FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-It’s a damn shame they couldn’t find a way to close this one out in regulation time because up until that little hiccup with a few minutes left, that was really one of Ottawa’s most impressive performances of the season. It’s not that they dominated like they have times over the last couple weeks, but they certainly dictated the pace of the game against an elite Carolina team. And without two of their most important players in Drake Batherson and Josh Norris. It was a bit of a slow start actually but the second and third period were damn near perfect. They outworked the Hurricanes all over the ice. It was just a solid team effort in every possible way. Carolina found a way to tie it late and completed the thievery in the shootout but that was a game the Senators deserved to win.
-Another really strong outing from Matt Murray in the Ottawa goal. When Murray is at his best, and he has been over the last couple weeks, the game looks almost easy at times. When he’s efficient in his movement and when he’s reading the play well, he’s pretty tough to beat. That’s exactly what we’ve seen from Murray over the last two weeks. He has stopped 149 of 159 shots since that start against the Calgary Flames, which equals out to a .937 save percentage over that stretch. It’s no coincidence that the whole team looks better with a confident Matt Murray leading the way. Here’s hoping he can keep it rolling.
-He hasn’t been doing it with a ton of fan fare, or ice time for that matter, but a moment of appreciation for Adam Gaudette. Picked up on waivers earlier this month, Gaudette has been surprisingly productive, despite mostly playing at the bottom part of the lineup. With another assist on Thursday night, Gaudette has points in three straight games and four points over that stretch. Seven points in nine games in a Sens uniform. Gaudette is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and making a pretty good case for another NHL contract this summer. Unlikely he gets that here in Ottawa but he has certainty proven to be a useful forward in his brief time with the Senators.
-Cursed is a pretty strong word but at this point, you have to at least consider the possibility. Just a couple days after losing one of their best young players to a completely avoidable injury, Josh Norris met a similar fate. This obviously wasn’t a cheap shot on the scale we saw from Aaron Dell the other night but it really wasn’t a necessary play. More of a fluke obviously but still….annoying. And probably interference. Norris had a clear line to the puck on the forecheck and Andrei Svechnikov stepped in his lane. I dunno- I didn’t like it. There was no immediate update available on his status but the team did call it an upper-body injury. According to DJ Smith the team is hopeful the injury isn’t too serious. Certainly sounds better than it looked.
-Sens Twitter had itself in a bit of a frenzy late yesterday at the idea that Sens Owner Eugene Melnyk may be doing some of his own investigation into the current capacity limits placed on facilities like the Canadian Tire Centre. This is a pretty good example of people looking for reasons to go after Melnyk because honestly, what do you expect him to do? He depends on having people in the rink not just to fund the operation but also, to employ a lot of people that live in our city. I won’t even begin to pretend to understand the science behind current restrictions but it’s not surprising that Melnyk would be actively advocating to get people back in the rink. For what it’s worth, you can listen to Anthony LeBlanc’s comments on the issue here.
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