FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Pretty heroic effort by Mark Stone last night. Essentially playing the game with one good hand, Stone was one of Ottawa’s best forwards, picking up two primary assists. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point but the Montreal fans were pretty pathetic last night, booing Stone every time he touched the puck. And for what? For being on the receiving end of PK’s slash? Give me a break. It’s shit like that which makes the fans of the other 29 teams hate Montreal and their fans.
-Lots of blame for Eric Gryba on that winning goal and rightfully so but I actually thought that pairing was okay up until that catastrophic mistake. Cameron should be able to get some better match ups for them on home ice but as much as possible, he needs to cut back on their ice time. They are definitely playing too much. Question is, do the other four defenceman have enough left in the tank to pick up the slack?
-There will be line up changes ahead of Game 3. There has to be. Alex Chiasson finished the game with less than six minutes of ice and David Legwand was under ten. Cameron is a Coach that likes to roll four lines and right now he obviously doesn’t trust that fourth line enough to use them with any sort of regularity. I expect Chris Neil in for Alex Chiasson tomorrow and maybe Zack Smith in for Legwand? We shall see. Also, more Mike Hoffman, less Bobby Ryan.
-It’s probably not fair to Andrew Hammond but you have to ask the goaltending question heading into Game 3. Not because of the way Hammond has played necessarily but because the Senators are in the unique situation where they have a fully capable and now healthy number one goalie sitting on the bench. Dave Cameron will only get to play that card once in this series and it’s important that he not wait until it’s too late. I didn’t like any of the goals Hammond let in but to his credit, he really battled last night. And obviously, the Senators are nowhere near the playoffs without Hammond. For me the decision comes down to going with the guy the players think gives them the best chance to win.
-Anyone who is giving up on the Senators after the first two games really hasn’t been watching this team the last six or seven weeks. They’ve consistently shown an ability to battle back when their backs are against the wall and I expect no different on Sunday. It’s seem strange to say about playoff games but those last two games were two of the least significant the Sens have played in a month. We certainly haven’t seen Ottawa’s best yet in this series and they lost both games by just one goal. Montreal has been decent but I know Ottawa has more to give here. They’ll find another gear on home ice.
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