If you wanted a lesson on Paul MacLean's puck-possession system in Ottawa, the sixty minutes of tonight's tilt between the Panthers and Senators was ample instruction.
The Ottawa Senators controlled play for the vast majority of the night, applied consistent pressure on Florida Panthers netminder Jose Theodore, and left the arena on Monday night with a blowout four-goal win.
Kyle Turris, who didn't receive many breaks in the shooting luck department last year, found the back of the net twice. Jim O'Brien added his first goal of the year in the third-period after a nifty move through the Florida Panthers defense, and rookie Jakob Silfverberg scored his first professional goal in the waning moments en route to victory.
While the Florida Panthers did apply some pressure in the third period, the game in general wasn't much of a contest. Florida didn't appear ready to handle the possession-driving, speed-based game Ottawa delivers in-bulk under their second-year head-coach, and without the impressive efforts of Jose Theodore -- the Panthers netminder was better than his 33/37 split would indicate -- the Senators are probably inching closer to a crooked number on the scoreboard.
What I particularly noticed: the zone exits and entries from both teams were in stark contrast. Florida had trouble really leaving the zone cleanly, and even more issue generating the initial rush and attack against Ottawa. The Senators, on the other hand, were brilliant moving the puck up-ice. Erik Karlsson's always a given impetus in this respect, but rookie Patrick Wiercioch provided quite the boost, too. He's looked sharp.
Craig Anderson stopped thirty-one shots in his own right, but was only briefly challenged on a few tough looks in the third period. On the year, Anderson earned his twentieth shutout of his NHL-career, and moved to an impressive 8-0-1 record all-time against the Florida Panthers.
Best moment, though? Paul MacLean's lookalike, sitting directly behind the bench boss all night long. It was, uh, bizarre. Just some average Joe sitting in a corporate seat, hardly noticed when showing face behind the glass during the Cory Clouston days.
Back with plenty more tomorrow, including some thoughts on Paul MacLean's specialty unit employment.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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