PIT vs OTT
Posted on April 10, 2008 03:39 PM | Permalink
Not all the news was bad for the Ottawa Senators today.
Defenceman Anton Volchenkov, who took 15 stitches as a result of taking a shot in the head from Pittsburgh Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin in a 4-0 loss Wednesday to open the series, wasn’t on the ice today, but he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow.
“Probably,” said Volchenkov when reporters asked him whether he’d play.
That will have Senators GM/coach Bryan Murray breathing a sigh of relief. The Senators can’t afford to take another hit because they’re already without captain Daniel Alfredsson (neck/knee), centre Mike Fisher (knee) and centre Chris Kelly (foot).
Trying to get the offence going, Murray changed a couple of lines today by moving Martin Lapointe to the top line with centre Jason Spezza and winger Dany Heatley.
“We just need to put more pucks (at Marc-Andre Fleury) and get some ugly goals,” said Lapointe.
The Penguins don’t expect the Senators to just roll over.
Ideally, Pittsburgh would like to take a 2-0 lead as the series shifts to Ottawa for Game 3 which is set for Monday
night at Scotiabank Place.
“We know they’re going to come hard and they’re going to play with a lot of desperation,” said Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien. “That’s just the way it is in the playoffs. They’re all big games and we know that. Our focus is there.”
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said the club has to do a better job of staying out of the penalty box.
The club gave up two 5-on-3 power plays and were fortunate the Senators didn’t score by going 0-for-7 on the
power play in Game 1.
“The outcome of the first game doesn’t mean anything in the playoffs,” said Crosby. “We know we haven’t won
anything yet. We want to make sure that we follow up that effort with another strong game.”
NOTEBOOK: The Senators are 2-6 lifetme after losing the first game of a playoff series... Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson continues to ride the stationary back, but hasn’t skated since suffering a knee/neck injury against the Maple Leafs a week ago on a hit from Toronto C Mark Bell... The loss to the Penguins was the eighth time the Senators have been shutout in 100 playoff games.
