SENShobo
Who Are These Guys?
by SENShobo on 01/14/09 at 09:05 AM ET
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The Canes lose 5-1, their third in a row, not the biggest surprise.
...to the Sens. What? Five goals is supposed to be a good week’s worth of production, not a one-night event for Ottawa.
From the Ottawa Citizen,
“I thought, as the game went on, we got more and more confident,” said Hartsburg. “There were a lot of guys around here the last few weeks carrying 100-pound bags of cement on their backs. (Last night) it was off, especially after we scored some goals.
“It’s good to see. I thought the whole team was good, not just our top players.”
Something just isn’t right.
“We’ve had a struggle scoring goals all year, there’s no question,” Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said about the National Hockey League’s lowest-scoring team. “Right now, every goal is big for us because we haven’t scored many.”
....
“We haven’t produced as much on (the power play) as we need to,” Hartsburg said after the Senators’ pre-game skate earlier today. “I think right now, instead of looking at it as (having a No. 1) unit, we’re going to have one unit play a minute and the other unit play a minute. Let’s get the work level up and the compete level up on the power play, rather than trying to play a perimeter game.“Let’s attack the net more and let’s get traffic and play more basic and be hungrier on it. If we get two units doing it, maybe it’s a little bit of a competition between them.”
That’s from the Ottawa Senators’ website, on the importance of scoring. From sometime before the game yesterday.
Fans have been screaming for a long time for there to be some traffic in front of the net. Being the true hockey fans we are, we all saw how well Holmstrom’s rear and his scramble play in front of the crease helped to lift Detroit to the Cup last season; when would it be our turn? They failed to score on their powerplays, but seconds after a pair of them, both Fisher (first goal in 19 games) and Vermette (now with 6 points in 5 games, looking as back on track as anyone) both scored. Both times from right by the net, the guys realizing that booming point shots only score when you have.. well… booming, accurate, well-timed shots from the point. There have been few of the latter, obviously a dearth of accurate ones of late, and ‘booming shot’ isn’t an adjective used much to describe the Senators’ powerplay quarterbacks. But, with some well-timed get-the-puck-to-the-net attitude, work down low sealed the deal twice.
In the first, we finally got to see Spezza turn those unfortunate-of-late moves into something useful. Drawing in a pair of Carolina defenders coming down the right side, a backhand spinorama saw him find a now-unguarded Heatley in the slot. That’s not something you want to do, even if he’s slumping. Ward, frozen, had to watch helplessly as Heatley ripped the Sens to an early lead for the first time in.. well, we’ll just say it’s been a while.
Surprise, giveaways cost the Hurricanes, and not the Sens, as McAmmond soon thereafter picked up the puck with a clear line to Ward, and while the usual hit-the-goalie unfortunate part occurred, the less-common proceed-to-continue-with-momentum-and-roll-in part also joined the party, his first in over twenty games, second on the season. Paul Maurice just can’t get a break against the Sens, no matter what team he’s coaching.
Sure, Corvo-of-course scored on a ripped shot you couldn’t blame on Elliot, on a powerplay in the middle of the game, but he also served as the perfect screen to allow Phillips to cap the scoring in the third, his fourth of the season, tying him for 5th on the team in goals with Donovan and Fisher.
Elliot may have seen only 24 shots, much less than Ward’s 40, but he still made himself big, dependable, and gave the Sens the chance they needed. He now leads even the highly-touted Steve Mason in both career NHL numbers (yes, three games), and season numbers (the past two games; he’ll start against the Thrashers again tonight): .941 Sv% and 1.53 GAA, to Mason’s .936 and 1.80. Jynx him you say? No, we just need for him to not be a fluke, that being the last thing I expect.
The Sens now have a better success rate (.500) with Gerber in the press box than on the bench or in net. That may say nothing of the man who’s shown us some of the best goaltending we’ve seen post-lockout, even if he’s shown us some of the more questionable games as well. If he is one thing without fail, it is the consummate team player.
From the Ottawa Sun,
Bryan Murray has already talked to Martin Gerber about going to Binghamton on a two-week conditioning stint, which means he won’t have to go on waivers just yet. It sounds like Gerber is open to the idea. “He was a real man (about it),” said Murray. “I like this guy a lot. He’s a real professional. He just wants to play. He understands what we’re trying to do here. He’s a good man, a good pro. It hasn’t totally worked out for him here, as we know, but I can say enough complimentary things about him.”
Maybe it still leaves you in another jersey come season’s end, but with enough hard work, Gerber might be able to dictate a bit better where he goes, under what circumstances, and whether or not he can land a new deal in the future. I wish him the best, that he may continue his mature responsibility, and find the consistency that’s been the nagging area of his career.
The cost of last night’s win? The Sens now sit 3rd in the lottery race, rather than 2nd (which belongs to Atlanta, one point behind us). The Isles went and lost again, nearly having to dress their goaltending coach (don’t ask, just remember the Caps), giving them an even more insurmountable deficit/lead. Tonight though, we can spot Atlanta that win if we want. Fans do need to decide; was it just ironic that they mocked the muddling years of the Leafs, always making it somewhere, that somewhere being nowhere? Or do we really want to join them in a half-decade of that ‘joy’?
The Sens have shown they can play, and can push plenty of the right buttons. Now, however, it’s time to remain focused on the future, lord help Murray if he makes even a single for-the-moment trade.
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