–Ben Bishop will get the start tonight against the Rangers.  Jim O’Brien returns from injury and Zenon Konopka draws out of the lineup.

–Peter Chiarelli made an interesting comment about scouting, ‘when he was in Ottawa that the team did some research into drafting, and one of the conclusions was that “weight is much more important than height when scouting players.”  Unfortunately the comment isn’t qualified (presumably Erik Karlsson would fail by that standard), but it’s an interesting comment that trends against the conventional wisdom for height.

–Stu Hackel writes about his coach of the year candidates, beginning with this proviso,

the NHL Broadcasters Association, which is in charge of the award, generally selects a coach whose season is marked by a conspicuously measurable result. If a coach guides a team to a big improvement over the previous year, he’ll get very serious consideration. So will a coach who has been able to keep his team winning despite serious obstacles, such as many and/or key injuries to his players, such as Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma did last season and is doing again, or getting his team to play well despite the franchise’s off-ice problems, as Dave Tippett did two seasons ago in Phoenix. Those are really good standards, and it’s hard to fault them. They reflect excellent coaching. But they also tend to shortchange some guys who more consistently push the right buttons and get strong outcomes year after year.

Here are his thoughts on Paul MacLean,

No one expected much from the young Senators this season, perhaps not even the organization itself. But they’ve been one of the NHL’s big surprises and MacLean has been a huge part of that. He’s managed the expectations very well, and his long NHL playing and coaching experience has informed this group, giving it direction. He’s provided a big change in culture from the tense atmosphere he inherited and put the Sens on an upward path. For a first-year head coach, that’s very impressive.

–Robin Lehner made 22 saves to shutout the Toronto Marlies 2-0 yesterday afternoon.  Mark Borowiecki had the winner and Corey Cowick added an empty-netter.  Here’s the box score and Joy Lindsay‘s game summary.

–Joy Lindsay Tweets today’s lines at practice: Cowick-Hamilton-Parrish, Grant-Cannone-Petersson, Dziurzynski-Da Costa-Downing, Bartlett-Lessard; Borowiecki-Gryba, Henningson-Conboy, Wiercioch-Schira, Godfrey.

This article is written by Peter Levi, be sure to follow @eyeonthesens