Senators rout the Red Wings 6-1

If one game is anything to go by, and it's not much, Daniel Alfredsson might regret leaving the Ottawa Senators. The Senators jumped ahead early and it was a 3-0 game less than 15 minutes into the game. Game over.

[Game Summary] [Event Summary] [Faceoff Report] [Ice time]
[Corsi/Fenwick/Zone starts]

Eric Gryba opened the scoring at the 5:46 mark after a nice pass from Mika Zibanejad. Shortly after that, Kyle Turris drew a penalty and on the resulting power play Jason Spezza made it 2-0 by hammering a slap shot past Jimmy Howard. Soon after that, Turris drew another penalty. On this power play, Turris won the face-off, Joe Corvo passed it to Bobby Ryan and a beautiful Ryan shot later it was 3-0 just 14:14 into the game. That was the end of Howard's night and he was replaced by Jonas Gustavsson. Late in the period, Todd Bertuzzi scored a power play goal of his own to make it a 3-1 game, but it was the perfect period for Ottawa.

Early in the second period Spezza scored on his own rebound to restore the three-goal lead. Incredibly, that goal was Spezza's sixth goal on his last eight shots. Everything is going right for him at the moment. The game was essentially over as a contest and the Red Wings didn't seriously test Anderson for the rest of the period. With a big lead, Ottawa was able to spread the ice time around for the rest of the game.

Jared Cowen's soft shot beat Jonas Gustavsson to make it 5-1 early in the third period. Bobby Ryan made it 6-1 with his second of the game after scoring on an empty net on a rebound from Clarke MacArthur's shot. MacArthur slammed hard into the boards on the goal, but would stay in the game.

Sens Hero: Kyle Turris
What more can you say about him? Turris drew the penalty for the second and third goal. He had two assists on the night and had a game high five shots. Turris continues to play the game primarily in the offensive zone and is quietly becoming an elite defensive player. He has only been on the ice for three opposition goals 5-on-5 after 9 games and has helped the Senators to 62% of shot attempts. Oh and offensively he has 8 points in 9 games despite currently shooting 4% for the season. One down side for him was winning only 3 out of 15 face-offs, but clearly it wasn't preventing him from getting shots on goal.

Sens Hero: Erik Karlsson
Karlsson was on the ice for 68% of Pavel Datysuk's line's 5-on-5 ice time and held them scoreless and with few scoring chances. Karlsson also had two assists and was his usual confident self in leading the breakout out of the zone. It was likely his best game of the season. He now has 8 points in 9 games.

Sens Hero: Bobby Ryan
Two goals for Ryan and part of Kyle Turris' dominant line. This really is Ottawa's best line at both ends of the ice right now. The shot on the first goal was absolutely incredible and the second goal was an odd man rush with MacArthur.

Honourable mention: Jason Spezza
Two shots and two goals for Spezza. He has six goals on his last eight shots. For those not doing the math, that is a shooting percentage of 75%. The Senators had four shots on goal with Spezza on the ice 5-on-5 while Detroit had 12. Fortunately for Spezza, he's getting the rub of the green (and making some great shots) but sooner or later this is going to catch up with him if his line can't start playing more in the offensive zone.

Other notes

• Daniel Alfredsson had a penalty, two shots and no points.
• Mika Zibanejad played 11:13, second lowest on the team and 26 seconds more than Derek Grant.
• Grant won 4 out of 5 defensive zone face-offs. The rest of the team won three out of 17 defensive zone draws.
• Spezza's seven goals put him in a tie with four other players for second in the NHL goal scoring race. Alexander Ovechkin leads with nine goals.
• Aside from dominating 5-on-5 possession and being almost a point per game, Kyle Turris averages almost three minutes a game of shorthanded ice time as well.
• Here is Robin Lehner expressing his support for #FreeMika

I can't embed it for some reason, so here is a link.