FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Considering the way the Senators looked against this same Sharks team last week, you have to be pretty happy with that effort last night. They didn’t give the Sharks a whole lot in the way of scoring chances and they did a decent job of generating their own looks. The penalty kill also bounced back in a big way after an ugly three game stretch. Would have been nice to hang on to that third period lead obviously but all in all, a solid performance against a great team in the usually treacherous first game back from a long road trip. Plenty of positives to build on heading into another weekend back to back.
-There were a couple of plays that everyone was talking about after this game including a spear by Marc Edouard Vlasic on Senators Captain Erik Karlsson and the penalties called afterwards. The two minutes for instigating seemed excessive considering Turris gave Vlasic a chance to turn around and actually drop the gloves but the extra 10 minutes seems ridiculous. The rule book doesn’t exactly leave you with much choice once you’ve handed out the instigating penalty unfortunately. Good on Turris for coming to the defence of his Captain though. The whole situation could have been avoided had the referee called the initial spear by Vlasic. That’s a dirty play and the official appeared to be looking right at it. The league should look at it too.
-Man oh man, did Bobby Ryan ever need a game like that. His goal in the opening frame was his first goal in 16 games and first since October 30th. Ryan has pretty clearly been playing through an injury the last little while and he’s had a heck of a time generating scoring chances. He had gone without a shot in 7 of his last 9 games heading into this one. And while he’s still been able to set up the odd goal, shooting the puck has been next to impossible with his hand injury. In speaking to the media a couple days ago, Ryan mentioned that the injury is getting better. His hand looked just fine on that goal. This was probably Ryan’s best game of the season. And while we’re on the topic of standout performances from lightning rods for criticism- I thought that was Dion Phaneuf’s best game with the Senators.
-Not sure there’s any defending that cross check by Mike Hoffman on Logan Couture because he’s responsible for his stick in that situation. But watching the replay a few times, it looks like he sort of gets caught up with Sharks defenceman Brendan Dillon and that’s what elevates his stick and hands. Then Hoffman sort of follows through to the back of Couture’s neck/helmet. I don’t know if that even make a difference in how the league looks at it but maybe it explains what was such an out of character move by Hoffman. That’s almost certainly a suspension for Hoffman though. Two games would be plenty.
-Kudos to the Ottawa Senators for a perfectly fitting tribute to Chris Neil in recognition of his 1000 games milestone. The tribute started prior to puck drop, with every player sporting the familiar NEIL 25 on their back for warm up and it ended with Guy Boucher putting Neil in as the 4th shooter in the shootout. I know there was some hand-wringing about that decision but honestly, the shootout is a complete crap-shoot and Neil had as good a chance as anyone. He didn’t miss by much either. Neil is sort of known for going to that move in practice and it works often. He scores in that situation and it’s a legendary moment in Sens history. Instead it’s just a cool decision by a Coach that the players and fans (almost all of them) loved.
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