Senators recaps
The Season is Over: Penguins 4, Senators 3 (OT)
by Mark Parisi on Apr 25, 2010 1:24 AM EDT
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Well, what is there to say? This Ottawa Senators team, picked by most to miss the playoffs, kicked some butt instead. They weren't "swept in embarrassing fashion." They gave the defending champs all they could handle for six games and they did it without Filip Kuba, Alex Kovalev, Milan Michalek, or a goalie with any playoff experience.
That said, they still blew a 3-0 lead tonight. Let's go through the game, goal by goal, because that's about all I can take right now.
Senators beat Penguins 4-3 in triple OT thriller, force game six
by Peter Raaymakers on Apr 23, 2010 1:07 AM EDT
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Wow. I can breathe now. The Ottawa Senators got a lead, lost it, went down, fought back, and eventually won game five of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals 4-3 over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both sides, and any unaffiliated spectators, will agree that the game was incredibly exciting: Plenty of shots, plenty of chances both ways, hitting all over the ice, and clean hockey--especially in overtime.
The Senators deserve a lot of credit for this win. Obviously, winning when facing elimination is always difficult. Within the game, though, there was plenty of adversity to deal with: Ottawa had five powerplays to Pittsburgh's eight. Pittsburgh scored a goal that was waved off and then overturned and called a good goal (more on that later), and had a goal of their own waved off. They had a 2-0 lead, and lost it--but fought back after a 3-2 deficit to tie the game. And no matter how much pressure the Penguins were exerting on Ottawa, the Senators kept to their structure, and eventually it worked out for Ottawa. Game six, Saturday, in Ottawa. Still one loss away from elimination, but a lot closer to moving on than they were yesterday.
Sens Legend: Pascal Leclaire
Heroic. Legendary. Before tonight, Leclaire had one win in 2010. It was a desperate move, and just about everyone in Ottawa was calling it a last-ditch effort that was doomed for failure. But it wasn't. As hard as Ottawa's whole team worked tonight, Leclaire is the reason for the win. Fifty-six saves barely even comes close to describing it, because these weren't just simple shots. Plenty of second chances, deflections, shots through screens, and assorted bona fide scoring chances, and Leclaire was up to the task. He stopped eight shots from each of Bill Guerin and Jordan Staal. Seven off eight off the stick of Sidney Crosby. All six from Evgeni Malkin. It will go down in Ottawa Senators history as one of, if not the, greatest playoff goaltending performances. And I'm being careful to avoid exaggerating it.
Playoff Experts: Penguins beat Senators 7-4
by Ryan Classic on Apr 21, 2010 1:48 AM EDT
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This was a weird game.
The first period was a relatively quiet one. The Pittsburgh Penguins outshot the Ottawa Senators. Brian Elliott was solid. Evgeni Malkin scored another goal, his ninth in eight games against the Senators this season. There were a few questionable calls, and a few questionable non-calls. But overall, it was a quiet period. Pittsburgh led 1-0.
Then the second period came, and all hell broke loose. Sidney Crosby scored the first goal of the period at 3:47, making it 2-0 Pittsburgh. Ten minutes later the score was 5-3. Chris Kunitz added another, and the second period ended with eight goals total, six at even-strength, one on the power play, and another shorthanded. The end of Brian Elliott came after the Penguins made it 4-0, and in came much-maligned goaltender Pascal Leclaire. There were twice as many goals as there were penalties. It was as atypical a period as you could have.
In the third period, Jason Spezza finally scored and made it 6-4, but Jordan Staal responded five minutes later to make it 7-4 and put the game completely out of reach. That would be the final score. The last two minutes got extremely chippy as 40 penalty minutes were handed out, including three 10-minute misconducts, one each to Chris Neil, Jarkko Ruutu, and Matt Carkner.
Nick Foligno spent four minutes in the penalty box tonight despite never being assessed a penalty after the Senators were twice called for a bench minor for too many men on the ice. A single too many men penalty is one too many, but two is completely unacceptable. Over the course of the regular season, the Senators accumulated 13 bench minors, tied for the most of any team. They already have three in the postseason.
The Penguins now lead the series 3-1. Game five is Thursday night in Pittsburgh at 7:00pm ET.
