FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Never in doubt, right? After another scary third period, the Ottawa Senators will be happy to walk out of Colorado with two points. The Senators had complete control of this game through forty minutes but as you may expect, the Avs came on strong in the third period and made the Sens and their fans sweat it out a little bit. You don’t want to make excuses but this was a pretty tough back to back and you could just tell the Senators were out of gas in the third period. Unlike other third period meltdowns, this wasn’t really a case of Ottawa sitting on a lead. There just wasn’t anything left in the tank.
-Which is why Cameron’s decision to shorten the bench in the third period could rightly be criticized. He barely used his fourth line (granted Prince and Neil were unavailable for a stretch) and Chris Wideman only touched the ice once or twice in the final twenty minutes. I’m usually okay with the decision to roll let’s say three lines and five defenceman when protecting a lead but it really doesn’t work when the guys you are throwing over the boards are completely burned out. Had the Senators let that lead slip away, fingers would rightly be pointed at the Head Coach this morning.
-Mentioned this on Twitter but that third period effort by Craig Anderson was nothing short of heroic. For the second straight night he was under siege in the Ottawa goal but managed to help his team secure the two points. Anderson has given up seven goals in his last two starts yet on both occasions, was a huge reason his team came away with a win. You could see how much the win meant to Anderson afterwards too. He was right in the middle of the empty net goal celebration. You could also see just how tired he was in that final period, often crouched over for the entire time between whistles just trying to catch his breath. Today will be a well-earned day off for Mr. Anderson.
-I’m not sure what got into Shane Prince last night but I liked it. Once he got the first goal out of the way you could just tell that a huge weight was off his shoulders. The second came a few minutes later and by the end of the first period; he probably could have had five. Prince was shooting from everywhere last night (finished with 12 shot attempts) and played with a ton of confidence. Scary to see him leave the game in the third period after a questionable hit but the good news is he did return to the bench.
-It’s going to be interesting to see what Dave Cameron does with the line combinations on Saturday night in Arizona. After that performance, you could make a strong case for moving Prince up the line up to get him some additional ice time. At the same time, I’d be a little bit hesitant to break up that trio of Prince-Smith-Neil. Shane Prince was probably the best forward on the ice last night but Zack Smith was a close second. And actually, Smith has been pretty solid all year. He seems to have a little extra jump in his step and getting up and down the ice better than he has in the last couple years. It was his speed and awareness that led to that second Shane Prince goal. When Smith is playing like he has lately, he’s pretty much the perfect fourth line centre.
