FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-When you watch Connor McDavid’s highlight reel, it’s sort of difficult to imagine how he ever goes through a full shift without scoring. Or at least creating a great chance to score. That talent was on full display in Ottawa last night. It honestly felt like just about every time he was on the ice, the Oilers either scored or came close to it. McDavid had never scored against the Senators before last night but he certainly made up for lost time. McDavid finished with four points on the night (2 goals, 2 assists) and he could have had a lot more. Although, a depleted Ottawa line up made it pretty easy for him. The effort Mike Hoffman put in on this goal would get you benched in a shinny game.
-All eyes were on Christian Wolanin in his Ottawa debut and for the most part, it was a pretty good night for the 23 year old defenceman. Through a period and a half, it was abundantly clear why the Senators were so high on this kid. His offensive instincts were apparent from the get go and his willingness to jump into the play and attack in the offensive zone was really impressive. And while he was a bit of an adventure in his own end of the rink at times, there was a lot of like about his game. Hope to see a lot more of him during these last nine games. It’s worth pointing out that he finished with more ice time than both Ben Harpur and Freddy Claesson. And speaking of firsts, congratulations to Filip Chlapik, who notched his first career goal in the NHL.
-With just nine games remaining in their regular season, the Senators now sit in 28th overall. A single point back of the Montreal Canadiens and just two points behind the Detroit Red Wings. At the same time, both Vancouver and Arizona are only two back of Ottawa. Vancouver got the job done last night against Chicago but Arizona let a late lead slip away in Carolina. Otherwise it would have been a perfect night on the out of town scoreboard. It’s safe to assume they won’t climb any higher than 26th but falling as low as 30th is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Five of their remaining nine games will be against teams with nothing to play for.
-During the first intermission, James Duthie sat down with top goaltending prospect Filip Gustavsson. He met with the local media afterwards too. While you could tell he was a little bit uncomfortable under those TV lights, Gustavsson wasn’t shy about setting lofty goals for his professional career. Forget realistic expectations because this 19 year old made it clear that he wants to be one of the best goalies in the world. Love the confidence. It will be interesting to see how many AHL games they can get him into down the stretch. That switch to the North American style can be a tough one for European goalies so the sooner he starts the process the better.
-Bruce Garrioch had a couple interesting notes on some looming summer contract negotiations. On Mark Stone, he mentioned that the Senators are absolutely interested in a long-term deal and that the expectation is Stone would be looking at long as eight years. It’s obviously a case of the Senators coming in with a low number, as they should, but Garrioch referenced the Ondrej Palat deal ($5.3 mil a year) as a possible winger benchmark. It’s far more likely to end up in the $7 million dollar range though. Garrioch also suggested that the belief is Matt Duchene would like to stick around too. As mentioned on this site before, he said the two sides have already have talks about what that deal might look like.
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