Heading into the opening weekend of the season, the Senators would have probably been happy to come away with three of a possible four points.
And while a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs always stings a little bit more, and letting a two goal lead slip away will do nothing to lift their spirits, three points is a pretty good outcome for the Sens in the season opening back to back.
They’ll now have a few days off between games which is probably a good thing for Head Coach Paul MacLean and his staff as there will certainly be a number of things to work on after last night’s 5-4 shootout loss at the Air Canada Centre. While the Senators held a 4-2 lead at one point, their game was far too “loose”, as they allowed way too many high quality scoring chances.
Losing the lead was disappointing, but in all honesty, you could make the argument that Ottawa was actually lucky to come away with anything, considering how sloppy they were over the final 20 minutes. The good news is, the line of Clarke MacArthur, Kyle Turris and Cory Conacher were again terrific for the Senators and were by far the best trio MacLean threw over the boards last night. If the top line can start to click, the Sens offence is going to be a handful.
The Senators have a full day off today before returning to ice for practice on Monday at 11:00 AM. Ottawa then heads West for four straight including stops in Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Phoenix.
-In his first appearance of the season, Matt Kassian kept his gloves on and played just 4:49, which was almost seven minutes less than the next closest skater. This was a relatively tame installment in the Battle of Ontario and there really wasn’t any need to have Kassian in there. It will be interesting to see how the Sens use him, if at all, during the trip out West. Would be nice to have Mika Zibanejad for that trip out West.
-The Mason Raymond shootout goal seemed fairly ridiculous. While Anderson just tipped his hat and called it a “good goal”, it’s one the league is seriously considering removing from the shootout altogether. Until that happens, Raymond is apparently free to stop, spin and shoot all he wants.
