Guess your perspective of the game really depends on who you are rooting for. The opening frame was fractured and not very good, but the second period featured plenty of great hits and the third had plenty of three on twos and scoring opportunities that were thwarted by good goaltending or excellent backchecking. Ted Nolan has stated time and again that his team doesn’t trap, but sound defense just offends some of the talking heads.

The Sens seemed content to play cat and mouse as well, so the team that is perceived to be inferior is by default always the one relying on the trap? The fact that both teams were guilty of sitting back when the defense had full possession of the puck in their own end is not a sign of the trap, it was the sign of puck possession during a line change. Didn’t we learn anything watching the Soviets send the puck back to the D before changing up instead of dumping into the corner 30 years ago?

Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 11/29/07 at 10:20 AM ET

A wider ice rink would help.

Posted by w2j2 on 11/29/07 at 11:28 AM ET

Ottawa did contribute to that game, and particularly, the 2nd period of it, being quite poor.  TSN was broadcasting the game, and they are no Ottawa homers, and they talked about it during the 2nd intermission.  They had also done the Ottawa-Buffalo game the previous week, which was a fantastic game with both teams attacking.  I would say the first period was OK, the 2nd was terrible, but the third and OT were good.

Posted by Darrell on 11/29/07 at 03:47 PM ET