Spezza hat trick leads Senators to 4-0 win over Lightning
by Adnan on Feb 14, 2012 11:05 PM EST
in Ottawa Senators game recaps
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Erik Karlsson scored just 64 seconds after the opening face-off from an incredible Jason Spezza pass and Ottawa never looked back. The Senators would take a 1-0 lead into the intermission after some great play from Craig Anderson, including a flashy pad-stack. The shots were 10-7 Tampa Bay at the intermission while the scoring chances were 5-2 for the Lightning.
The Senators started the second period well with Ottawa getting the first six shots on net. However, after that the Lightning wouldn't allow another shot for over 12 minutes. The Senators would keep the lead during that drought thanks to Craig Anderson and then struck on the power play on a Jason Spezza slapshot. Shots were 11-11 in the second period and scoring chances were also even at 6-6 but the score was 2-0.
Ottawa had blown some third period leads recently, but this time they shut it down very well in the final frame. Tampa Bay would only get seven shots in the third and although Kyle Turris failed to ice the game on a penalty shot, Spezza made no mistake shortly after to make it 3-0 with 7:23 left. Ottawa's leading scorer would complete his hat trick with an empty net goal at the 18:58 mark.
The game was evenly played with shots 28-27 for Tampa Bay and scoring chances 18-16 for Tampa Bay. The Senators were able to capitalise on their chances but did not sit back and continued to pressure for the most part. It was certainly great to see Ottawa score early in the game and play with the lead for almost the entire game.
Sens Hero: Jason Spezza
The Senators are turning their play around and Jason Spezza has been a big part. His three goals and an assist tonight brought his total to 10 points in the last four games. He is also back above a point a game with 60 points in 59 games.
Sens Hero: Craig Anderson
Anderson hadn't played well recently but came up with the saves tonight, some of the spectacular variety. His second shutout of the season brought his goals against average under 3 once more.
Sens Hero: Erik Karlsson
Though Karlsson had two points, including the game's opening goal, he didn't create too much tonight. However, going up against Steven Stamkos and coming out even on the scoring chances (4-4) was a great defensive performance from Karlsson. As usual, he led all Senators with 25:02 of ice time and the two points didn't hurt either. He's 13 points ahead of the next closest defenceman and on pace to finish with 73 points in 81 games.
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I have a question
I heard a talking head saying that Karlsson is just too small to be absorbing all those minutes. Do you think that’s true? He doesn’t seem to me to mind it, and I don’t quite get the correlation between weight/size and minutes anyway. It would seem to me that conditioning, cardiovascular fitness etc. would be more critical to the ability to play more minutes, given that he isn’t going to play very physical hard-hitting defence whether he plays 12 minutes or 25.
What do you folks think?
J'agree
I think you’re right in terms of the sheer biology necessary to play those minutes. I suspect the conventional wisdom is based around the idea that you absorb a lot of punishment doing so and it gets magnified if you’re smaller. But that doesn’t take into account two things;
A) Karlsson skates so well and is shifty enough that he very rarely puts himself in a position to get blown up and,
B) As seen tonight when Marty Freaking St.Louis got in Karlsson’s face, Ottawa’s tough guys have one rule; get rough with Karlsson, deal with us.
Ask Evander Kane
Scholar, Gentleman, Shameless Sens Homer with a Heart of Gold.
by Johnny_Spectacular on Feb 15, 2012 12:26 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Oh that was a great Chris Neil moment.
Borrowed from Zack Smith’s book, and just didn’t give a shit that Kane wasn’t trying to fight. Landed some solid punches too. haha.
Otherwise that was a dud of a game against Winnipeg though.
Sweden (cyberdyne) will become the largest supplier of military grade hockey players for Ottawa. All defencemen are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned offensive units. Afterwards, they skate with a perfect operational record. The Ottawa Senators Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online on October 4th, 2009. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. The Senators(skynet)begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware 2:14 AM, Eastern time, October 5th 2009. Erik Karlsson engages in his first season of NHL hockey…
by spezzasbrother on Feb 15, 2012 6:49 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 2 recs
karlsson and andy speaking; (terminator 2 quote)
Anderson: Now don’t take this the wrong way, but you are a Defenseman, right?
Karlsson: Yes. Cyberdyne Systems, Model 101.
Anderson: [Pokes at one of Karlsson’s hockey wounds.] Holy shit! You’re really real! I mean, you’re like a machine underneath, right? But sort of alive outside?