Senators have no answer for Penguins' big guns, lose 4-2
by Mark Parisi on Apr 18, 2010 10:21 PM EDT
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Let's face it: The Pittsburgh Penguins outplayed the Ottawa Senators tonight. They didn't need help from the officiating crew to win this game, but they got it anyway. It was a game where Nick Foligno could be tackled - literally - on the ice not once, but twice, with no call, but a clean Chris Neil hit on Evgeni Malkin results in a roughing call on Neil and a game misconduct call on Jarkko Ruutu. Malkin's retaliatory whack at Neil was not called. It was a game where Matt Cooke took a run at Peter Regin and only got two minutes for boarding; Erik Karlsson would negate this call with a stupid slash 27 seconds later.
Those are the excuses... and none of them matter. Take those poor calls away and Ottawa still loses this game. Pittsburgh beat them to loose pucks. Pittsburgh won the battles for possession. Pittsburgh clogged the shooting and passing lanes. Pittsburgh made Ottawa dump the puck and then negated their forecheck. Ottawa had their chances. They didn't bury them. Pittsburgh did. End of story.
Who's going to step up? Peter Regin can't do it all himself.
Who's going to step up? Daniel Alfredsson? Kneeing Brooks Orpik isn't going to get it done, Alfie. That's bush league crap, and you're the team captain. You have to play better than that and you don't have to look further than Sidney Crosby to see what to do with your frustrations: You make the other team pay.
Who's going to step up? Jason Spezza? Shoot more, kid. Now is not the time to pass.
Who's going to step up? Mike Fisher? Matt Cullen? One goal is a start. Can you do it again? We need you. We need you all.
Senators lose 2-1 to Penguins, leave Pittsburgh with the split
by Peter Raaymakers on Apr 16, 2010 10:20 PM EDT
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Heading into Pittsburgh, the Ottawa Senators' objective was probably to win at least one game against the Penguins, and return to Ottawa with at least a split of the first two games. A second win would have been nice, but the way game two went, the Senators really didn't deserve to win: They were outplayed for most of the game. Still, they were able to restrict to good chances Pittsburgh got to keep the game close, and it was tied until there were just over four minutes left, when Kris Letang scored the decisive goal.
Ottawa's structured play was a big reason the Penguins' offence was contained for most of the game, but a bigger reason was the play of Brian Elliott. He may only have faced 31 shots, but he made some very impressive saves; it was a huge bounce-back game for him after a less-than-impressive game one. But more on that later.
Both teams were amped up for this game, especially physically. There's little doubt about the fact that Pittsburgh had much better scoring chances, and that was evidenced by the 31-20 margin in shots on goal. The physicality, though, was not nearly as unequal as the official scoresheet would have you believe. Pittsburgh finished the game with a 52-31 edge, but Ottawa certainly didn't look physically dominated--and that's not just because the biggest hit was from Sens defenceman Andy Sutton, who hammered Jordan Leopold in what will undoubtedly be a controversial hit, knocking the Pens defenceman out for the night. If physicality continues to be the order of the day, though, it plays to Ottawa's strengths; I would argue Ottawa has more physical forces to ice than Pittsburgh can keep up with.
Third Line's the Charm: Senators 5, Penguins 4
by Mark Parisi on Apr 15, 2010 12:32 AM EDT
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Their first playoff games in two years could not have started worse for the Ottawa Senators, as the Pittsburgh Penguins came out flying and were all over the Senators early. Their dominance resulted in Peter Regin taking a penalty, leading to Evgeni Malkin getting a powerplay goal on a shaky Brian Elliott.
But that's where it changed. Ottawa seemed to realize that their game needed to change, and change it did. The Senators took control of the rest of the period, ending the period with an 11-4 lead in shots and a 2-1 lead on the scoreboard. Peter Regin got the first goal after Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a juicy rebound on a Jason Spezza slapshot, while Chris Neil got the second off another Fleury rebound.
The second period was similar, with Ottawa nabbing two goals (both on the powerplay). Regin took another penalty, and Malkin scored his second powerplay goal from almost the same spot as his first. Play in this period was much more even, as both teams took 8 shots. The Penguins showed the poise that anyone would expect from a defending champ and made some good adjustments to counter Ottawa's changes from the first period.
