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With seven consecutive losses and just one point total since a January 19th win against the San Jose Sharks, Paul MacLean had to pull out all of the stops against Nashville on Thursday night. Sixty minutes later, the Senators earned a 4-3 victory over the Predators, led by none other than the 1st overall selection in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft.
In his 1,000th National Hockey League game, Chris Phillips was as spectacular as anyone could've ever imagined. He got back to his usual brand of physical hockey in the defensive zone, then chipped in offensively with a pair of goals, the second of which mirrored a poor man's replication of Bobby Orr's legendary sprawling tally.
For Phillips, the night had to be big, but the team as a whole finally setting aside a brutal losing stretch - and against an incredibly gifted Nashville team - has to take precedence. In the middle of a playoff hunt - one that saw every team in the Eastern Conference race outside of Toronto pick up at least a point - winning remains crucial.
From the get-go, you had a feeling this game would feel a bit different. Why? Well, for starters, Ottawa - the NHL's worst first period team - opened up the scoring five minutes and change into the game, when Jason Spezza beat Pekka Rinne on a three-on-two-rush.
Nashville would eventually get back that goal later in the first, with Gabriel Bourque blasting one by Alex Auld from about ten out. The puck was misplayed in the neutral zone, and poor positioning led to the vacant Bourque in a quality shooting lane.
Chris Phillips' first of two goals came in the second period, this one again coming off an Ottawa rush. All night long, the Senators made the most of Predators turnovers and sloppy passing, and seemed to live off of playing coast-to-coast hockey. The goal was mystifying to say the least - his first in 348 days.
Patric Hornqvist again erased the Ottawa lead, this one off a downright gorgeous tip in front that Alex Auld never had a chance at. Ryan Suter flipped it on net from the point, and the unmarked Hornqvist buried it.
In the waning moments of the second, Jason Spezza would get back Ottawa the lead, mere seconds after winning a key offensive zone face-off on the man advantage. Credit Milan Michalek for corralling the puck by stripping Nick Spaling and finding Spezza in front.
Looking for a two-goal lead, the Ottawa Senators turned to noted goal-scorer Chris Phillips (
ahem..) to beat the venerable Pekka Rinne. Again on the power-play, Phillips found an open puck and blew it by the Finnish netminder.
Nashville would make things a bit interesting late through Martin Erat's goal - the third of the night for the Predators - with 8.6 seconds left, but there simply wasn't enough time on the clock. Final score: Ottawa 4, Nashville 3.
In the loss, Pekka Rinne stopped just 25 of 29 shots, although the majority of his saves were of the brilliant variety. Alex Auld was serviceable, stopping 24/27. Even though he picked up the victory, I'd imagine MacLean goes back to Anderson on Saturday.
For the Predators, it wasn't as crucial of a game as it was for the Senators, and you kind of had that feeling for the majority of the night. Nashville played hard, but the brand of hockey was a bit too sloppy to win on the road in today's National Hockey League. Nashville's back in action Saturday afternoon in Boston at TD Garden.
Ottawa's win obviously snaps a brutal stretch of losses and could give this team momentum heading into a very winnable Hockey Day in Canada tilt v. the Edmonton Oilers. The team needs to push some of this positive play through the next couple of months - take a look around the league, and you'll note just how easily points are coming to some of the playoff contenders(thank you, loser points).
As stated above, Ottawa draws against Edmonton on Saturday, with puck drop at 2:00 PM ET at Scotiabank Place.
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Stop it - you knew I wasn't going to go an entire post-game blog without mentioning that Ottawa stopped a seven-game losing streak as soon as it brought back the sounds of Rihanna to Scotiabank Place.
Seriously, it's bizarre. Alex Marchand - local Senators audio man - told us he'd do his part (humorously), blasting Rihanna to try and end this slide.
I've mentioned that this team has a weird way of scoring goals and, in general, playing better when Rihanna's music hits the speakers. You'll probably note that a Rihanna drop came early in, and Jason Spezza soon after - literally, two minutes - beat Pekka Rinne for the opening tally.
After that, it was like sitting in at one of her concerts. Track, after track, after track. Twitter had a blast with it. Hey, you've got to pull out all of the stops this late in the year.
Oh, and Ottawa didn't trail the entire game.
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