National Hockey League

The Ottawa Senators try to end a three-game skid tonight when they visit the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center.

Since a three-game winning streak that saw the Sens outscore opponents a combined 21-5, they have dropped contests to Boston, Montreal and Carolina. On Saturday Ottawa lost a 3-2 decision to the visiting Hurricanes. Ray Whitney scored twice in the third period, including the game-winner midway through, to lift Carolina.

Daniel Alfredsson and Denis Hamel both notched their second goals of the season, and former Hurricane Martin Gerber made 37 saves in a losing effort.

The Senators have lost three straight for the second time this season, as they also did so from October 5-12.

Ottawa was 0-for-7 on the power play Saturday and is a meager 6-for-71 this season. Their 8.5 percentage with the man-advantage is the worst mark in the league.

The Sens begin a four-game road trip tonight and will visit Atlanta on Wednesday.

Washington, meanwhile, has won two of its last three games. On Saturday. Alexander Ovechkin and Ben Clymer each scored two goals to lead the Capitals past the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3, at the Wachovia Center.

Matt Bradley and Brian Sutherby each added a pair of assists for Washington.

Brent Johnson made 33 saves for the Capitals, who won for the first time in Philadelphia since the 1998 season, a span of 16 games.

Ovechkin ended a three-game goal-less streak with his two-tally effort.

The Caps will visit Carolina on Thursday.

Ottawa went 3-1 against Washington last season, and is 6-0-2 in its last eight trips to DC.

Leafs' Raycroft shuts out Senators 6-0

Paul Maurice got his first win as Toronto's new coach by sticking with a game plan that came up short one night earlier.

Chad Kilger and Darcy Tucker each scored two goals and Andrew Raycroft made 34 saves for his first shutout with the Maple Leafs, leading Toronto to a 6-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Kyle Wellwood had a career-high four assists for the Maple Leafs, who spoiled Ottawa's home opener, returning the favor one night after the Senators' 4-1 win in Toronto in the season opener for both teams.

"Like we said after the game last night - and I wasn't trying to sell you something - I thought we played a pretty solid game, a pretty smart game, we just didn't do anything easily with the puck the entire night, and tonight we did," said Maurice, who coached Toronto's AHL affiliate last season. "A lot of things just came easy to us, Wellwood's passes and those kind of things that weren't there last night were there."

Raycroft, the 2004 rookie of the year with Boston, got his fourth career shutout in his second start with the Maple Leafs, who won for just the second time in the last 10 games between the provincial rivals.

"If we had given up a goal in the last 20 seconds it wouldn't have mattered," Raycroft said. "It's just nice to get the win, and when it comes down to it that's all that really matters."

Alexei Ponikarovsky and Bates Battaglia also scored for Toronto.

"We play Saturday night," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "That's about all you can say."

After Kilger and Tucker scored special teams goals in the first period, Kilger scored an even-strength goal 5:42 into the second and Tucker added his second power-play goal of the game to put Toronto up 4-0 midway through the period.

Kilger's second goal of the game made it 3-0 with a shot into the top left corner from the edge of the crease after Alex Steen jumped on a puck behind the net left there by goalie Martin Gerber, who miscommunicated with defensemen Wade Redden and Andrej Meszaros.

"Mez and I messed up," Redden said. "We've got to tell Marty what to do there. Each of us was on a different page."

Gerber gave up another goal at 9:37 when he yielded a big rebound after gloving Mats Sundin's shot and let Tucker's shot along the ice slide between his legs.

Ponikarovsky made it 5-0 at 16:50 when he deflected Sundin's flip pass in mid-air, putting the puck into the left side as Gerber was caught sliding across to the right post.

Ray Emery replaced Gerber, who made 19 saves, to begin the third. Emery allowed Battaglia's goal 13:50 into the period as Wellwood drew his fourth assist, tying his career high for points in a game.

"It's always great to get a point and to be involved in the play that your team scores," Wellwood said. "You just consider yourself lucky when you get that many."

Kilger opened the scoring with a shorthanded effort at 11:03. Tucker made it 2-0 on a power play at 14:08 when he beat Gerber with a wrist shot from the right side.

