FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Plenty to talk about after a third period meltdown like that one but the biggest concern right now is the health of Mike Hoffman. There really wasn’t an obvious incident that may have caused an injury but he wasn’t on the bench for overtime or the shootout. No update on his status after the game although they did classify it as a lower body injury. Fingers crossed it’s nothing serious. Hoffman has been incredible in the early going.
-It didn’t end the way he would have liked but this was a game to remember for Chris Neil. Playing in the 900th game of his NHL career, Chris Neil registered the ol’ Gordie Howe hat trick- a goal, an assist and a fight. Neil has been a capable player for a long time and to play the style of game he does for 900 games really is impressive. Knowing Neil, he would have traded the goal/assist/fight for a win though.
-Through 55 minutes I was sort of thinking that both Cowen and Borowiecki had been okay. Not so good that I would have thrown them both over the boards in the final minute though. The two of them hadn’t played together the entire game and yet still Cameron still decided to go to them with the game on the line. Tough. For two “defensive” defenceman they did an absolutely dreadful job of clearing the front of the net. Really, really bad.
-Losses like that add up at the end of the season and now they’re starting to add up at the start of it too. This Ottawa team is having a hell of a time hanging on to leads and it’s not easy to identify exactly causing them to collapse in the third. But it’s a problem they need to sort out fast. This was a game they had in the bag and they completely gave away one of the two points. Still winless at home too.
-We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because there’s obviously going to be some rust to shake off but that wasn’t good enough from Andrew Hammond. The TSN crew talked about it after the game but he had rebound issues most of the game and probably would have liked another chance at three of the four goals in regulation. That third goal was an ugly rebound then short-side goal followed by another bobbled rebound on the tying goal. Doesn’t deserve all of the blame but definitely his fair share.
