FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-As the old saying goes, “they don’t ask how, they ask did you beat the Leafs on Saturday night?” or something like that. After losing that game last weekend, this sort of felt like a game Ottawa needed. Okay, maybe they didn’t need it but the fan base probably did. Ottawa is on a nice little roll right now and had they not found a way to rally last night, it would have been a frustrating set back. Instead, they come home from a seemingly daunting three game road trip with a perfect 3-0-0 record and a little bounce in their step. Good thing because that 5:00 PM puck drop is going to come pretty quick.
-It probably goes without saying but this definitely wasn’t Ottawa best effort. They controlled the game for the first 20 minutes and then really didn’t generate a whole lot on offence after that. It’s not that they gave up a ton either but this was just a bit of a messy game. When that Matt Martin deflection trickled through the legs of Mike Condon with 13 minutes left on the clock, it sort of had the feeling of a back breaker. Credit to the Senators though because they found a way to battle back. The refs were clearly intent on letting everything go down the stretch but it’s tough to ignore the ol’ puck over glass. Hoffman’s game-tying power play goal with a little over a minute to play was massive.
-Me watching that shootout- “Tom Pyatt???? Tom Pyatt!!!!”. Quite confident that was the reaction we all had too. Turns out Tom Pyatt is a bit of a shootout assasin. Boucher talked about it in his post-game interview that Pyatt has been their best guy in practice all year and Goalie Coach Pierre Groulx has been pushing Boucher to put him into a shootout situation in a game. Also turns out he went 18 of 20 in the Swiss league. Boucher finally put him in and Pyatt made the most of it. Hell of a move too. Boucher called the right name but he just couldn’t bear to watch.
-In a back to back situation this weekend, it was pretty clear that Boucher wanted to use 12 forwards as much as possible but at the same time, he clearly doesn’t feel great about the combination of Kelly-Lazar-Neil anymore. As early as the first period, it seemed like he was shuffling those three guys in and out of the top three lines just to get them into the game. Problem was it seemed to be disrupting the rhythm of the top nine which had been rolling pretty good coming into this one. Not to get bogged down on individual performances because I thought all three of those guys made important plays in the game (Kelly saved the game with a great stick-check late in regulation) but it’s putting the Coach in a tough spot where he doesn’t quite have a complete fourth line he can trust.
-Another quietly excellent game by Chris Wideman. Erik Karlsson always steals the show and we have a tendency to obsess over Cody Ceci so Wideman has a way of getting lost in the shuffle a little bit. But he’s been solid all season and I’ve especially liked his game the last couple nights with Freddy Claesson. He only played 13:09 last night but it seemed like every time he was on the ice he was making something happen. He finished with four shots, tied for a team high, and had a great chance to end the game in overtime. In a tough back to back situation, it would be nice to see Boucher lean on Wideman a little more against the Blue Jackets. Seems like he could handle it.
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