FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-After the loss in Nashville last week, Guy Boucher called it the worst game of the season for his team. Suddenly a new contender has emerged. This was a one goal game until late in the second period but the reality is the Senators never really had a shot in this one. The Predators controlled the game from the moment the puck was dropped and ran up the score a bit in the third period. Five goals against doesn’t usually reflect well on the goalie but the reality is it could have been worse.
-It would be nice to see how this team looks playing with a lead at some point. Giving up the first goal is a recipe for disaster for most teams but especially one that’s struggling to score goals the way the Senators are right now. It can make you look slow and it can make you look disorganized- two things this Coaching staff is desperately trying to avoid. Chasing the game and gripping the stick is a deadly combination particularly for a team without two of your top offensive guys. Mike Hoffman missed the game and is considered day to day while Bobby Ryan left the game with a hand injury in the first period.
-The thing about the NHL season is it’s 82 games long. There are going to be ugly losses mixed in. Playing terrible in one of those 82 games doesn’t make you a terrible team just as a dominant win doesn’t automatically mean you’re an elite team. The Senators probably aren’t as good as their record suggests but they certainly aren’t as bad as they looked last night. Interested to see how they respond on Saturday against the Panthers, a team coming off a similarly humbling loss.
-If there’s a positive to take away from this one (there isn’t, by the way- burn the tape and never speak of it again), it’s that the Derick Brassard finally broke his goal scoring funk and on the power play no less. Most of the team’s top players have been gripping the stick lately and Brassard was struggling as much as anyone. Hopefully that goal can help him relax a little bit because he has looked noticeably tense in the last couple weeks. Don’t mistake a power play goal as an indication the power play looked any better by the way. Last night may have been as bad as the power play has looked all year.
-Good on the Ottawa Senators organization for going above and beyond with that pregame ceremony for Mike Fisher. A between whistles acknowledgement would have been plenty but this was a fitting tribute for a guy that always went above and beyond for this organization and this community. Pretty cool to have not only the recorded message from Chris Phillips but also Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Kelly there for the presentation of an impressive painting by Tony Harris. It was apparently Alfredsson, Phillips and Kelly that pushed for the idea of this little ceremony. Fisher played 675 games with the Senators and based on the reaction from the crowd, it’s clear that he’ll always be a fan favourite in this city.
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