Silver Nuggets: Senators attendance up; Ottawa becoming a Swedish colony; Binghamton loses heartbreaker

It is Monday! Back to work, but only for four days. Then it is four days off! The NHL playoffs are five days in and the defending champions are down to their last breath. The Vancouver Canucks pushed the Chicago Blackhawks to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 win last night in Chicago. It was a day of pretty good games in three cities with pretty great goal celebrations. Chicago has Chelsea Dagger, New York has the "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" which amuses me more than it should. Even Nashville threw in a good chant or two after their goals. I also spent last night listening to various goal horns on YouTube.

Anyway, in addition to the Vancouver win, in the day's early game, the New York Rangers cut their deficit to 2-1 with a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals. The Capitals once again tied it late in the game, but the Rangers won it with an even later goal. In the day's other game, Mike Fisher scored the winning goal in a 4-3 Nashville win to put them ahead 2-1 in their series. Carrie Underwood was impressed. More than Hasse.

Here are today's links, once again brought to you by mangoes, the official fruit of the Silver Nuggets.

General Sens News

• This was previously mentioned, but it is worth mentioning again. The Senators increased their attendance by an average of 109 people a game. Attendance often lags performance by a year, but the Senators season ticket renewal rate was also up, which obviously does not lag performance. The Senators ranking of 12th in attendance ranked ahead of the following playoff teams: New York Rangers (13th), Los Angeles Kings (14th), Boston Bruins (16th), San Jose Sharks (17th), Tampa Bay Lightning (18th), Nashville Predators (21st), Anaheim Ducks (26th), Phoenix Coyotes (29th). Ottawa had the highest average attendance in the NHL for a sub .500 team and the 4th highest for a non-playoff team. (Citizen, ESPN)
• Including the David Rundblad trade, 7 out of the 21 Bryan Murray draft picks have been Swedish. A very interesting read about Ottawa's image in Sweden, comparisons for our Swedish prospects, as well as potential sleeper Swedish picks in the upcoming draft. Interesting to see Rundblad compared to Mike Green, as well as Andre Petersson still having a very high ceiling if he can get his back issues sorted out. (The 6th Sens)
• Since the All-Star break (roughly coinciding with the Craig Anderson trade), the Ottawa Senators penalty kill was 2nd in the NHL after being 20th before the break. By contrast, the Toronto Maple Leafs penalty kill did not improve at all with James Reimer, staying steady at 27th both before and after the break. Of course there are other factors in the penalty kill aside from the goaltenders, but interesting nonetheless. (Battle of Ontario)
• The Binghamton Senators had a devastating loss last night, having led 3-0 in the first period and 4-2 midway through the third period. They ended up losing 5-4 in overtime. (Joy Lindsay)

More after the break.

Playoff News

There are four games in the NHL playoffs tonight:

• 2) Philadelphia Flyers at 7) Buffalo Sabres (TSN, series tied 1-1)
  
• 4) Pittsburgh Penguins at 5) Tampa Bay Lightning (CBC Peterborough, series tied 1-1)
  
• 3) Boston Bruins at 6) Montreal Canadiens (CBC, Montreal leads 2-0)
  
• 3) Detroit Red Wings at 6) Phoenix Coyotes (CBC, Detroit leads 2-0)

Can someone tell me why CBC Peterborough is showing Pittsburgh/Tampa Bay? Anyone?

Here are other links:

• Johan Franzen feels Shane Doan should have been ejected, but Mike Babcock disagrees. (Sun)
• Jonathon Toews feels Vancouver is getting too much credit. Maybe if you guys could win a game, they wouldn't get as much credit, Jonathon. (Chicago Tribune)
• Since losing in the Stanley Cup final for three consecutive seasons, no Canadian team has made it back to the final. In fact, Vancouver and Montreal are the only Canadian clubs to win a playoff series in the last three seasons. (TSN)
• In bad news for me in the Silver Seven pool, Brian Boucher will start for the Flyers tonight. (Philadelphia Flyers)
• According to notorious bad guy Chris Kelly, Zdeno Chara will be back tonight for Boston. (Ian Mendes)
• The last time a team lost Games 1 and 2 at home to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1st round, they came back to win the Stanley Cup. That was the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. (Ian Mendes)