little straightener.

Note: GN's best hockey term of the day/game...Dion does the "Standing Turtle" a very accurate description.

Lesson three...show up @ camp bigger, stronger, faster, more ready than you were when you went home 8 weeks ago!

Note 2: Exhibition or not first games/impressions mean a lot!

I think the new Petr looks tight.

Jason and Nikita, I don't know what they are going to do in our end, but they are going to make some sweet music together...

#13 to the Left Wing.

Tough break for Winchester, he will probably rehab in Binghamton.

Peter Regin is already being listed as a Left Winger. Bryan Murray mentioned briefly yesterday that he could also play the wing. This brings a whole new dimension to the second center position...Da Costa has all the tools but he is small to be going up against all those big experienced top six forwards of the other elite teams just yet. Also Z-bad has just been bowling everyone over...size, speed, smarts, maturity, on the draw even. I think he has the inside track. Lets see who they give him on the wings.

If Jared draws Filip then Brennan is right Cowen is looking @ Bingo...what kind of a line up is this that gives you six extra players? Do they all dress for the warm up and then sit. What gives...it sounds vaguely European to me...

It will be good to see Alex back in our goal again, this guy can still play a little...

Coach Paul, as Jason calls him, will have his hands full running this bench with all the kids as we are notorious for bad changes and getting called for it. Note the getting called for it...

Everyone in Ottawa knows the term "Supernumerary"...I think we have one defence man in that category.

Ah the Leafs, they will probably ice a good portion of their "A" Team...Ronnie's job is on the line early!

Hockey Central at Noon is the only bunch, who go to a Tranna Game (The Rookies final), and don't mention the final result the next day, instead they talk about what they had to eat.

Media questions!

Is Nick Kypreos really Joe Palooka?

Was Doug Maclean really a GM in the National Hockey League?

Does Don Brennan have a secret Murray or is he just winging it?

Does Bruce Garrioch ever ask a question that we don't already know the answer to?

Does Gordie Wilson put that on or is he always like that?

Does Dean want to go with Denis and join Kypreos for their new round table?

Does Denis trade in his SENs Red &Black and become an Islander when he goes to Tranna?

Is Wayne Scanlan really the smartest hockey guy in Ottawa that no one interviews?

Will Yorkie ever jump off the fence and start throwing some people under the bus?

Can Lloydie please do less football and more Senators?

Note: Hockey pucks and hockey broadcasters (Versage) talking football hurts my ears!

Ask me if I miss PM...ask TSN if they miss PM...ask anyone if they miss PM?

Nick looks loose...

Thought one from training camp...

Nick Foligno looks big, strong, fast, loose and older (more mature). He's now a second wave veteran and it shows on and off the ice.

#13 looks stressed...tight...

The man from France with #13 start as a line in Bingo, leaving us the man from Russia, Nikita, the man from Sweden, Z-bad and the man from the US of A, big Nick as our second or United Nations line.

Craig Anderson ain't chopped liver!

All the big league prognosticators, the "know it alls", that's THN,the Tranna guys, Tony in Montreal and the Los Wages bookies are basing the 6 through 12 finish in the Eastern Conference on goal tending...

Craig Anderson will steal a couple early just to open their eyes...

The Tranna guy is still a big ?

Marty is done...

Carey Price will finally get enough of Jacques and his build a wall defence...

Miller is still so tired he can barley get his equipment on...

Marc Andre will miss Sid...

Tampa's man looks like a late forties something...and he is...

The Philly jinx will prevail on their new guy...

New York/Boston/Washington look solid...

It will be interesting to watch them all back track at Xmas time as there are so many of them.

Tony Montreal@Team 990!

Tony, your team does not make the Playoffs, let alone win the division...the Conference...

The Habs are too small...

Montreal is not gritty enough...

Hal Gill is sick of Jacques getting all the credit for his work...

Your guys will start to tune out old Jacques, he's been with you just a season too long...

Markov is great but he's done...

Max has bulked up and taken Karate lessons but Jared will remind him of the big Z, dirty Pronger et al...

Carey better get back to 245lbs because he's going to see 40+ shots of the 75 directed at him every night...

PK will suffer the sophomore jinx...

Brian Gionta will have a falling out with Scott Gomez and will be blamed because he is your captain.

Your best center (Plekanec) will stop trying because it's hopeless...

Our rebuilt Senators will win the season series!

15TH...Last Place...THN!

THN...Toronto Hockey News...the Tranna guys...

Our MGMT may not mind being projected to 15th place but Alfie and I don't!

If we make the correct moves out of training camp we beat the Leafs out of a play off spot.