Senators score big in 2005-06

Tremendous success early last season kick-started a record goal total for the Ottawa Senators. Taking advantage of new rules implemented by the NHL, Ottawa was the most dynamic squad offensively and provided fans with many highlight-reel tallies.
The Senators’ total of 312 goals in 2005-06 was 11 more than the second-place Detroit Red Wings and 26 more than the third-place Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens’ previous best was 274 goals recorded during the 2000-01 season.
The Senators were also lethal during special teams.
Ottawa had a clear lead in the NHL with 25 short-handed goals. Philadelphia was second with 19. The Senators’ previous high in goals scored while killing penalties was 11 in 2001-02.
While the Senators were second in power-play goals with 102 – the Toronto Maple Leafs had 107—their 2005-06 total was significantly higher than the previous mark of 83 set in 2002-03.
For the first time in team-history the Senators boasted 14 10-goal scorers. Three other times previously, the Senators had 11 players to finish a season with 10 or more goals. The club also tied the team record for 20-goal scorers in a season with six. That number was previously reached during the 2002-03 season.
While team numbers were impressive, individual records were also set.
No one was hotter than Dany Heatley, who became the first Senator to score 50 goals in a season. No. 50 for Heatley was the last goal of the regular season for Ottawa and came midway through the third period of a 5-1 victory over the Rangers in New York on April 18. Other players to set personal highs in goals were Daniel Alfredsson (43), Mike Fisher (22), Antoine Vermette (21), Peter Schaefer (20), Patrick Eaves (20), Chris Neil (16), Andrej Meszaros (10), Chris Kelly (10), Brian Pothier (5), Anton Volchenkov (4), Christoph Schubert (4) and Brian McGrattan (2).
The following is a list of 20 of the more memorable goals from 2005-06. Click on the listings to view video of the goals, courtesy of NHL.com

Senators Sign Prospects Bass and Luttinen

Ottawa Senators general manager John Muckler announced today the signing of two draft picks to multi-year entry-level contracts. Centre Cody Bass was an Ottawa selection during last year’s draft, while left-winger Arttu Luttinen was picked in 2002.Bass, born in Owen Sound, Ont., played the last three seasons with the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga IceDogs and captained the team last season. At the end of the IceDogs’ regular season this past March, the 19-year-old signed an amateur tryout agreement with the Senators’ AHL affiliate in Binghamton. He collected a goal and two penalty minutes over nine games.Bass, who did not record a point in four games during the Senators’ rookie tournament in September 2005, represented Canada at the 2005 IIHF U18 World Championships winning the silver medal.Luttinen, born in Helsinki, developed through IFK Helsinki’s hockey system, including the last four seasons playing in Finland’s elite league -- SM-Liiga.The 22-year-old collected 18 goals, 26 assists and 66 penalty minutes over 56 regular-season games in 2005-06, and added seven points (4-3) and 39 penalty minutes in 12 playoff matchups. Luttinen finished second in team scoring and tied for eighth in the league. IFK teammate Tony Salmelainen won the league scoring title with 27 goals and 28 assists for 55 points.

Ottawa's GM will keep many Senators in office

If the Ottawa Senators showed as strong a defence as their general manager did Tuesday, they might still be participating in the NHL playoffs.
John Muckler met with reporters for the first time since his team's exit from the playoffs and quickly found himself on the defensive when it came to explaining the reasons behind his team's quick post-season demise.

