FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-I’m honestly not sure I can put together one coherent thought about last night’s game let alone five of them. If you’re looking for positives, that line of Mike Hoffman, Kyle Turris and Mark Stone was probably Ottawa’s best. That’s a trio that should probably stick together for a few games to find out if there’s chemistry there. Ottawa’s top six suddenly looks pretty solid if that line can start producing.
-Rough night for Erik Karlsson as the Capitals clearly made him a target early on and ran him any chance they could. That should be expected when you’re the best player on the team but the lack of a response from the Senators was disappointing. I guess you can’t go fight a guy like Alex Ovehckin but it would have been nice to see some kind of pushback from the Senators in response to their Captain being run. It doesn’t have to be fighting but Ottawa has to find a way to be a harder team to play against.
-Nice job by the Senators with the pregame ceremony for Chris Phillips. Having Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden on hand- along with General Manager Bryan Murray- made for a nice moment at centre ice. I mean, maybe they could have framed that ugly jersey they presented him but the moment was still nice. It really didn’t strike me as an “emotional” moment before the game but seeing that tribute video the team put together certainly brought me back to better days. The country tune for the Western guy was a nice touch too. Phillips had a good look at the net in the first period but had his shot blocked. Pretty quiet night for Phillips other than that.
-Chris Neil played a team low 6:29 last night. In the type of game that he would usually have an impact. Dave Cameron has made it pretty clear he sees a limited role for Neil which is partly why Neil has at least started to warm up to the idea of a trade. Make no mistake though- Chris Neil would prefer to be an Ottawa Senator. But he realizes that may not entirely be up to him at this point. It has been mentioned before but I really think the Nashville Predators make a lot of sense for Neil.
-It probably goes without saying at this point but yes, the Ottawa Senators absolutely have interest in Evander Kane. But they certainly won’t be alone in their pursuit. Bryan Murray is definitely open to making an impact deal at this year’s deadline and this would certainly fit that description. Of note is the fact that Winnipeg scouts have sort of been following Ottawa around lately. There was talk yesterday that maybe the price had dropped on Evander Kane but that doesn’t mean he’ll be cheap, especially with so many teams showing interest.
