FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-The Biggest Game of the Year. The Biggest Win of the Year. Despite a nightmare start, the Ottawa Senators stuck with it for the full 60 minutes and came away with the most important two points of their season and in the process, ensured there will be even more important games to come. If last night is any indication, the next month or so (kinda like the last month or so) is going to be one hell of a ride. The Sens will play their next three games at home, starting with a visit from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. The Leafs are just terrible. The absolute worst. The challenge for Ottawa will be not taking them lightly on Saturday night.
-Two points back. Seriously…Two points back. And with a game in hand! I mentioned this on Twitter but there have been times in the last month where I wondered if maybe this was all a dream. If the Boston Bruins weren’t paying attention to the Senators before they sure as hell are now. Still tons of work to be done over the next 12 games but the Sens have given themselves a chance. They are right there. Looking at the remaining schedules for both Ottawa and Boston, each team plays the same opponent three more times. Boston’s three games are against the Florida Panthers. Ottawa’s three games are against Toronto Maple Leafs.
-It would have been nice for Andrew Hammond to set the record for consecutive starts allowing two goals or less from the start of a career but like Hammond said before and after the game, the win is more important. And in some ways, it’s probably nice to have the talk of that streak out of the way. Now the 27 year old can just focus on winning hockey games. And dodging hamburgers. There have been some strange traditions in the NHL over the years but this hamburger thing has to be right up there. And it reached peak weird last night when Curtis Lazar actually picked up one of the burgers and ate it.
-We’ve all been so caught up in the magic of Andrew Hammond that we haven’t really had time to praise the effort of some of the other players on the team. They’ve scored 47 times in their last 15 games. All four lines are rolling. For example, the Condra-Pageau-Lazar line. I don’t think those three have had a bad shift in a month. They’ve been lethal at 5 on 5 and the duo of Pageau and Condra has to be one of the best penalty killing tandems in the league. Probably don’t have to remind Sens’ management but Erik Condra is a UFA this summer.
-And last night especially, the offensive production was carried by the Michalek-Turris-Stone line. They started the game strong, scoring in the first twenty seconds, and were on the attack most of the night. Probably not enough good things are being said about Michalek right now, a guy who was written off by many so-called experts earlier this season. Everybody knows how good Turris and Stone have been but Michalek has also been a huge part of that line’s success.
-Lastly, I wanted to pass on condolences to the friends and family of Matthew Wuest. If the name isn’t familiar, his website certainly is. Wuest, the founder and creator of the website CapGeek, lost his battle with cancer yesterday. CapGeek was without a doubt, one of the most important hockey related websites of our generation. It was a site that changed the way the average fan follows and talks about hockey. It put us all in the GM’s chair and gave fans a level of access and understanding that wasn’t there before. And from my perspective, it was such an important tool in covering this team over the last few years. Listening to the stories last night and this morning, it’s clear that the hockey world lost one of its most innovative minds.
