(UPDATE 11:58 AM)- This morning, the Ottawa Senators announced that rookie forward Curtis Lazar will be staying with the team beyond the ten game limit. Lazar has proven he can take a regular shift at the NHL level and recently, has looked great on a line with Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone. The offence hasn’t really been there for Lazar but he’s done everything the team has asked of him and earned the trust of Head Coach Paul MacLean. Now he has a chance to settle in to his rookie season in the NHL.
FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-He took heat at times last season so I feel like it’s only appropriate that credit is given where it’s due. Paul MacLean has done a much better job coaching this team in the early going. Structurally I feel like it’s still a bit of a work in progress but player usage and most importantly, communication seem much better. All year we’ve seen shots of him on the bench talking to individual players during the game. He’s capitalizing on those in-game teaching moments and giving positive reinforcement when it’s required. You can tell the players are responding too. No blank stares. Legitimately engaged and interested in what the Coach has to say. This is a great sign early in the season.
-Small sample size of course but right now the Ottawa Senators are getting Vezina calibre goaltending from both Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner. Anderson had a quiet first 20 minutes last night but was incredibly sharp over the final two periods and was a big reason the Sens won this game. His double pad stack save on that 2 on 1 was a thing of beauty. Andy’s .939 save percentage is ranked 5th in the league.
-During the first intermission, Bruce Garrioch from the Ottawa Sun discussed some potential roster moves looming on the horizon for the Senators. When Marc Methot returns, they’ll have to decide what to do with one of the extra forwards and based on everything we’ve seen through the first eleven games, it looks like Colin Greening is the odd man out. What was sort of interesting was that Garrioch indicated that there was some interest in Greening. Certainly not what I’ve heard as apparently the Sens have been trying to move him for some time now and just haven’t found any takers. Perhaps the issue in the past is the Sens were expecting some sort of asset (a draft pick) in return. If they lower the asking price and perhaps take on a bad (but shorter) contract in return, they might be able to do something.
-During a pregame interview, Erik Karlsson sort of laughed off a question about his game in Boston on Saturday. Not in a way that he didn’t care but rather that we was ready to put that game behind him. On the ice, you could tell he was still gripping the stick a little bit early on but he seemed to settle down as the game moved along. Karlsson scored on the power play and ended up playing over 30 minutes. With Phillips leaving with an injury, Karlsson was playing the left and right side in the third period. Pretty impressive effort from the Captain.
-The game tape of that first period should be saved. Actually, 23 copies of it should be made and distributed to all the players. That was without a doubt the most impressive period the Senators have played this season and may have been better than anything we saw last season. The shots ended up 16-2 and if not for Jimmy Howard, the game could have been at least 3-0. Their breakouts were crisp, they were quick through the neutral zone, their sticks were active in all three zones and their forecheck was far too much for the Red Wings to handle. It was nice to see the Senators had that kind of period in them.
