FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-In St. Louis. In Columbus. In Toronto. Home to Columbus on a back to back. If I had told you that the Senators would come away with seven of a possible eight points during that stretch of games, you’d be thrilled. So while it was disappointing to not get that extra point, the Sens have to be pretty happy with the way they’ve played the last four games. What looked like a daunting week going in turned out great for the Senators and helped them gain a more comfortable spot in the Atlantic Division. Three points clear of the Bruins with five games in hand.
-While this game was a bit of a mess for both teams, it’s certainly nice to see the offence rolling right along. The decision to move Mike Hoffman to the third line has paid off for the Senators and it has given the team three lines that can score. Which is something they really didn’t have this season until moving Hoffman with Pageau. The team’s top players have all been playing well lately and it has a lot to do with finding some consistent combinations up front. Still need to figure out that fourth line though because on a back to back, it’s tough to have two forwards playing 6 minutes or less.
-Would be interested to hear Guy Boucher’s rationale behind his overtime line up decisions. On Saturday in Toronto and again last night, Boucher went with two defenceman and one forward. And last night, it was two defenceman and one defensive forward in Pageau. Now obviously when one of those defenceman is Erik Karlsson it’s just as good as having two forwards out there but over the weekend, it almost felt like Boucher was playing for the shootout a little bit. Another possibility, as was pointed out to me on Twitter by a few people, is that maybe they use two defenceman to start and then if they win the draw, another forward jumps out. Either way, it’s interesting especially when you consider that the Senators looked damn near unstoppable at 3 on 3 earlier in the season.
-It goes without saying but this was certainly not Mike Condon’s best effort. You could have made a pretty strong case for going with Chris Driedger for this game but it’s pretty easy to see why Boucher wanted to go with the hot hand. In the end, the fatigue that we’ve heard so much about, finally materialized. Condon looked a step slower than usual and seemed to be having a heck of a time tracking the puck. That 6th goal may have been one of the worst I’ve ever seen an Ottawa goalie allow. Considering the way Condon has played over the last 20+ games, he’s certainly entitled to the odd clunker of a game though. What’s important is that he bounces back quickly. The Senators are still at least two weeks away from having Craig Anderson available again.
-After last season’s 25 goal performance, everyone was sort of expecting Zack Smith to crash back to reality this season. Hasn’t happened so far. Smith scored twice last night (10th and 11th on the year) and is now back on pace to score 20 again this year. While his shooting percentage has regressed (20.7% to 12.8%) he’s still finding ways to produce. Both Pierre Dorion and Zack Smith addressed his contract situation over the last few days and by all accounts, it sounds like it’s only a matter of time before the two sides come to an agreement. With their RFAs, the Senators have always shown a preference to defer money to the back end of the contract. That will be tougher to do with Smith. He’ll be looking for and deserves a pretty significant raise from the $2.35 mil he’s making this season.
Boucher’s Post-Game Comments
Boxscore
Advanced Stats
League Standings
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