While the 72-year-old accepted part of the blame, he showed overwhelming support for a club that's failed to make it out of the second round for the seventh time in eight playoff appearances.
At times, he contradicted criticisms of the team made less than 24 hours earlier by his own coach Bryan Murray. And he insisted he won't blow up the Senators, who finished atop the Eastern Conference standings with 113 points but were eliminated in five games in the second round by the Buffalo Sabres.
"We are all here for one reason, that's to win the Stanley Cup, and that'll always be the purpose in Ottawa and I think it can be accomplished," said Muckler, who was joined by Senators president Roy Mlakar. "We certainly have to make some changes. I don't think it'll be a great deal of changes. I have all kinds of confidence in our personnel."
With only eight players under contract for next season, the Senators face the loss of key players such as unrestricted free agents Wade Redden and Zdeno Chara and also need to sign restricted free agents like Jason Spezza and Martin Havlat.
Muckler wants them all back - possibly even goaltender Dominik Hasek, whose injury situation appears to be a bone of contention between the GM and coach. Pending the league's salary cap and Senators owner Eugene Melnyk's own pocketbook, Muckler said he expects to see most of the same faces in the lineup next season.
"When you look at our team, you look at certain people that are being talked about in the newspaper as trading, I don't know how you do those things because I don't think you could get equal value back again," Muckler said.
"Some things have to be done internally - we have to change our ways, change our approach. I still believe in this team. It's a very good hockey club."
Player movement - or lack thereof - seems to be one of a couple of points on which Murray, who Muckler hired to replace Jacques Martin, and the GM don't seem to agree.
After the players cleaned out the dressing room on Monday, Murray had his turn with the media and cited the Senators' goaltending situation as a major reason for its playoff failure.
With Hasek sidelined by a lingering muscle injury in his groin/upper thigh area, the Senators were forced to pin their playoff hopes on the unproven Ray Emery. While Murray said that Emery's performance was good, he thought the 23-year-old backup never should have been put in that situation.
Muckler, who similarly insisted that Patrick Lalime didn't need help shortly before Ottawa's last playoff exit in 2004, chose to stand pat at the trade deadline, a decision that didn't sit well with many critics. From Murray's words, he appears to have joined in those ranks.
"We looked into obtaining a goalkeeper at the deadline - in fact, before the deadline," Muckler countered. "Our options weren't very good. There wasn't anybody available. Emery was the best goalkeeper available."
Murray, clearly annoyed by the distraction Hasek's injury had become to the team, also wants to proceed as though Hasek, an unrestricted free agent, had played his last game for the Senators and said Ottawa's No. 1 off-season priority was finding a suitable replacement.
But Muckler was quick to point to the Senators' lack of offence against the Sabres as the reason for its failure and said he'll even entertain the thought of bringing Hasek back for another year.
"The reason we lost the Stanley Cup is not because of goalkeeping," he said. "This hockey club did not score an even-strength goal after the first game (officially, the Senators were credited with three after Game 1). With the talent that we had in our defence and our forwards, you'd think we'd be able to accomplish that but we never did."
Murray also questioned his team's playoff grit, saying the Senators need to add a couple of forwards "that come and play with that intensity, that character, that grit, whatever it may be, that I believe is really important at this time of year."
While a quick look at the faces of players on teams still in contention reveals a multitude of welts, cuts and black eyes - the tell-tale signs of playoff warriors, there was an absence of battle scars on the fresh faces that cleaned out the locker-room the day before. But Muckler insisted his guys were tough enough.
"I thought we had a lot of grit on our hockey club this year as compared to previous seasons," he said.
After being unable to follow up on previous strong regular-season performances and recognizing their window of opportunity may be coming to a close with new free-agency rules and the salary cap, this was supposed to be the year the Senators went for it.
However, after last summer's blockbuster deal that brought in Dany Heatley from Atlanta in exchange for Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries, Muckler made few other moves.
Muckler insists he liked what he saw all along and felt teams wanted too much to make deals worthwhile, so while rivals like Carolina went out and added Doug Weight and Mark Recchi, he picked up goaltender Mike Morrison on waivers to back up Emery and acquired centre Tyler Arnason at the trade deadline.
The latter move was met with widespread criticism in Ottawa after Arnason recorded just four assists in 19 games and was scratched from the last couple of regular-season games and all of the playoffs.
"We made the decision that we felt our hockey club was strong enough to win," he said.
Muckler had success as a member of the Edmonton Oilers organization in the mid-1980s through 1990 and, as he often does, made comparisons between the path the Oilers took nearly two decades ago with the one the Senators are on now.
"It's not the first time a hockey club has stumbled and never accomplished a goal," said Muckler, who has two years remaining on a three-year contract.
"As Wayne Gretzky said to a paper today, there's an organization like the Edmonton Oilers that stumbled a few times before they became champions. This is not an easy championship to win. It's the most difficult championship to win in any professional sport and we'll have to change some things and we will and our goal next year is to win the Stanley Cup."

And a Child Shall Lead Them

By Mike Brody
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Rookie goaltenders have had success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs before – most notably with Ken Dryden in 1971 and Patrick Roy in 1986, both leading the Montreal Canadiens to the Cup – but never before has a crop of rookie goalies dominated the playoffs like they have this season.

