FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-With a slump like this, you knew when the Senators finally broke out of it, it wasn’t going to be pretty. It was going to take a lucky bounce here or there, like the puck off of Bobby Ryan’s foot and in. It was going to take contributions from players you might not expect like Zack Smith and two goal outing from Ryan Dzingel. The power play was going to have to wake up. They were going to need some saves. It was going to take a top to bottom, dig deep, battle till the final horn type of effort. And that’s exactly what we saw from the Ottawa Senators in this one. There were plenty of “here we go again” moments in that game but the Senators, as a group, decided seven was enough.
-Craig Anderson has just not been himself to start this season. Although according to his career tendency of following up a great year with a not-so-good one, maybe this is what we should have expected. The problem is while his career numbers have certainly gone through some peaks and valleys throughout his NHL career, this is certainly a low point. He’s sort of fortunate that Mike Condon hasn’t been great to start the year either otherwise we’d be hearing calls for Condon to get a chance to start a few games in a row. And actually, we’ll probably start hearing those calls now. Condon was very good in relief, stopping 19 of 19. Oh and that save he made on Jordan Eberle at the buzzer was nothing short of outstanding. He should start on Sunday.
-It’s unfortunate that the Islanders scored shortly after and he really didn’t have anytime to enjoy but that was a perfect way for Thomas Chabot to score his first in the National Hockey League. And with a three point night, Thomas Chabot now has six points in his first six games. The most recent call-up was a pretty good indication that the team sees him as close to a full-time NHL players but it’s clear that the next step is earning the trust of the Coach. You would think Boucher will be a little more accepting of the occasional defensive misread from a point-per-game player. There’s really no way you can take him out of the line up now.
-Really think the Senators have found something with the newly-created line of Zack Smith, Mike Hoffman and Matt Duchene. Smith and Duchene in particular seemed to have chemistry out there as a physical Smith seems to open up more room for Duchene down low. At the same time, it allows Hoffman to look for shooting areas in the offensive zone. Watching Zack Smith last night, it’s pretty hard to believe that’s his first goal of the season and first since March 4th of last season. He was all over the place and now has 11 shots on goal in his last two games. Really liked Duchene’s game too. His puck pursuit and determination on Smith’s goal really set the tone in this one. Duchene led the entire team in ice time with 23:01.
-The Senators managed to will their way to victory in this one which is especially impressive when you consider it was a pretty rough night for their two most important players. Craig Anderson’s struggles were pretty obvious but this was also one of the worst games of the season for Erik Karlsson. Like everyone else on the team, you can tell the slide was weighing on him a little bit and he was forcing plays all over the ice. Karlsson has now gone eight games without a point and is a -11 over that stretch. He’d be the first one to admit it but the Captain needs to be better.
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