FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Man oh man, did the Ottawa Senators ever need that. It wasn’t pretty and the Bruins controlled the play for large stretches of the game, but the Senators found a way thanks to solid goaltending from Craig Anderson and a strong third period effort. While the game day post called it the “Biggest Game of the Year” it could have just as easily been labelled a “must-win game”. It’s obviously a little bit early in the year to be throwing around that particular cliche but when you look at the Senators schedule the rest of this week and consider that they’d lost four straight, they really needed this win. The two points puts them six clear of the Bruins with a game in hand and three points back of Montreal for top spot, also with a game in hand. A huge sigh of relief after a tough weekend.
-After a less than stellar performance in the two games against Montreal, that was exactly the kind of effort the Senators needed from Craig Anderson. He just seemed a lot more focused and into the game right from the get-go and he was at times spectacular in a second period where the Senators let the Bruins dictate the pace of the game most of the way. Anderson has been spectacular for the Senators through most of this season so it’s quite noticeable when he’s not quite at his best. And I think everyone would agree that was the case during those two weekend games. Missing a couple games and not having any practice time will do that. He was locked in last night though, stopping 34 of 36 shots.
-We’ve all done more than our fair share of complaining about the struggles of the Ottawa power play and it’s with good reason. Power plays will go through rough patches over the course of the season but in the last month or so especially, what was most frustrating was watching them try the same thing over and over again. Both in terms of how they try to enter the zone and how they set up once they have control of the puck. Credit to Boucher for finally making an adjustment and switching Turris and Hoffman. Having those two on their off-wing really seemed to open up more options. Now, about those zone entries.
-That sequence of officiating at the end of the second period was unacceptable in a professional league. Every referee and linesman on the ice stood there and watched three Bruins take a run at Dion Phaneuf and not one of them did anything to prevent it. Oh except for the guy that was holding Phaneuf back of course. And then to make it worse, they give Phaneuf the only penalty on that play. Obviously the officials will usually call the guy that retaliates in that situation but there were three Boston players that fit that description in the scrum. It’s such an easy one each situation, if you’re going to call anything. And then to make matters worse, the guy that was as guilty as anyone in the scrum ties the game. Ridiculous.
-Strange 24 hours on the Colin White front. First, a relatively unknown Boston-based freelance writer suggests a contract will get done in the next 24 hours only to have Bob McKenzie pour cold water on that suggestion later in the day. It’s clear that there’s still some negotiating to be done here. The Senators are set on Colin White agreeing to an ATO while White and his agent understandably have no interest in that option. It’s being spun as Boucher not knowing enough about the player to play him in important games down the stretch but that doesn’t really explain a reluctance to burning a year on his entry level contract. I don’t want to automatically chalk this up to a financial decision but that’s clearly a significant part of it. And that’s fine. You could make the argument that the Senators would save money in the long run by getting White to his second contract faster but as we’ve seen with the Senators on multiple occasions, they’ll gladly take short-term savings and kick the financial obligation as far down the road as possible. It’s easy to see where both sides are coming from here. What I don’t understand, is why this seemingly straightforward negotiation has to play out in public.
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