FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Who would have thought after that disappointing weekend against Montreal, the Ottawa Senators would strolling back into the Bell Centre a week later with a chance to again take over top spot in the Atlantic Division. While Montreal has struggled this week, Ottawa has found a way to pick up two crucial wins against Boston and last night against Pittsburgh. The Senators kept this game fairly even for the most part and were clearly the better team in the third period. The power play, which has sucked the momentum out of a lot of games recently, came up huge in that third period.
-It’s time to lock up Mike Condon for a couple more years. Okay, it doesn’t have to be right now necessarily but the Senators should make this a priority in the off-season because you would be hard-pressed to find a better back up goalie at this point. Sure his numbers sagged a little during the stretch of 20+ consecutive appearances but under a more reasonable workload, he has been giving the Senators some spectacular goaltending. He’s allowed just seven goals in his 4 starts in the month of March, with a save percentage hovering around .950 in those games. Condon was spectacular in the overtime and shootout and is a big reason Ottawa walked away with the extra point. The guy just never quits on the play.
-There are certain benefits that come with being one of the best players in the NHL. Big contract, endorsement deals, constant media praise and of course, preferential treatment from the officials. Such is life for Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby. His first period slash on Marc Methot is the exact play the league has been calling more of this season but because it was Sidney, it was a little easier for the officials to look the other way. And speaking of looking the other way, pretty lame that Crosby wouldn’t even look at Methot after hacking off a piece of his finger. Methot’s finger was described as “shattered” and according to the Head Coach, he’ll be out for weeks. Nice to have Freddy Claesson around.
-For the record, I don’t think the slash is worthy of a suspension. I do think it’s worthy of discussion though. And that’s why it was frustrating to see Darren Dreger immediately try to downplay the incident this morning on Twitter. If the roles were reversed, and Sidney Crosby was the one with the mangled finger and about to spend weeks on the shelf because of a slash by Marc Methot, are we really brushing it off as a missed call? And something tells me if the roles were reversed, we’re having a pretty serious conversation about a slash causing significant injury and whether that warrants a second look by the league. It’s the double standard, in terms of officiating, supplemental discipline and to a lesser extent media coverage, that fans find infuriating.
-If Bobby Ryan can play at that level down the stretch and in the playoffs and the Senators can get a healthy Mark Stone back in the line up, this forward group starts to look pretty good. Ryan was into the game all night, playing physical and getting to the net on multiple occasions. It was his screen that helped Mike Hoffman tie the game and that move he made in the shootout was filthy. He finished the game with 5 hits, 3 shots and 15:53 of ice time, which was 5th among Ottawa forwards. Guy Boucher was signing his praises after the game too.
-Bonus Thought- Jean Gabriel Pageau was spectacular last night. One of his best games of the season. Pageau is at his best when he’s playing against top players and you could tell he was excited by the challenge of going head to head with Crosby. JGP finished the game with 7 shots on goal, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots, went 74% on face offs and he played an incredible 21:21.
Boucher’s Post-Game Comments
Boxscore
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