I had that same stupid poster of that stupid ice man, man.

Hi.

How’s going? Great orrrrrrrr really great? Really great? Well great.

Before we get started—whats that? Already started? Okay, well, whatever, so, bloggingly speaking, am I alone in being a bit confused over people’s comments about Ben Bishop’s game against Tampa out in the Sensphere? It seemed like I kept reading thing after thing about how the guy looked shaky and that Lehner is better than him etc. Damn. One game and people have some serious opinions. I was pretty surprised how dismissive of his performance people were being. I don’t really know if giving up a power play goal from Stevehair Stamkos is “one you wish you had back” nor did I think the other two were Martin Gerber specials.  A win is a win and full credit to a guy who played his first game with a new team and on the road at that. If I’m going to dismiss anyone’s play its going to be the established NHL goaltender who had a dog garbage outing on the other end of the ice. Sure he wasn’t slated to start that because Garon went down from injury due to Erik Karlsson’s manliness, but after a 73 year career you’d think Dwayne Rollerblades would be able to handle something like that.

Tonight the Sens will not look like they are on a power play for whole periods at a time when they face the New York Rangers. After an Andersonian 26 consecutive starts and a bad loss at the hands of New Jersey last night, Henrik Zoolander will get a rest and Martin Biron the OTHER Matthieu Garon gets the nod. Now, playing for the no.1 team in the East, Biron has enjoyed a stellar season going an amazing 11-3-2 this season. Biron also has a .911 PCT and 2.20 GAA. Those are back up numbers you can hang your hat on. So, just because the Crown Prince of the Republic of Handsomeness is warming the bench don’t mean this one is going to be easy.

So, yeah, Ben Bishop is a human man from the United States of America and enjoys goaltending. Not too much to say here yet what with it being his second start here. This goalie preview is a stub, help WTYKYpedia by expanding it! OOH first game on home ice, that’s a thing I can say! So if you find yourself at the game or watching it on television, Ben Bishop is Ottawa’s starting goaltender. Bishop is in for a serious test but if he can hold off the Rangers who are not exactly lacking in the firepower department, that will be huge for him going forward. Also: Water = wet.

A few posts back we, as a family that loves and cares about each other, discussed the possibility of Erik Karlsson netting 20 goals. The basic consensus (self included) was that he probably wasn’t going to do it this year but would more than likely would put up 20 in the next year or two. So, fast forward to this exact moment, King Karl now has 16 goals on the season. He is currently on pace for 19 but as I’ve said before, I find those projections tend to be quite conservative. I mean, now that I think on it, I suppose it would be pretty hard to predict hot and cold streaks so calculating it as steadily as possible seems like the smartest way to go but come here and check this out for a second: 4 more goals people, 4 more frigging goals. Can he inch closer tonight?

Speaking of goal milestones on the year, I would love to see Spezza climb to the 30 mark. He’s done it thrice before but those were in some powerhouse years and for Spezz to do it this year surrounded by a much different cast and a whole lot of rookies would just be special. He could even potentially do it tonight. Its not unreasonable to see Spezza pot two in a game, even against the Rangers. Great to see Turris and Greening get on the board against the Bolts, this would be an absolutely ideal time for frankly anyone who done need heating up to heat up. Hopefully Michalek wont be too thrown off tonight by there being a goaltender in the net.

Thinking back to the last couple of games the Sens and Rangers have played I’m not sure if the Rags they were quite east coast dominators they are now back then. Maybe they were but I always feel like the Sens have a chance against them. Its funny when you consider these teams respective places in the standings as Ottawa’s top line centre in Jason Spezza has 72 points while NY’s Brad Richards has 45 (three less than 39 year old Daniel Alfredsson) and Erik Karlsson has more points than everyone on the Rangers roster. But a quick glance at how those points are spread out over the team, the defense corps and the performance of their goaltending tandem offer a strong case for why they are challenging for the President’s Trophy. At the very least tonight we’ll get to see Biggitty Ben Bishop’s sample size that we will judge him intensely on grow.

Enjoy the game!