FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-It really is a night and day difference from the team we saw earlier in the season. The results haven’t been there for the Senators the last couple games but they look nothing like the team that stumbled up and down the West coast earlier in the year. Goaltending is a big part of that obviously but there is also a much better structure to their game, especially at 5 on 5. It’s too bad the Senators dug themselves such a deep hole to start the season because when they are at their best, it seems like they can at least hang with the top teams in the Division.
-It’s nice to see Matt Murray finding his game. Over the last three starts, he has pretty clearly been Ottawa’s best player and he’s giving them a chance to win every night. It’s been talked about a lot in the first few weeks of the season but Murray was obviously putting way too much pressure on himself in the early going. The Coach confirmed as much but you could just see it in Murray’s body language during those games out West. An early shot would go in and he just had that look of “here we go again”. He’s looked a lot more confident in there over the last three starts. It’s unconventional but if I was DJ Smith, I’d be tempted to go back to him again tonight.
-NHL officiating has reached a point where you just never know what you’re going to get on a night to night basis. Whether it’s absurdly soft calls like the hooking penalty on Tim Stützle or the missed call on Colin White late in the game, it feels like every night players and fans are left frustrated and confused. There’s no easy solution either. The game is so fast that it’s become almost impossible for the officials to keep up. And then on top of that, the standard of what constitutes a penalty changes over the course of a game, either because of the score or because of their desire to make up for some other bad/missed call earlier in the game. What we’re seeing is the product of officials trying to call the game on feel rather than by the book.
-Those two early fights were a good reminder just how much the game has changed over the years. The sight of two guys dropping their gloves right off the draw used to be so common in the National Hockey League but last night it felt a little out of place. The empty rink may have been part of the problem but you just don’t see “staged” fights like that very often anymore. It’s pretty clear that the Senators didn’t like the way the last game in Edmonton ended. It didn’t get the crowd fired up and it didn’t seem to have any impact on the momentum but the Ottawa bench certainly seemed to appreciate the way Erik Gudbranson was throwing ’em in what was a spirited bout with Zack Kassian.
-A moment of appreciation for Artem Zub. Sens fans didn’t know much about Zub heading into this season but now five games into his NHL career, it’s safe to say he’s better than anyone expected. Obviously there’s nothing particularly flashy about his game but he skates well, makes good reads in his own end of the rink and is relatively comfortable with the puck on his stick. DJ Smith likes what he sees too as Zub’s ice time has increased gradually on a nightly basis. He was up to 18:57 last night. The presence of Zub and Erik Brannstrom has really helped to stabilize Ottawa’s blueline.
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