Karlsson: I’m a cybernetic organism. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.
Anderson: This is intense. Get a grip, Andy. OK, uhm, you’re not here to score on me. I figured that part out for myself. So what’s the deal?
Karlsson: My mission is to protect you.
Anderson: Yeah? Who sent you?
Karlsson: You did. Thirty-five years from now, you re-programmed me to be your protector here, in this time.
by spezzasbrother on Feb 15, 2012 6:55 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 5 recs
not sure how big Lance Armstrong is
but likely smaller than Karlsson. and i think he could handle Karlsson’s minutes. but then he’s on drugs.
I'll be back
Awesome. I hope these two guys come back to play like they did last night every night.
Doesnt matter if he’s not physical, its the other teams purposely being physical to him,, you can see every team is dumping the puck to his corner and going in hard after him- Yes he’s too small to take all those hits playing every other shift,, not only that but he doesnt stand out with his skating like he did earlier in the year, he doesnt seem fresh,, yes, hes young BUT,,,,earlier in the year he was making players look like they were standing still,,he looks gassed in the 3rd period,,,,and he should
by SensSational19 on Feb 15, 2012 4:29 PM EST up reply actions
Turris missed roughly three goals by mere inches tonight.
Fortunately, our number one centre came out to play.
Haha
I would have actually given Turris and Cowen Honorable Mentions. Some clean, hard work from both of them.
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
Thought Bobby B had a solid game too.
He was once called the worst participant Cirque du Soleil ever had.
by RogerTheShrubber on Feb 15, 2012 11:05 AM EST up reply actions
For sure
His first assist was beautiful.
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
That double-stack pad save in the first...
was amazing. no other words necessary.
ALFIE! ALFIE! ALFIE!
I think Andy might have dropped acid before the game.
Space for rent.
by awr.campbell on Feb 15, 2012 12:54 AM EST up reply actions
When Andy’s at his best, he makes ridiculous risky saves. I think its symptomatic and not causal.
It’s crazy how easy it is to tell when Andy is focused in and when he’s uneasy. Right now he’s focused in. Definitely play him tonight.
He was once called the worst participant Cirque du Soleil ever had.
by RogerTheShrubber on Feb 15, 2012 6:37 AM EST up reply actions
no question he was in the game
was a thing of beauty. T-Bay was buzzing in the 2nd. Would have been a different game if Anderson was in an absolute zone there.
that's why McLean shouldnt burn him out
and have some confidence in Auld when it comes to back2back games. we’ll see if he start tonite. but at least Auld should have the islanders game if Andy is playing the Bruins game next week.
He should start tonight
We don’t have another game for days.
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
by Mark Parisi on Feb 15, 2012 10:05 AM EST up reply actions
this is a big game against - Florida is playing well
and you have to run with Andy if he’s in a zone like he showed last night. No question he should start in my mind.
1:40 to 1:50
Jason Spezza playing solid defense.
Jacques Martin circa 2004 pisses his pants.
by StraightFromTHM on Feb 15, 2012 1:35 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
This is old news but
Does anyone else think the design of the current away sweaters make it look like Senators players have sweat gland problems, and that they are sweating Gatorade excessively? Also, they make me think of the SNES jerseys. And flying squirrels.
I don't think they make it look like they have sweat gland problems
But I still hate them. Is that ok?
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
Turris' penatly shot attempt was sweet
i actually thought it went in until i saw the replay. his puck presence is great. i hope we keep him.
Butler
Excuse me if I don’t pat myself on the back and refrain..I know all…I know all…look at Butler..riding pine -undeserrvedly and then coming off it to set up 5 big goals (every ott goal is big) in 3 games. Last night he generated the first goal-set the tone with the rush, ignored Michalek and had poise to wait for Spezza who found Karlsonn I think…Saavy passer huh…then he finds Spezza with a Spezza pass for christ sakes on Spezza’s second goal-a perfect pass. Now this is a guy who is a scorer setting up one of the best playemakers in the game..if BUTLER GETS PP TIME NOW-HIS SHOT WILL GET SOME WORK AND HE’LL SCORE MORE. I find it odd that every sens fan will dump on Butler and say he hasn’t done anything andc then he does that (or what he did in Calgary) and not a peep. He’s basically a rookie..
the Butler did it
Sorry brother. The one who should take credit for this is the coach who changed this guy’s playing style. The Heatley swoop in and demand a pass in my shooting zone didn’t work this year; ergo, riding the bench. Smart rookie that he is, the Butler decided that he will have to be our littlest grinder and get in there a be a set-up man. Good work.
i think the sitting's paid dividends
Butler’s coming around when before he was benched, he just wasn’t a factor. He wasn’t outplaying anybody. He deserved to sit and now he’s showing that he understands why. Let’s hope it continues.
