FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Pretty much a dream start for the Senators in this one but they weren’t able to sustain it. In a tough back to back situation like the Senators were in last night, the best thing you can do is get an early lead and they did that with a goal by Kyle Turris in the first minute of the game. Unfortunately it was hard to tell if there was much of a lift from that goal as the Sens spent much of the rest of the opening period killing penalties.
-That goal by Steven Stamkos was something else. For the second time in the couple weeks, the defence was victimized by a fantastic individual effort. The panel said that Turris should have just taken a penalty on the play and I agree, although I’m not sure Turris could have tackled Stamkos on that play if he wanted to. Not sure anyone in the league could have stopped Stamkos in that moment. Best thing Ottawa could have done is double or even triple teamed him. Still don’t think it would have been enough.
-Robin Lehner was pretty cranky in his post-game media availability which sort of seemed like a carry over from his body language on the ice. Lehner was obviously frustrated with a couple of the Tampa Bay goals last night and openly voiced his displeasure after the game. Fans can call out shoddy defensive play. The Coach can too. And obviously the defence themselves can criticize their play. But a goalie who has won one game in a little over a month should probably keep that to himself.
-Speaking of which, two of those fantastic seam passes by Nikita Kucherov were pretty tough to stop. Both defensively and for the goalie. Same with the Stamkos goal. On both the Tyler Johnson goals Lehner bit hard on the initial shot and really didn’t give himself much of a chance.
-Dave Cameron used to coach the power play when Paul MacLean was here but has since been promoted to Head Coach. Does that mean nobody is coaching the power play right now? Kind of looks like that sometimes. The Senators went o for 3 last night although they did generate some solid pressure that led to the Mark Stone goal.
