All In The Family. Karlsson To Go #1.

And with this declaration all of Leaf nation is going insane no doubt. Plus with Chara as the other captain, the Leaf players may be waiting awhile to hear their name called next Thursday at the draft.

GDP #24: Sens @ Winnipeg

First off, I'm back. I was away for almost a month, including getting into a car accident with a semi truck in Tennessee but I'm mostly ok and I'm ready to update the site full time and get things back to normal, starting with tonight's game day preview. The Sens are in Winnipeg for their first trip there in 15 years or so, taking on the Jets in an all Canadian matchup that starts at 8:30pm eastern since Winterpeg is in a different time zone.

The Sens are coming off a win against struggling Carolina, while the Jets are coming off a loss, but both teams are almost dead even in the standings with the Jets having 22 and the Sens 24 points at the moment. Craig Anderson will start for the Sens and there will be no lineup changes, which means Brian Lee will sit in favor of Rundblad again. Chris Neil is getting closer to playing after practicing today but still isn't cleared for contact as of yet. No word on who is starting for the Jets yet, but I would imagine it will be Ondrej Pavelec, who a couple of seasons ago made 50 saves against us in a win at SBP.

Here's a shot of the team at the morning skate in Winterpeg this morning. You will notice Neil at centre ice in the grey jersey, which means no contact, but still good to see him out there and getting close to a return.


Another story line from tonight's matchup is the return of Sens head coach Paul MacLean to Winnipeg, where he was a star player for the Jets for a number of years. Ian Mendes has an awesome piece on MacLean and a hockey card. It's definitely worth the read.





Here's a little stroll down memory lane from a piece of Sens history in Winnipeg. The old Jets logo and jersey is way better isn't it?

Local Flavor: Zach Bogosian is from Massena, New York, only an hour from Ottawa and was a Sens fan growing up.

Predicition: The Jets are better than their record indicates and the Sens are perhaps playing a tad over expectations to start the year at the moment. With that being said, the Sens did win 4-1 in the first meeting this year, but that was at SBP. I see a fun game tonight with the Sens taking it 3-2.

Pre game thoughts?

Alfie Out With Concussion Problems

Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson will be out a minimum of a week after suffering a concussion on a cheap shot elbow to the head at the hands of the Rangers' Wolski on Saturday afternoon. Alfie, who missed the game on Sunday as well, will be re-evaluated in a weeks time, though there is no guarantee he will be back then. What a shame to happen to him of all people and the stunning part is there was no suspension handed out to Wolski after the NHL spent all pre season bombarding us with suspensions.





In case you missed it, here is the hit from multiple angles. I mean I don't know what more Brendan Shannahan and the NHl are looking for. It's pretty black and white to me. A clear cheap shot that deserved suspension.

Ian Mendes tweeted this about the Alfie hit, which wouldn't be all that newsworthy normally other than because it's from Mendes, who for the record is my favorite Sens media guy, but it got a player to respond.........

Former Sen Mike Fisher retorted and I think it says it all about the NHL's consistency. Smarten up and fast.


Thoughts on the Alfie injury?

Beer Gate

Clever little response from Bruce Garrioch over the Kovalev comments last week. Kill him with humor people, that's the way to do it.

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Kovalev Reaction

Yesterday the enigmatic and supremely frustrating Alexei Kovalev had some words for the media in Ottawa. Normally it would be semi newsworthy, but I doubt anyone would really care, but this time it was funny because he declared that that the journalists who cover the Sens smuggle beer in their suitcases at airports. It's such a ridiculous claim that maybe it's true? I knew the Ottawa media would likely fight back to the outrageous comment, so here are some of their retorts.

First up is the TEAM 1200's Steve Lloyd, who tried to be funny but didn't really get there. The stay classy Alex hashtag just killed any humurous momentum, however small, he had going. Using a border joke that everyone in the area can related was a good move, he just didn't execute it well. Oh well it's a long season and he can just take it one joke at a time. The important thing was his teammates picked up the slack.

This is a much better effort by Wayne Scanlan. He pokes fun at himself and the other media members and still manages to get a shot in against Kovalev. What makes a joke work is making fun of something we all know to be true, so Scanner nailed it. I especially like the beer smuggling part. I think the Ottawa media should now be known as the beer smugglers.

Bruce Garrioch was the seemingly the most upset about the comments and people's reaction to it. No joke to be had here, just his feelings on the matter. The real reaction was this piece he wrote about it, in which I thought he killed it. He does a great job at delivering facts, while also getting some revenge with truthful barbs peppered throughout the artcile. Well done.

And the winner.........who else but my personal favorite, Ian Mendes, who has to be one of the funniest people in the sports business. What an excellent way to handle it. Spot on joke and hits all the necessary points. You see this is what you do, you poke fun at yourself in a self depricating way and don't take yourself too seriously.

Thoughts?

UPDATE @ 4pm on August 9th:

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