4-2 Capitals

I don't know what's more weird: The fact that former NHL coach Pat Burns is the source for the latest Tiger Woods gossip or the fact that Jared Cowen, Ottawa's top prospect who Bryan Murray thought would be a productive NHL'er by November, was never even entrusted with shift against the Swiss during the WJHC semis. What does it say about the state of Ottawa's blueline when I still think that Cowen could help? Now throw in the recent goaltending struggles and the fact the Capitals are the highest scoring team in the NHL and tonight's result could be an unmitigated disaster.

While there were some media concerns that neither Pascal Leclaire or Alexei Kovalev would play tonight since they missed practice yesterday, both will suit up for tonight's game. Here are Ottawa's lines: Michalek-Regin-Foligno; Shannon-Fisher-Kovalev; Ruutu-Kelly-Neil; Donovan-Winchester-Cheechoo. On defence, Chris Campoli will be healthy scratched.

Who is Willie Desjardins?

In the opening segment of the podcast, we spent the duration of time talking about the World Juniors and how the coaching staff used Jared Cowen. There was a great quote by Tim Murray in Don Brennan's article this morning that reinforced what Tim and I were saying last night. Here it is,

Sounds like the world junior championship was not a great experience for Senators first-round pick Jared Cowen. “In the New Year’s Eve game he was one of five Canadian defencemen that weren’t very good,” said Senators assistant GM Tim Murray, who was in Saskatchewan for the tournament. “(In the semi-final game) in his hometown, they didn’t give him a chance to redeem himself. It embarrassed him, it deflated him. I think players come back after that. Then, when they lose (Travis) Hamonic (to injury), their hands are tied. They went into the final with six defencemen, and two of them they’re not comfortable playing. They gave up six goals ... I’m not saying it was the direct result, but it was the result.” ~ The Ottawa Sun

I'll give Tim Murray some credit here. He said it more eloquently and in fewer words than we did while managing to do it all without dropping the word fuck or the name Willie Desjardins.

Donovan To Be Honoured

On Friday, January 8th, the Carleton Place Canadians will be honouring Shean Donovan in a pre-game ceremony before their game against the Cumberland Grads.  Whether they plan on retiring Donovan's number, I'm not entirely sure. I am after all getting this information from a Carleton Place newspaper. However, if they don't retire his jersey, doesn't it seem a bit shallow that they'd only honour Donovan by giving him some applause? Where's the hook? You'd think Donovan's ability to grow up and move on from Carleton Place should warrant more than some simple applause.

Panthers Game On CBC

According to the Ottawa Senators official blog by Rob Brodie, this Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers (7pm ET)  will now be televised on HNIC.

Comments (3)

Two things
written by Benjamin , January 07, 2010

Cowen will be fine. You can define a career by a body of work (like Tarantino: Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, etc) or one just one piece of it (Four Rooms). I'll go with the body of work and his Memorial Cup.

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written by Nichols , January 07, 2010

Benjamin...Completely agree and most Leafs fans will agree as well. A good WJHC is no precursor for future NHL success. We get into this on the podcast, I hope you'll check it out.

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written by Rob R. , January 07, 2010

Easy now... I grew up in, and moved on from Carleton Place, and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.

Seriously though... Donovan was my paperboy when I was a kid. My parents loved the guy, and have been cheering for him throughout his entire career. It's nice to see them finally honouring him... although when I played for them, they were the Carleton Place Kings, and it was a Junior B team, not a Junior A team. I'm not sure if they have both Junior levels in town these days or not... but it was always entertaining hockey.

So that's two good things to come out of good old C.P. - spark plug Shean Don and blog commentor extraordinairre Rob R... not too shabby for a sleepy little valley town, if you ask me.

Cowen will be fine - his pride is probably stinging a bit right now, but let's chalk it up to a learning experience and assume that he'll be playing out the rest of the year with a giant chip on his shoulder, and will be making forwards from across the league pay in blood.

If nothing else, he should be eager to prove himself in the Nation's Capital next season.

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