FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Not. Dead. Yet. Okay well maybe they are but I get to ignore it for a couple more days. With last night’s dramatic win, the Ottawa Senators now sit five points back of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The climb in front of them is still best described as impossibly daunting and they probably still need to win all of their remaining games to have a chance but still, give this team some credit. It would have been pretty easy for them to roll over and accept their fate last night but once again, the Sens just refused to quit.
-Up until Mika Zibanejad’s goal with seven seconds left in regulation, this was a dreadfully boring hockey game. The Minnesota Wild had the whole New Jersey Devils thing going last night and just sucked the life out the building. Ottawa wasn’t able to generate much of anything in the way of a sustained attack and while they didn’t give up much either, there really just wasn’t a whole lot going on in this one. I had been so lulled to sleep by the first 59 minutes and 52 seconds of this game that I was barely even able to muster up a cheer on that tying goal.
-And as boring as that game was, you have to like the defensive effort put in by the Senators. The Wild aren’t exactly a high-flying team and they love to sit back but the Senators really didn’t give them much of anything in this one. There was the early breakdown on the first goal, the suspect back-checking on the second goal and other than that, Craig Anderson pretty much had the night off. It’s been a gradual process but the defence has certainly made strides in the second half of the season, particularly since the arrival of Dion Phaneuf.
-You roll out of bed this morning, open your laptop and head to NHL.com. After like 10-15 minutes of trying to navigate that awful website, you finally locate the league’s scoring leaders. Once there, you realize that Erik frigging Karlsson now sits alone in third place in league scoring. THIRD PLACE. In the entire league. He’s a defenceman, you know? With last night’s three point effort, Karlsson further demonstrated why he should be this year’s Norris Trophy winner. Regardless of whether or not this team makes the playoffs. Drew Doughty is having a good year and so is his team. Erik Karlsson is putting together one of the most incredible seasons for a defenceman in the history of the game. Only Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey have ever finished in the top three in league scoring.
-Yesterday afternoon, the Senators announced that they have signed Francis Perron to an entry level contract. If you haven’t heard of Perron yet, you certainly will soon. A 7th round pick in the 2014 Entry Draft, Perron has put together an incredible year with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL. In 61 games, he has 41 goals and 107 points. Good enough for third in league scoring. While he’s still a little bit undersized, the thinking is Perron could be ready to join the Binghamton Senators as early as next season. A much-needed infusion of skill for that team. Going to be fun to watch the next steps in Perron’s development.