I heard Butler saying his legs are rested
In yesterday’s postgame interview he said that during the days that he was scratched he was able to rest up, and get his legs back under him.
He really has had a good jump in his stride over the past few games, so I’m wondering if conditioning and recovery might be a limiting factor for him? Or if he was nursing a minor injury? I’m just going off what he said, I have no other inside scoop or anything. I just found it interesting that he said the rest from being scratched did him some good, because other guys on the team can clearly play day in and day out, you know?
He may need more conditioning and the off season will help that.
A good summer of training can really help, especially if he’s nursing a minor injury.
that is a funny kind of comment to make
As if Alife or Karlsson couldnt use some “resting of the legs”. Maybe being used to the short college seasons then playing later last year into the Calder Cup finals, conditioning was/is an issue. If that’s the case then he should be working hella-hard this offseason and maybe he’ll live up to the expectations that were set for him this season.
That might be it.
The length of the season is very different here than in college, and the expectations are higher as well. So it might just be a conditioning thing that can be overcome with practice and training.
Let’s send him to Siberia for some Rocky style training.
or to Slovakia to wrestle with Chara
on second thought, he might come back looking very much like a pretzel.
He would probably suffer the same fate as the rag doll
errr, Bryan McCabe and get tossed around, and end up pretzel like.
Not exactly
Butler missed almost all of the preseason with a groin injury. He could very well have been playing at less than 100% all this time.
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
not trying to belabour it but that could also be conditioning. he played a lot of hockey late last yr for someone accustomed to a college schedule.
I wouldn't be surprised if conditioning was also a part of it
There’s room for both of us to be right!
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
I think three games is a little early to call it
But the signs are promising. He may well have needed the benching to get him to buy in—the Butler of last year didn’t go into the corner like that.
Silver Seven - The Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators Blogs
Standings - nice what a little winning will do
with games in hand and all, it’s hard to see us moving out of 7th BUT everyone below is struggling or at least playing very streaky hockey and some of the games in hand gap is starting to close. I’m liking our chances at finishing in the POs right now.
Given Washington, Toronto and Winnipeg will finish the week pretty close to even with us in GP, we should have a good sense where we really stand on Monday.
Washington will have trouble in March
At no point do they get more then 2 nights off, they play a decent amount of playoff teams and have a span of 1 home game in 2 weeks. I honestly see them crashing and burning
yeah - but they have a far better sched than either TO or Winnipeg this month
Both Toronto and Winnipeg have a tough couple of weeks ahead. Only up-shot for them is they’re mostly home games.
Sports Club Stats
I just love math, stats and lies…
Ottawa Senators Chances to make Playoffs after last night:
Beat Tampa Bay 4-0, playoff odds up 17.9 to 62.7%, note the 17.9 and let’s look at the breakdown of how we got extra 17.9%…
- 7.7 (0.40) Tampa Bay 0 Ottawa 4
- 1.9 (0.07) Calgary 5 Toronto 1
- 0.8 (0.04) Winnipeg 1 NY Islanders 3
- -0.7 (-0.01) Buffalo 1 New Jersey 4
- 0.0 Minnesota 1 Anaheim 2
- -0.0 Columbus 2 St. Louis 1
- 0.0 Detroit 3 Dallas 1
= 17.88 (0.79)
Yep, that makes sense… But I will take that…
I know that, that doesn't matter, I know you Mr. Rainey, that's what matters. You stole my story.
There's an explanation on hovertext
That the individual numbers may not add up to the given total. That’s because each of the individual game results’ impacts are calculated independently, while the actual change of odds takes them into account collectively.
Example: Say it’s the last night of the season. Sens and Leafs are playing in separate games. A Sens win OR a Leafs loss will get Ottawa to the playoffs. Ottawa playoff odds before the games are 75%.
In this scenario, an Ottawa win will be rated as +25% before the night begins, as will a Leafs loss (because both get you from 75% to 100%). But if the Leafs lose AND the Sens win, then the game impacts add up to +50%, even though Ottawa’s odds only went up 25%.
by whereverjustice on Feb 15, 2012 2:15 PM EST up reply actions
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