Of the five remaining teams in this year’s playoffs, three are led by rookie goalies and another by a first-year starter. Carolina’s Cam Ward, Buffalo’s Ryan Miller, Anaheim’s Ilya Bryzgalov, and San Jose’s Vesa Toskala have all enjoyed incredible playoff success thus far.

Seven-year veteran Dwayne Roloson of the Edmonton Oilers, who was acquired in a mid-season trade with the Minnesota Wild, is the only experienced goaltender left. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that, especially with the presence of such big-name goalies as Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff, and other veteran backstops or NHL powerhouses like Detroit’s Manny Legace, Dallas’s Marty Turco, and Colorado’s Jose Theodore, among the contenders.

The New Favorite

Thanks to a surprisingly easy 4 games to 1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, and a dominating performance winning four straight games over Montreal after losing the first two in Round 1, the Carolina Hurricanes have emerged as the new favorite to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. Despite finishing the regular season with 112 points, just 1 behind Eastern Conference leader Ottawa, the Hurricanes’ odds of winning the Cup entering the playoffs were posted at 10-1. That was before the oddsmakers had seen Ward turn away almost every shot he’s faced.

In 10 playoff games, the 22-year-old rookie has allowed just 17 goals while posting a 1.77 goals against average (GAA). Ward let in just five goals in Carolina’s four victories over New Jersey as he outplayed his boyhood idol Brodeur. With his stellar play, and the Hurricanes’ opportunistic offense, led by 100-point scorer Eric Staal, Carolina will be tough to beat.

The Upstart Challenger

The Sabres’ Miller is the only U.S.-born goalie among the Fab Four. He hopes to duplicate the feat of another rookie American goalie, Ron Hextall, who led the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1987. After a shaky start in Game 1 against Ottawa, Buffalo’s defense and Miller shut down the Senators the rest of the way, allowing two or fewer goals in each of the last four games. The Michigan native has a 2.25 GAA and a .921 save percentage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Buffalo’s defense has been stellar in front of Miller. Defensemen Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder lead all playoff performers in plus/minus at plus-13. The Sabres’ offense has been scoring in bunches. Buffalo has a team-leading 43 goals scored in 11 games and is riding high after winger Jason Pominville’s shorthanded, overtime goal clinched the series against Ottawa.

Mr. Perfect – Almost

Anaheim’s Bryzgalov has been the most surprising and impressive of all the rookies. Bryzgalov didn’t even enter the playoffs as the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie. That honor went to Jean-Sebastian Giguere, who led Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003, his second year in the league, and was named the Conn Smythe winner as the MVP of the playoffs that season.

After splitting their first four games against Calgary in Round 1, the Ducks made the switch to Bryzgalov and they haven’t regretted it. The 24-year-old Russian has practically stood on his head as he is sporting a ridiculous 0.87 GAA and .967 save percentage. He recorded three straight shutouts, including Game 7 at Calgary to clinch that series. In doing so, Bryzgalov set a rookie playoff record, holding opponents scoreless for 249 minutes, 15 seconds. Only Montreal’s George Hainsworth, 270:08 in 1930, has had a longer playoff scoreless streak.

The Final Four

San Jose’s Toskala is hoping to join his fellow first-year netminders in the conference finals. After an excellent series against Nashville in Round 1, including a shutout in Game 2, and two 2-1 victories to open the Edmonton series, Toskala and the Sharks find themselves on the ropes as the Oilers have stormed back to take a 3-2 series lead. Edmonton will try to close it out at home on Wednesday night.

San Jose’s offense is led by Patrick Marleau, who leads all playoff goal scorers with nine. The Sharks will need to get an early lead and help Toskala protect it to force a Game 7 at home on Friday.

The Finals

The matchup between Ward and Miller should be as entertaining as it gets. Both are capable of stealing a game or two for their respective teams. Carolina is the favorite, but Buffalo has a lot of momentum and Miller has shown he can win the close games with four one-goal victories against Ottawa. Look for the Sabres to get to the Finals.

