FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Special teams have won Ottawa a lot of games this season but last night in Boston, it was the penalty kill that cost them the two points. You are never going to win in this league giving up four power play goals. Just not gonna happen. Of course a good way to avoid that is to stop taking so many damn penalties. I thought the officiating was absolutely terrible last night but the Senators really didn’t do themselves any favours. They were the better team at 5 on 5 but stupid penalties did them in.
-Mika Zibanejad seemed to be the latest tenant in Dave Cameron’s dog house last night. He started the game on his usual line with Hoffman and Ryan but by the second period had been dropped down to the fourth line with Chris Neil and Shane Prince. That trio clicked though and it sort of seemed to light a fire under Zibanejad the rest of the way. He ended up playing more than 16 minutes and in the second half of the game actually looked pretty good, shooting from everywhere and skating with more jump than he has in awhile. Will be interesting to see where he starts tonight’s game against the Devils and whether or not that jump carries over.
-The Mark Stone hit on Landon Ferraro will be interesting test for the league. The NHL has been so inconsistent with supplemental discipline over the last few seasons so it’s going to be fascinating to see what they do with the exact same hit by the exact same player on the exact same opponent. Maybe there’s a double jeopardy rule that applies to NHL suspensions? It was stupid to suspend Stone the first time around and would be equally stupid to then not suspend him this time.
-We can talk all we want about cracking down on head shots and rightfully so. Concussions are a serious problem in today’s game and trying to remove hits to the head is important. But with that said, that hit by Brad Marchand on Mark Borowiecki was far dirtier than almost any headshot you’ll see. And I think most players would agree. Hits to the head happen all the time because this is such a fast game and it’s tough to perfectly line up your hits. But there’s a reason you never see hits like Marchand’s. That’s not a hockey play. That type of thing doesn’t happen by accident. It’s intentional. It’s reckless. And it’s worthy of a lengthy suspension.
-As frustrating as this performance was from the Senators, it was nice to see them show a little emotion late in the game. Based on the reaction at the time, it seems like fans don’t much care for that type of stuff at the end of games anymore but I still appreciate it. It’s just a shame Brad Marchand was hidden away on the bench when it happened. The Bruins had been running around all night and the Sens had reason to be frustrated. We already knew Zac Rinaldo was garbage before this game but watching him continue to punch a defenseless, unwilling opponent with serious history of concussion issues just further solidifies that reputation. These two teams meet again on January 9th.
