FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Well, that settles it then. The Ottawa Senators do better when they play worse. In fact, I think I might pitch that to the marketing department as a potential slogan for this team moving forward. In the four game losing streak, you could easily make the argument that they deserved to win every one of those games. Instead they lost ’em all and the sky began to fall. Then last night against Edmonton they were soundly outplayed for the final 40 minutes of the game and they walk away with two points. Could have won the ones they lost, should have lost the one they won. That’s hockey for you. Take those two points and run.
-Ottawa has made a few goalies look like world-beaters during the four game losing streak so it was refreshing to watch Jonas Gustavsson fight the puck for three periods tonight at the CTC. He had no chance on the second goal by Mike Hoffman but looked particularly average on the other three. It feels like Ottawa gets more than their fair share of back up goalies sometimes but they have an odd way of making them look like starters. Not in this one. This game probably ends differently with Cam Talbot starting. Speaking of goaltending, really impressed with the performance of Mike Condon under difficult circumstances. There’s no doubt that he’s playing too much right now but I loved the way he battled in the third period. He knew he gave up a soft one on that third goal but shut the door the rest of the way.
-Really liked Cody Ceci’s game last night. On a night when Erik Karlsson was having one of the worst possession games of his career, Cody Ceci did a decent job at both ends of the rink. He finished with a team high 27:36 in ice time and picked up a couple of assists, including a heck of a play on the game winner by Tom Pyatt. Even Ceci’s biggest fans would acknowledge that 25+ minutes a night is too much but with Wideman out for a large portion of the game and Karlsson drawing mostly Connor McDavid shifts, Ceci had to play a lot and with all three of the left defenceman.
-Zack Smith is picking up right where he left off after missing a couple games due to injury. Smith was as hot as anyone in the line up prior to the five day break and he added his 9th goal of the season and picked up an assist on Mark Stone’s second period goal. Suddenly another 20 goal season is within reach for Smith. Offensively, he has really benefited from an opportunity to play with Derick Brassard and Mark Stone on a regular basis. They were certainly Ottawa’s best line at 5 on 5 last night. It’s going to become a bigger story-line leading up to the March 1st deadline but Pierre Dorion is going to have an interesting decision to make on Smith. He’s a UFA at the end of the season and would certainly draw interest on the trade market if the Senators fell out of playoff contention.
-Bobby Ryan’s performance last night could best be described as- distracted. Obviously Ryan has had a disappointing season to this point but you could tell that he was visibly off last night. Especially during the few instances where they did close-ups of him on the bench. Whatever the situation is, you can tell it’s something that is weighing on him a little bit. Ryan spoke briefly to reporters after the game but really didn’t offer any new information into what really is a puzzling situation. You can see Ryan’s comments here beginning at 1:55.
Boucher’s Post-Game Comments
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