The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Well, still being stuck in my confined 610 sq ft space for what will be another full week is no fun, but having some NHL hockey to watch certainly helps pass the time, at least for a few hours. So the Sens won their first game of the pre-season 3-2 against the New York Rangers. Ottawa only had maybe 7-8 players that will likely play in Binghamton this season, the only notable scratches being Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Kelly and Anton Volchenkov. But, seeing as they have their first regular season game in just two weeks, it made sense for new coach Craig Hartsburg to see how the new line combiations will work.

The Senators played fairly dominantly to open up the game and looked far and away the better team. But it was difficult to gauge how much chemistry they have right now, as the parade of penalties ruined any flow the game was trying to establish. Special teams dominated most of the night which takes away a lot of the ice time of the rookies to show what they can do.

It was a very physical contest, with guys like Jason Smith and Jarkko Ruutu showing why they were signed by Ottawa by playing their gritty styles. Christoph Schubert looked very good playing solid D all night while throwing lots of hits.

This was the first experiment with newcomer Jesse Winchester playing alongside Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza, and he did not disappoint. He didn't register a point, but he created a lot of chances and wasn't afraid to get his nose dirty, playing with more edge than his finesse-style linemates. Hopefully he'll continue to play strong, as having the scoring spread out with Alfredsson on a different line gives the Sens much needed scoring depth.

It's only a pre-season game, but it was great to see them get the win and add to the anticipation of opening night of the regular season.