FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Another solid road effort from the Senators although I admit to being bored to tears at times during the first two periods. And then when things started to pick up in the third period, my satellite went out and I was relegated to an online stream. So overall, I didn’t especially enjoy last night’s game. With that said, the Senators outplayed the Flyers for significant stretches of last night’s game and probably deserved to come away with a couple points.
-You’ll never find me on “Team Tank” (I hope, anyway) but these one point efforts against Eastern Conference opponents really aren’t ideal. They don’t allow Ottawa to gain any significant ground on the teams ahead of them yet are just enough to tread water in the standings. Win or lose, damn it! As Travis Yost pointed out on Twitter last night, the Sens have four regulation wins in the last two months. That’s not going to get it done.
-I really want the Senators to make the playoffs this year because I really like playoff hockey. It’s a little short-sighted I suppose but the off season is too damn long for me to think about anything other than clawing our way into one of those last two playoff spots and feeling that excitement of a home playoff game. With that said, missing the playoffs isn’t the worst outcome either because not only does it meaning a higher pick in June, but it also shows Melnyk that his cost-per-point approach is ridiculous. If you wanna contend, you gotta spend.
-Alright, I drifted away a little bit there on those last two thoughts. Back to last night’s game. Ottawa obviously didn’t create a ton of offence but that goal by Mike Hoffman was something else. I’m not sure how much longer Hoffman is going to be able to surprise NHL defenceman with his speed but he did it on a couple occasions last night.
-Dave Cameron is not a huge fan of Colin Greening or David Legwand. Legwand played just 6:21 last night while Greening finished with 4:21. With Lazar ready to come back on Thursday, you would assume Greening is the odd man out.
