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SENShobo

Washington, Ovechkin Get To Put On A Show

by SENShobo on 02/02/09 at 08:51 AM ET
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That was sobering, wasn’t it?

No, it really wasn’t. Sobering started a long, long time ago.

Right now, it’s just another job well done by the prohibition officers.

Four goals should get you a win in today’s NHL, ahead of only soccer in the scoring department, but that it would be joined by seven Washington goals isn’t a surprise, it’s about par for the course.

From the Ottawa Sun,

“If there’s any chance, it’s a long road back when you let a team like that up,” said Dean McAmmond, who didn’t disagree with Hartsburg’s assessment that the Senators need to show more pride at the start of a game. “At the start, middle, end, on the ice, off the ice. You always have to play with pride. When you’re down, when you’re up. You always have to pride yourself in doing the little things, the big things. I don’t think it’s just at the start of the game.”

Hartburg pulled goalie Brian Elliott, who was making his eighth start, at the 2:15 mark of the second period, after the rookie allowed his fourth goal on 16 shots.

“We weren’t very good as a team and it was time to get him out of the net,” said Hartsburg, who had words of praise for Ovechkin. “He’s the star of the league. People pay a lot of money to watch him play, and he performs every night. He’s certainly worth the price of admission.”

Not once but twice the Senators lost the powerplay’s opening face off, leading to a goal in both cases with less than five seconds expired in the penalty. It served as a good lesson to anyone who doubts that putting all powerplay opening face offs in the offensive zone affects scoring. It was the only face off Fisher took the whole game, and he lost it. Vermette, on the other loss, still managed to be above 50% on the afternoon, and only Regin really dominated at the dot, going 80% on ten draws.

But you can’t really be surprised. Washington took on and beat the Red Wings just 24h prior on that same ice. Even the Wizards snuck a game in between the two puck drops, winning 106-94 over the Clippers. The Senators were really just a little bit of icing on the already made cake.

Ottawa has done so bad that the Isles have finally gotten enough confidence to go on a three game winning streak, confident because even with it they are still six points ‘ahead’ of Ottawa (and four Atlanta) in the draft lottery race, Ottawa having games in hand on both teams.

Is a major overhaul needed? Depends on who you ask. At this point, a consistent effort and consistent system is needed to make that determination. Maybe another season from now and we might well see that. You’ll stick around, right? At least there’s always something new to see, yesterday bringing a Neil check that missed its target, and knocked Picard out of the game at the halfway mark.

Always something new to see, even if it isn’t always a pretty sight.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
 

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