Luckily, the Senators are a strong team when leading, and they carried a 4-2 lead into the third period. The Penguins were able to close within one goal when Craig Adams whipped a backhander past Elliott, but Jarkko Ruutu restored the two goal lead by taking a sweet feed from Chris Neil(!) and beating Fleury with a soft goal. Once again, Pittsburgh would not go away as Alex Goligoski absolutely buried a perfect pass from Sidney Crosby with less than three minutes left. The Pens fought for the puck but were not able to generate a quality chance -- a testament to Ottawa's team game tonight.
Make no mistake -- Ottawa outlasted Pittsburgh in this game. But they also showed that they can skate with this Penguins team. Anyone who expected this series to be a short one probably needs to think again.
(read on...)
Daniel Alfredsson Night goes horribly wrong, Senators lose 5-2 to Sabres
by Peter Raaymakers on Apr 10, 2010 10:46 PM EDT
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Although the Ottawa Senators lost 5-2 to the Buffalo Sabres in their final regular-season game, there was still a pretty happy feeling going into and coming out of this game. Going in, because an extremely well-done celebration of Daniel Alfredsson's 1000th NHL game got everyone in a good mood. And coming out because, despite the loss, the Senators will return to the playoffs after an agonizingly long one-year hiatus to the post-season. Hard to get too bent out of shape over a regular season lost when the second season is about to begin.
First off, the happy part: Alfredsson's ceremony. From start to finish , it was very well done. Started with a video homage to Alfredsson's career, featuring his many hairstyles, as well as some other highlights--including a finale with Alfie's series-winning goal against Buffalo in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. Through the video, Alfie was tuned to the screen, and was beaming with happiness looking back (particularly laughing at his Mats Sundin faux-stick-throw). From there, the awards: Erik Karlsson brought a jersey from the only other pro team Alfie's played for, the Frolunda Indians; associate captains Mike Fisher and Chris Phillips brought out a silver stick from the teammates; and Eugene Melnyk offered a silver puck to commemorate the occasion. A really slick painting honouring Alfie, from golfball helmet to SNES jersey, was also unveiled. Then came the speech.
To start off, Alfredsson thanked the Sabres for coming out in advance, and for their patience--so much class (props to the Sabres, too, for giving him that respect). He talked about what you'd expect: His disbelief that he would have had such a career so far, thanks everyone from the medical and non-hockey staff for the Sens to his family members, and thanked the team by telling them us "It is an honour to be the captain of your team."
Now, onto the actual game...
(Read more... )
"Vintage" Mike Smith tops Senators 4-3 in shootout
by Mark Parisi on Apr 9, 2010 2:04 AM EDT
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For a meaningless game, a lot happened tonight. I'm not going to waste time with the fluff introductions I normally write. Grab yourself a beverage and let's get right into it:
Alex Kovalev injured his knee - The extent of the injury isn't currently know, but this is really bad news for the Senators if he misses any time. Kovalev has more than his fair share of detractors (right or wrong) but historically he is almost a point-a-game player in the playoffs, including five goals and six assists in 12 games in 2007-08 with Montreal. Whether the Sens play the Devils or Penguins in round one, the road will be much tougher if Kovalev is not in the lineup.
Andrej Meszaros was hit in the neck with a puck - Definitely the scariest moment of the game. An Erik Karlsson shot deflected off of Martin St. Louis and struck Meszaros in the neck where it meets the jaw. After getting back to his feet, the former Sens defenseman made a beeline for the bench accompanied by a trainer and sat in the tunnel. At one point a stretcher was brought out, but he returned later in the game. Hard to question a guy's toughness after something like that.
Jared Cowen made his debut - I didn't really notice him too much, which I suppose is a good thing. He did not make any glaring mistakes in 6:46 of ice time, but was called for one of the weakest hooking penalties I've seen all year. Tampa Bay scored on the power play to make it 3-0. Welcome to the NHL, kid. He didn't play as lazily as we were warned he might, but he also looked a little caught off guard by the speed of the game -- not unlike Erik Karlsson from earlier this year. Luckily, Cowen was able to use his size to recover in most cases.
(Read on if you wanna get nuts...)
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