FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-That was about as textbook a win as you’ll see. A shorthanded goal, a power play goal and one at even strength. Strong goaltending. Defended well. And dictated the pace of the game for the full 60 minutes. The fact that it comes against a team that had gone 14 straight with at least a point and scored an incredible 5.5 goals a game coming in- well I think it’s safe to say that this was one of Ottawa’s most impressive wins of the season. This team continues to surprise people, particularly those that look a little too closely at the underlying numbers. In our obsession with what should happen or what might happen in the future, we’re sort of missing out on what is happening. This is the best team the Senators have iced in a decade. As Guy Boucher would say, “there’s a soul to this team”.
-Just a terrific bounce back performance by Mike Condon. After he gave up 7 the other night against Columbus, there was a lot of concern that fatigue may have been setting in. And with Anderson still a few weeks away, it had the potential to be a tricky situation for the Senators. But Condon bounced back in a big way. The Senators did a great job of limiting second and third chances but Condon made the first save every time and did a decent job controlling rebounds. It was Condon’s fourth shutout of the season, which has him trailing only Bradon Holtby, Devan Dubnyk and Tuukka Rask in that category.
-This was certainly one of Jean Gabriel Pageau’s best games of the season and maybe the second best of his career. He went head to head with Alex Ovechkin all night and shut him down. He was in his face. He was physical. And more than just shutting him down, he was quite clearly in Ovechkin’s head. It was a performance that reminded me of the early 2000’s when top players used to have certain guys shadow them all game. When Pageau is at the top of his game, chipping in offensively and playing a shut down role defensively, he’s fun to watch.
-It’s obviously a small sample size but Freddy Claesson looks like an everyday NHL defenceman. And if it wasn’t Mark Borowiecki that he was battling for a job, a player that the organization clearly has strong feelings for, it would seem like a no-brainer to keep Claesson in the line up. Obviously he’s more of a defensive defenceman but he’s done a good job of getting shots at the net and making generally smart plays with the puck on his stick. Claesson has barely played this season and battled injuries for a long stretch of time so to jump into the line up and play this well is very impressive. No need to rush Borowiecki back, that’s for sure. Having seven guys they can turn to on the blueline is certainly a benefit when injuries (or the flu) hit.
-Prior to puck drop, Bryan Murray became the first member of the recently announced Ring of Honour. It’s a fitting tribute for a guy that gave so much to this organization over the years both as a Coach and as a General Manager and now in his new role as Senior Hockey Advisor. When you do a job as difficult as the one Bryan did for so long, you’re bound to make the odd mistake. But what Murray never lost over the course of his career is who he is as a person. Yes, it’s a business but to be a good General Manager, you have to be good with people. You have to earn the respect of people. The fact that Bryan Murray is so universally loved around the hockey world shows that he did a whole lot right in his career.
-Bonus thought- If you’re on social media, you’ll know that today is the annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. Every text, call, tweet, Instagram post, Facebook video view and use of Snapchat geofilter means a 5 cent donation to mental health initiatives. And to carry it over to the comment section, I will make a donation of 5 cents per comment to the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health here in our city. So get involved and join the conversation. Having worked on issues related to mental health in my career and having watched someone very close to me feel the pain of losing a loved one to suicide at a young age, I can’t say enough about how important these conversations are not just today but all year round. It really can make a difference.
Boucher’s Post-Game Comments
Boxscore
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League Standings
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