FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Well that was ugly. Less than 24 hours after an impressive win in Florida, the Senators came crashing back to Earth against the Lightning. They got off to a decent start by doing the unthinkable and scoring an actual 5 on 3 goal but this time it was their penalty kill that let them down. Thought Ottawa started okay in this game, taking the play to Tampa Bay at times in the first period. But after that, the tank appeared empty. In the second and third, it certainly looked like a team on a back to back playing a well-rested group.
-It’s pretty rare to see a player score the same goal twice in a game. Especially on the power play. At the NHL level, teams are usually able to make adjustments on the penalty kill and shut down a particular play or player. Usually, anyway. Nikita Kucherov scored the exact same goal from the exact same spot three times in one game. Unheard of really. Neat to look at though. While some of the blame is on the penalty kill, you’d like to see Condon stop a couple of those shots.
-With last night’s loss in Tampa Bay, the Senators wrap up what has been an up and down road trip. They finish with a 2-2-0 record, alternating wins and losses along the way. Not good enough to gain any real separation in the standings but it allows them to at least keep pace. They now sit four points back of Montreal with a couple games in hand. But as is the case after every loss, it’s hard not to glance down in the standings. The Islanders are in 9th right now and are just four points back of Ottawa with the same number of games played. The Senators play their next three games on home ice.
-It’s difficult to remember such a dramatic response to a trade. Sens fans here and on Twitter are clearly frustrated with price Pierre Dorion paid. As we’ve seen with a few of the deals leading up to the deadline, GMs are paying seriously inflated prices right now and Dorion’s may have been the worst of the bunch. At this time yesterday, I certainly didn’t like Alex Burrows. And really, I don’t know if anyone outside of Vancouver did. He’s that type of player. While I like the acquisition and what he brings to the bottom part of the line up, giving up Dahlen hurts. There’s some comfort in the fact that Dorion would know Dahlen better than anyone and was comfortable giving him up. The extension is mind-boggling but again, that’s without knowing how many teams were interested and what those discussions actually looked like. Anyway, reasonable addition. Steep price. Baffling extension.
-Really doesn’t sound like Pierre Dorion is done either. Which may be a frightening thought for some. Still sounds like they may find a home for Curtis Lazar before tomorrow’s deadline with a rumoured return of a 2nd round pick already on the table from a Western Conference team. But that may not be it. Listening to Dorion talk yesterday, it seems like adding another player to the current line up also a possibility. As Eugene would say, buckle up. Speaking of Eugene- it figures that the Senators would finally actually add money in a transaction and it would be completely overshadowed by what they gave up in the deal.
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