FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-On the same day that the free-falling, know-it-alls from down the road were canning their $50 million dollar Coach, the “rebuilding” Ottawa Senators walk into Montreal and stun the equally obnoxious Canadiens on a goal scored by a franchise-changing player that the Habs voluntarily passed on. As a Sens fan, if you can’t find joy in a day like that, well then you may want to check for a pulse. Three points out of a playoff spot. Yes, really.
-I said it early in his career but basically every time Brady Tkachuk is on the ice, I just can’t help but have this big dumb grin on my face. Usually a couple times a night I find myself thinking just how lucky the Senators were to land this guy and just how obnoxious it must be to cheer for the team he’s playing against. Safe to assume that annoyance is magnified when you passed on him in the draft. Brady Tkachuk is going to haunt the Habs for years and every time he flashes that “please punch me” smirk of his, Montreal fans will be reminded what they could have had. Tkachuk scores a lot of his goals from goal mouth scrambles but last night’s OT winner was an impressive combination of speed and skill. The kid can do it all.
-Back to back, on the road, in a tough building. Last season, that’s a game that would been an assumed loss. And we would have heard as much in the post-game remarks. This team is different though. They certainly didn’t have their best game by any stretch but they did enough to hang around for sixty minutes. While they got outplayed for stretches, they kept their composure. In a situation where they would have a had a full on meltdown last year, they were able to work through it, keep the game close and ultimately come away with the two points. It’s becoming a defining characteristic of this Sens team. Hard-working and for the most part, always hanging around. Pesky? Yea sort of.
-Craig Anderson hasn’t had his best stuff this year. In fact, he hasn’t been at the top of his game for a couple seasons now. It’s a sort of inevitable decline from the best goaltender in franchise history and a guy that has given the organization stability in a position where they lacked it for years. Yet occasionally, Anderson still has that ability to dial it in and put on a performance that reminds us just how good he was and apparently, still can be. He gave the Senators a chance to win last night and saved the game with that OT stop on Brendan Gallagher.
-Connor Brown is a damn good hockey player. It’s not flashy but if you watch him closely, basically every shift you’ll notice three or four smart plays. And at both ends of the rink. Brown is getting more of an opportunity here in Ottawa and he is certainly making the most of it. He’s averaging 20:29 per game, which ranks 14th in the league. DJ Smith obviously trusts him and when you watch the way he plays, it’s easy to see why. You will recall that Connor Brown was traded to Ottawa in the deal that sent Cody Ceci to the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is an actual trade that hockey genius Kyle Dubas made. Like, in real life.
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Boxscore
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