FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-There is nothing quite like a win over those miserable Toronto Maple Leafs to make you forget about all your troubles. Even if it’s only for a few hours. For the 5th straight time, the Ottawa Senators walked into the ACC and beat the Maple Leafs and now they head into the five day bye break feeling pretty good about their game. It certainly wasn’t a perfect road game by any means but Ottawa made the most of their chances and got a rare strong effort in goal. That was the difference in this one. With the win, the Senators now have points in four of their last five, they’ve picked up 7 of a possible 10 points and they now sit 8 points back of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With two games in hand.
-After what may have been his worst start of the season against Chicago on Tuesday night, Craig Anderson bounced back with a really solid performance. He was busy most of the night as the Leafs finished the game with 48 shots on goal including 16 in each period. It was a bit of a head-scratcher to see Boucher go to Anderson in a back to back situation but the fact that Condon struggled in relief against the Blackhawks probably made it easier for the Coach to go back to his number one. It has been well-documented that Craig Anderson has not had a good season to this point but some of the conversation about this potentially being the end of the line for Anderson seems terribly premature. Confidence is a funny thing for a goalie and last night is the kind of game Anderson can build off of after the break.
-There’s no doubt that the Senators paid a high price to acquire Matt Duchene. And there’s also no disputing that the optics of the trade aren’t great considering the way the season has gone since the deal was made. While both those things are true, there is also no doubt that Matt Duchene is a hell of a hockey player and a big addition to the team’s top six. After a run of bad luck to start his tenure in Ottawa he’s finally found some chemistry with his linemates (particularly Mike Hoffman) and he’s finally starting to get some breaks offensively. Few players in the league can do what he did on that second Ottawa goal. Jake Gardiner is still trying to figure out where the hell he went. And Ron Hainsey’s ankles may never be the same after the move on the game winner. Duchene now has 6 points in his last 4 games.
-There haven’t been many nights this year where you could say something positive about the Ottawa fourth line. The lack of depth in that part of the line up has definitely been part of what has gone wrong this season and recently, it has been a revolving door of Belleville call-ups and struggling veterans. But that third period shift by the trio of Burrows, Chlapik and Dumont was a damn good one and it helped settle the game down after the Leafs had tied it early in the third. Burrows made a good play to get a stick on the puck, Chlapik showed great vision to find Dumont in the slot and then Dumont showed good determination following his original shot to the top of the crease. There has been almost zero offensive contribution from the fourth line this season so that was a huge bonus for the Senators at a key point in the hockey game.
-Erik Karlsson was named as Ottawa’s representative to the NHL All Star Game in Tampa Bay although he must be at least a little bit tempted to take the time off to recharge the batteries a little bit after what has been an unusually difficult season for the Sens Captain. He’s had a few rough nights in the first half but he was really fighting it last night in Toronto. Seemed like everything he tried to do was just a little bit off and things that he usually makes look routine looked extremely difficult. The five day bye week comes at a good time for Karlsson who is clearly still adjusting to his “new normal” on that surgically-repaired foot. Karlsson was also one of a handful of Senators playing through the flu last night.
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