Note: THN, the group think, is afraid to call Tranna a play off team and afraid to call the Habs not a play off team.

Note 2: I don't see Buffalo in there either.

I wonder if any of these guys have ever played and what they base their prognostications on?

SENs Defence.

Going into camp...

39 & 5

65 & 17

4 & 55

Coming out of camp...

4 & 2

55 & 65

7 & 39

5 to the A and 17 to the press box and then to the Jets...

We agree with Robin!

- First of all I like Alex Auld and I think he is the best back up goalie in the league.

- But Robin Lehner was the best goalie in training camp last year, has done it all in the American League, is the 2nd best goalie in the chain right now so should be the back up out of camp.

- It is my opinion that you learn more, get more confidence, gain the confidence of the big guys if you are seeing major league pitching and practicing with them everyday and playing the odd game with the big team.

- We like Craig Anderson a ton but the days of trying to play 65 to 70 games are over, let the kid play 30 games, he's ready...he's bigger than the net!

- Being a great coach and GM means not making any regressive steps...there is development and then there are guys who are ready...it's like Cowen, he starts with the big team...

And we're off!

Our new move the puck, high speed offence takes more time to explain on the ice than it does to do the drill...in depth explanations are for the film room.

Z-bad looks pretty good, nice thickness, good speed.

David Rundblad looks a little too much like EriK!

Jared and Robin appear to be loaned from the NHL for demonstration purposes.

Eric Gryba is still the meanest looking rookie we got but Mark Stone has the shoulders of a huge man.

Da Costa is very quick. Pageau scores every time he shoots.

Caporusso big wheels!

The difference is so thin...Cowick playing in Elmira???

Machovsky, the other goal tender from Guelph, had his trapper speed tested a few times.

And Coach if you and your staff have to go back and coach in the "A" for one more year it must be heartening to see what is coming to you.

We should win this little exhibition tournament.

"Deregulation!"

1950, the Wings of the Soviet go down in a WW2 converted Air Force Transport plane, the whole team and Stalin's son is lost...took 'em 'till 1956 to rebuild and win Gold, flying in the latest Sputnik technology...the wall falls and here comes the American (Ronnie Reagan) ideas, so all of you free enterprisers/deregulators/life style gamblers, be ready to accept the consequences...

Late 60's, we (our football team) got the Leaf charter out of Windsor/Detroit on the rebound to Ottawa. A 50's turbo/prop jet, Viscount, safest aeroplane ever built. Landed in a terrible storm when everything else was grounded. Now, some of the "crates" they got flying charter make your knuckles turn white just looking at them and we have our best and brightest, 60+ million worth, on and off 'em every second game!

Eugene, I think you should buy us a low-mileage DC-9 and let Alfie pick his pilot and mechanic!

Note: No one lets the puck die with them in the rookie tournament...lets see who can hold/move the puck!

Note 2: #13 Flukes...I hope he's alright.

"Shanny", you listen to "Sid!"

"Head Shots" be gone!

This BS that they are so big, so fast, so keen, so out of control, that they cannot help themselves when they take your head off, has got to stop! We have been telling anyone who would listen it's an invention by the Board of Governors to cover this mean, vicious, dangerous, gutless hit to the head. Sid told us the truth yesterday. It's like leaving the the game on the small rink for over 20 years when all the new Arenas were built, if the game is so fast why not give 'em some space to play in.

It makes my head hurt just watching Sid Crosby's presser and I have been rehabbing for forty years!

Time for further study...EF@CBC...NO!

EF, they have been studying concussions in sport for at least forty plus years I know because I was a special case...I got "wrung" twice, once playing football and once playing hockey. The Doctors, there were two, took a whole bunch of extra notes, their fear was of a future insurance claim. (Interesting, it looked to me as if one sport was working to blame the other.) The medical community admits they don't know a whole lot more now than they did then...let's introduce a little common sense and at the very least tell the "Big Fellas" it's over, take a seat in the crowd.

Two reguler sized hockey players, who fight once a year, is a better fight anyways!

The "Big Fellas" have to go!

As we have been saying for 3 years now, the "Big Fellas" have to go...they are too big and too lethal to themselves and to the other "Big Guy!"

Two light heavy weights, who know what they are doing can go at each other pretty good and not do too much damage. If one of their medium meanies is chasing around one of your smaller guys, you apply a little straightener to this guy.

All staged fights are gone.

If you want to play in the NHL @ 5'10" and 180lbs, ya better be able to take care of yourself!

The GMs should grand father the Enforcers on their teams individually and ensure that their team can still take care of business.