FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Mentioned it on Twitter following last night’s 2-1 shootout loss at the hands of the powerhouse New York Rangers but that’s an effort the Senators can be proud of. On most nights, that kind of game is worth two points. Unfortunately against Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers, it wasn’t quite enough. Ottawa had plenty of good looks through sixty minutes and a couple of golden opportunities during the overtime. The chances just weren’t dropping for Ottawa yesterday. Lots of good stuff for Cameron and the coaching staff to build on after that kind of effort.
-Especially improved yesterday was the play of the blueline. And while it would be easy to just attribute that to Jared Cowen’s absence, the fact is the six defenceman that dressed last night were considerably better than any unit Ottawa has put out there all season. Mark Borowiecki looked far more comfortable on his natural side and Patrick Wiercioch had one of his best games of the season. Gotta think (hope) Cameron goes back to this same group on Monday. I don’t think Cowen should be an automatic scratch every night or anything but he should have to earn his ice time. And part of that should be based on one of the current six having a bad game.
-Part of the reason for the improved play of the defence is the forwards though too. I thought Ottawa did a much better job of coming all the way back in their own end and moving up the ice as a five man unit. Short, quick outlet passes and quick skating. Makes for a far more efficient transition game. I felt like this was the biggest difference between MacLean’s Senators and Cameron’s last year. They’ve gotten away from it a little bit in the early going of this season but they did a much better job against the Rangers. Hopefully a sign of things to come.
-Ottawa’s power play is starting to come to life a little bit over the last few games. All the players had talked about how despite the poor results, they were pretty happy with how the power play looked to start the season. Now they’re finally starting to get rewarded for their chances. They have now scored a power play in four straight games going 6/12 over that stretch. They now sit 11th in the NHL in that category.
-Because I went to the game with my two year old daughter yesterday, I missed an alarming amount of the game (both goals, the last ten minutes of the third and overtime/shootout). So much so that I can barely come up with five somewhat coherent thoughts. I’ve decided to dedicate the final point to Thomas Chabot. His highlight reel for this season is getting pretty ridiculous and has Senators fan discussing the possible ceiling for what looks like a brilliant first round pick. If you haven’t been following Chabot this season, this, this, this and this should help get you caught up. His impressive start (16 points in 18 games( should have him on the radar for Team Canada next month too.
