Senators Articles: Heat's on Spezza to start scoring
October 28, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Bruce Garrioch of Ottawa Sun.com

Heat's on Spezza to start scoring

By Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun

Jason Spezza is getting heat with the Baby Sens. Spezza has just one goal in his first five games with the Senators' AHL affiliate.

"I think it's been average at best," Spezza told the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin when asked to evaluate his performance. "I'm going to look at these five games and evaluate some things. The good news is we've got 75 more of these (games) to go, and I'll pick up my game just like everyone else."

Spezza scored his first goal Saturday in a victory over Hamilton. He has two assists and a minus-2 rating and hasn't shown the consistency anybody expected when he was sent to play in Binghamton during the lockout.

Senators GM John Muckler said Spezza, Anton Volchenkov, Brian Pothier, Josh Langfeld and Antoine Vermette will improve.

"All of those players are having a little difficult time," Muckler said. "After you play in the National Hockey League for a while, you might take some things for granted at the lower level.

"But for them to play ordinary isn't good enough. They have to be stars every night. For Jason, this is just an adjustment period which I imagine will be a short period. To use a cliche, the cream always comes to the top, and it will."