SENShobo
Senators Enjoy The Moment
by SENShobo on 10/16/09 at 08:29 AM ET
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From the Ottawa Sun, after last night’s 7-1 victory against Tampa Bay,
If Milan Michalek didn’t already feel at home in Ottawa, the welcome wagon yelled its approval last night.
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It was Michalek’s first career hat trick and he became the second Senators player to score two short-handed goals in a game (Marian Hossa did it against Florida on Nov. 18, 2000) .“It’s awesome. It was great to see everybody standing and clapping for me,” said Michalek. “It’s a great feeling. Hopefully, there are more goals to come. I’ve had a lot of games with two goals. It was sure nice to get a hat trick.”
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“We know what we’re capable of doing. On any given night, if we’re playing the way we should be by playing a smart defensive game and honing in on our opportunities, we should be able to score goals. We proved that. It can come from anyone. You saw every line scoring and that’s the type of team we are. We’ve got depth. It’s nice to get a complete win.”
Clearly they won’t be letting any of this go to their heads.
Who doesn’t want to see their team achieve a romp every now and then, especially when free pizza’s involved? How could you not want to see Volchenkov add to his targeting totals of Dubinsky, Stalberg, Tavares, Bogosian, and Kennedy by taking the air out of Hedman? He’s been a belt thus far; you can only hope to avoid becoming his next notch. But when you take out the 2nd overall pick from June’s draft, no matter the offseason moves, it still means you’re playing the second worst team in the League from the previous season.
You can’t expect to limit teams to just 17 registered shots per game on a regular basis. Shorthanded goals will not rain down from the sky. Ruutu (1-2—3) will not regularly outproduce Alfredsson (0-3—3), nor will a game be safe enough that he, Kelly, and Donovan can each be given two minutes on the power play. Michalek (4-0—4) and Cheechoo (0-2—2) still don’t yet add up to Heatley (5-5—10). Ottawa’s 12th ranked offence (3.17G/G), 8th ranked defence (2.50GA/G), 4th ranked shots against (26.5SA/G), and 3rd ranked penalty kill (92.0%) simply won’t continue in steady fashion. Their still-anemic power play (tied for 28th, 9.5%) is more indicative of the uphill battle that still remains.
Only half the games the Senators play are against non-playoff teams, and they’ll have to be better than 0-2-0 against the real competition in order to have any chance of making some noise next April.
Still, it feels nice though, doesn’t it? It feels nice to see Carkner finally help the Sens get the better of Steve Downie, completely demolishing, in Carkner’s words, “that little prick,” Ottawa still remembering him launching himself into McAmmond years ago. Feels nice to give Kovalev some positive energy heading into his undoubtedly emotional return to the Bell Centre. Feels nice to have the hard decision of choosing whether or not to reinsert the nearly healed Winchester and Regin into the lineup and who to take out (OC).
It feels nice to be the Ottawa Senators today, but it’s always the team that feels the most battered and bruised, not peachy keen and relaxed, that winds up hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup, and it’ll be a long road getting to there from here. Thank goodness for PVRs and being able to re-live the good moments.
And the unique visitor from yesterday? Someone on a student network in Goteborg, Sweden (that should sound familiar).
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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