FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Safe to say that the Senators stole two points last night in San Jose. And in pretty dramatic fashion for those that stayed up till the wee hours of the morning to watch the end of this one. The Sharks dominated for long stretches in the third period, rallying from a 2-1 deficit and taking the lead with about 12 minutes to go. Up until that point, the Sharks appeared to be in complete control of the game. That was until an amazing individual effort by Zack Smith, first on the breakaway and then on the penalty shot, tied the game at 3-3. Anderson was once again heroic in the goal for Ottawa. He kept this game close in the third period and then completely shut the door in overtime and the shootout.
-We’ve talked about it on a couple of occasions but Zack Smith really has been one of Ottawa’s most consistent forwards this season. There were some complaints when he played on that top line for a prolonged stretch and those were probably justified. He was out of his element there. But when he’s in his usual fourth line centre/penalty kill specialist role, he has been one of Ottawa’s more reliable players. He’s had a bit of a flare for the dramatic this year too, scoring some big goals at key times. He now has 9 goals on the season which is just five off his career high. Oh and I was gonna flip out if that penalty shot goal was disallowed.
–Scary play in the second period of this one as Mike Hoffman went crashing into the San Jose net with his collarbone colliding directly with the post. And at full speed. Hoffman was slow going off the ice and really didn’t seem to be moving his arm/shoulder at all as he skated off. Hoffman did not return and his status is sort of up in the air at this point. One thing is for certain- this Senators team is not deep enough to withstand another key injury at the left wing position. Could be good news for Shane Prince in the interim but losing Hoffman is a significant blow to the line up. Hopefully it’s not long term.
-Marc Methot took the pre-game skate but ended up a late scratch. According to tweets from a couple of reporters that follow the team, Methot has been playing through an injury for a little while now and obviously tonight it was at a point where he just couldn’t play through it. Much like the Hoffman injury, the Senators blueline just isn’t deep enough to withstand a prolonged injury to such an important player. With Methot out, Borowiecki spent an awful lot of time skating with Erik Karlsson. And as we all know, that’s certainly not ideal. The six defenceman that did dress last night did a pretty good job of holding the fort but this team definitely needs Marc Methot back as soon as possible.
-Darren Dreger spoke briefly about Ottawa’s pursuit of Jonathan Drouin and confirmed what we already know- the Senators are very much interested. To this point, Tampa Bay seems to have legitimate interest in Cody Ceci as part of a package but that’s not something Ottawa can really afford to do right now. Dreger did mention that the Senators would much rather include Jared Cowen and maybe a couple other pieces not on the NHL roster. That’s definitely not going to get it done.