The Ducks have had a long time off after unexpectedly sweeping the Avalanche. Anaheim may be a little rusty to start the conference finals, but the Ducks have good veteran leadership in Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne and will ride the stellar play of Bryzgalov past either the Oilers or the Sharks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Hasek may get another shot with Senators

The Ottawa Senators may not have seen the last of Dominik Hasek.
While coach Bryan Murray believes Hasek should be shown the door, general manager John Muckler left it open for his return yesterday.
Re-signing Hasek, who is now an unrestricted free agent, and re-installing him as the team's No. 1 goalie has the potential to thoroughly alienate the team's fans given that much of the blame for the team's early Stanley Cup playoff exit is being pinned on Hasek's inability to return from an injury suffered during the Winter Olympics.
Fans might have been quite willing to take that gamble once. But twice? That's something owner Eugene Melnyk, scheduled to meet with his management team next week, may not want to risk.
"I haven't had that conversation with [Hasek]," Muckler said. "I want to sit down and talk to him, so that decision will come at a later date."
This seems to set up a confrontation between Muckler and Murray, with team president Roy Mlakar already lining up with Muckler.
"I agree with John: We're not going to make any knee-jerk decisions here," Mlakar said, adding that the coaches would be meeting with Muckler and assistant general manager Peter Chiarelli.
"There's no timetable on the decision-making process," Mlakar said. "They're going to analyze the entire year. John will make the ultimate decision."
As for the rest of the team, Muckler doesn't believe many changes are needed. The biggest challenge, he said, will be in keeping it together.
How successful he is in this task will determine whether this team resembles a Stanley Cup contender in the fall or the St. Louis Blues.
The most difficult players to re-sign, among the 16 whose contracts are expiring, will be unrestricted free agents Wade Redden and Zdeno Chara. Muckler said the team would try as hard as it could to keep its star defencemen.
After talking to Redden and Chara on Monday, Muckler's feeling was that they would first listen to Ottawa's offer before looking at offers from other teams.
"I got the impression they want to sit down and get this done, if possible, as soon as possible," Muckler said.
However, if there's a misstep here and one or both of these players signs with another team, the Senators will be in for a long, cold winter.
Muckler said the Senators weren't misled over Hasek's injury. They believed he would be back, which was one reason there was no rush to make a deal at the March trade deadline.
Hasek never made it back, but the general manager said he would make the deal to sign the 41-year-old goaltender again, if he had to.
"I still think it was the best deal we had in our hands at that particular time," Muckler said.
He said Hasek did not want to come back unless he was 100% certain that he could be better than Ray Emery and help the club.
"I don't think you can criticize that," Muckler said.
He said there would be discussions about the Senators during the next few days, but he already had some ideas. One was that he'd like to add some players who were more determined battlers along the boards.

Ottawa Senators vs. Buffalo Sabres

Ottawa as the No.1 seed as they entered the playoffs were the clear favorites to win the second round series against Buffalo, but they haven’t been able to win in the two games they’ve played so far.

Ottawa won the first round of the playoffs against Tampa Bay a team that didn’t represent too much of a struggle and went down rather easy. Now they’re facing Buffalo a team that’s not making things easy for them so far in the series.

The Senators considered having one of the best offenses in the league plus a great goalie that can keep them out of trouble if the team is not playing that good. The key to win this series is to try and make the best of their offense and score as many goals as they can. Also they need to stop the Buffalo offense that’s been scoring too many goals against them. They also have home ice advantage as long as their alive and they need to make the best of that situation that often makes the balance go to the home team side.

Recent Transactions
4/6 Recalled Tomas Malec from Binghamton of the AHL. 4/5 Assigned Denis Hamel to Binghamton of the AHL. 4/3 Recalled Denis Hamel from Binghamton of the AHL. 3/30 Recalled Brad Norton from Binghamton of the AHL.

On the other side Buffalo needed six games to beat the Flyers in a series that wasn’t as close as it might seem. The first two games they won with 7-1 and 8-2 scores and the other two they had 58 shots on goal to win in overtime.

The Sabres are very fast and quick. They use those talents to force teams into retreating often. Buffalo rolls four lines and gets production from them all, and they have two goalies capable of starting.

They’re doing very good so far in the series with a 2-0 lead and it seems the Ottawa team hasn’t been able to stop those talents mentioned before. Now they have to travel to Ottawa a very difficult ice dome to play. They have ferocious fans and they desperately need to win to avoid getting in a 3-0 hole that would be very difficult to get out off.

Recent Transactions
5/3 Signed Drew Stafford to a three-year contract. 4/20 Called up Jiri Novotny and Doug Janik from Rochester of the AHL 4/10 Extended their minor-league affiliation one year with Rochester of the AHL.