Tonight, the Ottawa Senators defeated the Boston Bruins by a score of 3-2. The battle was not as close as the score would indicate as the Sens drastically out-shot and out-chanced the Bruins.
The Sens got off to a good start in the first. They came out with more energy and spark than the Bruins did. The Bruins looked like they were off their game early on and they couldn’t get in synch with one another. The Sens were doing a good job of controlling the play but the Bruins were also doing them a lot of favours. For the first five minutes, it didn’t look the like the Bruins knew the game had started yet.
The Bruins did eventually find some life in the first period but only after Mike Fisher scored on a second effort goal during a Senator’s power-play. P.J. was sent to the box on a questionable hooking call as it looked as though P.J. had his stick caught on the net and Chris Phillips skated right through it. However, blaming the refs for something is never couth. The real reason the Sens scored (besides the drive of Mike Fisher) is because Chara and Ward simply sat there and stared as Fisher got three good hacks on Thomas. The Bruins’ penalty kill was unacceptable and the goal was reminiscent of the ones scored by Buffalo last game. The Bruins must give up less real-estate in the crease if they want to ever have a successful penalty-kill.
Thornton and McGrattan had a scrap in the first period that definitely was won by McGrattan. It was not exactly the biggest beating I’ve ever seen but Thornton looked overmatched by the bigger McGrattan.
The Bruins came into the second period with a one minute man-advantage. Chuck Kobasew managed to score with a stuff shot. The chance was set-up with some good puck movement from Zdeno Chara who decided to carry the puck deep into the Sens’ zone. Shortly after, Kobasew scored his second of the night. Kobasew’s second goal came because of more solid Bruins puck movement and disorganization in the Sens’ defense.
The game was tied later in the second when the Bruins got into more penalty trouble. This time Redden made a very nice, strong pass to Dany Heatley who absolutely buried the puck on a picture-perfect one-timer. Again, the Bruins looked stupefied as the Sens worked the puck around on the power-play. I think I have a good idea of what Claude Julien will make the team work on during next practice.
The second period ended with a score of 2-2 but only because Tim Thomas has absolutely stood on his head. The Sens grossly out-shot the Bruins who, despite a few scoring chances, spent most of the second half of the period sleeping.
The third period was completely dominated by the Sens. Marc Savard took a stupid hooking penalty in the offensive zone to send the Sens back to the power-play. The Sens capitalized on their power-play opportunity because, again, the Bruins did a poor job of protecting the front of their net.
Tim Thomas, despite taking the loss, deserves the number one star of the game. Without him, the team would’ve been completely lost. He was left out to dry the whole night and even had to deal with several funny bounces produced by the stanchions in the Scotiabank Place. I will give a more thorough breakdown of the individual player performances at the end of tomorrow night’s game. I will also not be posting a pre-game blog tomorrow unless something major happens. After all, it would look a lot like today’s pre-game blog.
In hit from behind news:
Apparently P.J. Axelsson has learnt nothing from what happened to Patrice Bergeron. As Volchenkov was battling for the puck in the corner during the second period, he was hit square on the numbers by P.J. Axelsson. Axelsson was only assessed a two-minute minor penalty but it should’ve been more. He should’ve been out of the game. Volchenkov did not appear to purposely turn into the hit, he was actually hit into the hit, believe it or not. There was nothing Volchenkov could do to avoid it and P.J. did not slow down as he pasted Anton. Volchenkov is lucky he was not closer to the boards or that could’ve been ugly. Something really has to be done about hits from behind. P.J. is normally a stand-out guy with good hockey sense but he should be ashamed of that hit. If I was Chiarelli and I was engrossed in a battle in the media about hits from behind, I would probably bring this up with P.J. at some point.
Bob McKenzie has decided to clarify his position on the Bergeron incident:
http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/mckenzie/?id=222059#yc_list
He says his words were skewed and that he never blamed Bergeron for the injuries he sustained. Judge for yourselves:
http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/mckenzie/?id=221637
If McKenzie was simply trying to say that Bergeron’s position unfortunately made the illegal hit worse through no fault of Bergeron’s then he probably should have chosen words other than “Bergeron contributed to his own demise.” In any case, I’m glad to see McKenzie has clarified his stance as his blog was used by some as justification for holding the opinion that Bergeron was at fault for what happened to him.
Don Cherry is another story. He decided to show clips of how to properly corral a puck from the corner without getting smashed. He showed a clip of a Hab (they only showed the replay once and I couldn’t see the name on the jersey) clearing the puck in the corner by skating in and around the boards and turning to the side. What Cherry didn’t do was explain that there was no way Bergeron could’ve done that since the puck wasn’t going in the same direction and it wasn’t in the corner when Bergeron got to it. In fact, the replay he showed of a Hab going in after the puck showed a play that had nothing in common with the play Bergeron was hurt on other than that it was a hockey clip and the players were trying to get the puck. Watch the replay by cutting and pasting the youtube address I’ve posted near the bottom of the blog. Notice Patrice is not really in the corner when he gets hit and notice the direction the puck is going. If he had skated in the same direction as the Hab player then he never would’ve caught up with the puck. If he had skated in the opposite direction then he would’ve ran the net.
Cherry then showed a clip of Andreas Lilja, of the Red Wings, who had the puck in a game against the Oil. Lilja saw Torres coming and so he turned his back and was hit down by Torres. Again, this play had no bearing on Patrice Bergeron. He did not get the puck facing one direction and then turn on purpose to take the hit, protect the puck or draw the penalty.
Take a look at the play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xAEetam6HQ
Both of the replays Cherry showed had absolutely zilch to do with the Bergeron incident.
Overall, I can respect where McKenzie is coming from but not Cherry. I think Cherry made a mistake and is too stubborn to admit it so he spent time going through tapes to try to find anything at all, no matter how weak, to justify his opinion (or he had someone else do it for him more probably).
For those of you who feel I’m flogging a dead horse with this Bergeron stuff; I’m not bringing it up again without a reason. When Don Cherry and Bob McKenzie get into a debate through the media with the GM of the team you cover, you can’t help but bring it up.
-Gerz
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