Update (6:28 PM): Foligno out, Keller stays in
Apparently, Clouston isn't happy with the way Foligno's been playing lately, which is saying something given that he was one of the head coach's darlings after being promoted from the Binghamton coaching job last season.
He'll sit for at least tonight's game against the Kings while recent call-up Ryan Keller stays in. Keller's been playing well since he came up form Bingo last week, so it's kind of nice that he'll be keep playing. Hopefully this will be the kind of jump-start that Foligno needs.
Meanwhile, the first-round pick worthy Chris Campoli will sit for a second straight game. It'd be a shame to see a player who the Senators gave up so much for continue to sit in the press box.
It's really hard to tell what the plan is for the back end at the moment, given Karlsson's less-than-stellar performance against the Sharks on Tuesday and the fact that Brian Lee, who was actually improving in the past few games before being sent to Binghamton, is reportedly being shopped around.
Update (3:15 PM): The 6th Sens, who is apparently a lot less deferential to journalism authority figures than I, weighs in on the matter.
Wayne Scanlan is reporting that Lee talked back to head coach Cory Clouston during last Thursday's game against Columbus and was thus parked on the bench for the remainder of the period. One day later, Lee was sent down to Binghamton and Karlsson was brought up.
Since then, rumours have been swirling that Murray is trying to move the young defenceman and that the young defenceman wouldn't necessarily object to getting a fresh start. One of the rumours has Lee going to Columbus for Nikita Filatov, but if you ask me that's a bit far-fetched.
Overall, it wouldn't be all that surprising if these rumours proved correct. Lee's development as a puck-moving defenceman has been less than smooth since he was called up to fill in two years ago. Clouston has been unequivocal in his belief that Lee will never be the puck-handling player that he has been so far in his career, and urged him to work on his defensive fundamentals. Obviously, learning you're not going to be the next Paul Coffey after billing yourself as such throughout your hockey career can be hard to take, hence his propensity to talk back last week.
Still, this is yet another case of a hockey player "not fitting in" (to paraphrase Murray) with the Senators. Ilya Zubov, Dany Heatley, and Alexander Nikulin have all been players that simply don't match the lunch-pail philosophy that Bryan Murray has been trying to build in the dressing room during his tenure here. Perhaps Brian Lee is the latest casualty of that philosophy.
This is probably a good thing for the Senators. It's never a good idea to tolerate an ego getting too large, since that can lead to unfortunate Heatley-like situations. But still, NHL millionaires are by definition ego-centred, and those egos usually reflect proportionally the amount of the talent the player has, so it seems like there's a fine line that Murray and Clouston have to toe.
Anyways, let's hope the Senators can get back on track against a more manageable opponent tonight. The Los Angeles Kings have had a surprising season so far, but they are definitely beatable. Hopefully Brian Elliott returns to form and Milan Michalek keeps on a tear.
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