FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-What the hell was that? A couple nights removed from their best effort of the season in St. Louis, the Senators laid an egg against the Florida Panthers. A back to back against one of the best teams in the Western Conference and the Senators are at their best and yet well rested against an inferior Florida team they come up lame. From a fan perspectives, it’s kinda puzzling and entirely frustrating to see the difference in the effort level from one game to the next. The Senators roster doesn’t have a ton of talent on the roster and are at the bottom of the league in spending but last night was more about lack of effort and structure.
-And after all that, the Senators lost the game by one goal and had a lead in the third period. Good goaltending can hide a lot and it certainly did that in the second period. The shots ended up 46-24 in favour of the Panthers and unlike some nights, I can’t even make the argument that a lot of them were low quality shots. The Panthers had between 10-15 Grade A scoring chances. Had Anderson not been at his best, Florida could have scored 10 last night.
-Bobby Ryan’s status has to be a concern for the Senators. He finished with just over 11 minutes of ice time and spent the majority of the third period on the bench. He took a slash to the hand area at one point and there were shots of him on the bench clearly favouring his hand. We can expect to hear more on his status this morning but even if he does play, he certainly won’t be at 100%.
-The current make up of the Senators blueline requires that Erik Karlsson be at his absolute best every night. When he isn’t at the top of his game, the Senators are going to struggle. He was bad last night and as a result, so were the Ottawa Senators. He’s done a good job of “bouncing back” after bad performances this season so I’m expecting a good effort from him tonight in Tampa Bay.
-We’ll close with some good news. During last night’s broadcast, Darren Dreger talked about the possibility that Daniel Alfredsson could actually take the warm up with the Senators next Thursday against the Islanders. If you’ve been reading between the lines the last couple days, you may have noticed that I’ve heard something along the same lines. I have been told to make sure I’m in my seat for warm up and that’s exactly why. Seeing Alfredsson in full Senators gear one last time would be pretty incredible. It’s a Heritage jersey night so I wonder if all the guys could skate in the black uniform while he dressed in the usual red uniform. Would make for a pretty cool effect. We shall see. In the meantime, make sure you check out this interview with Wayne Gretzky from Bruce Garrioch.
