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Win or lose, the Ottawa Senators aren't generally a team that gets out-played over sixty minutes. A
handy chart showing Ottawa's shot plus-minus for every single game through March 25th kind of illustrates this -- aside from a game in Montreal two weeks ago, Ottawa's generally either been (a) the better team; or (b) a coin-flip loser.
Ottawa did win today's hockey game over New Jersey by a final score of 3-2 in the shootout, with Mika Zibanejad's deke in the fourth-round marked as the eventual game-winner. A win is a win is a win. Well, sorta.
It's not really misleading to suggest Ottawa's been on the wrong-side of games they've controlled in weeks past: they're a top-ten possession team that's lost fifteen of thirty-three games, be it in regulation or shootout. So, perhaps Paul MacLean's team was due for a lucky one. And boy, did they get it against New Jersey.
The opening five, perhaps ten-minute frame was vintage Ottawa: a lot of control, a lot of the opposition on their heels. The Senators even opened up the scoring courtesy blue liner Chris Phillips. Then, Peter DeBoer called a timeout. From that point forward,
hoo boy..
Even with some interesting padding to start the game, Ottawa finished -33 in the shot department at even-strength -- a number normally cut regularly from games played in Buffalo, Columbus, and Tampa Bay. The Devils dominated possession, they dominated zone time, and bottled up Ottawa in the rare instances where they did have the puck with ease.
In fact, aside from Erik Condra (
who else?), not one single Ottawa Senators skater finished in the positives at even-strength. The run-of-play was lowlighted by MacLean's reunited checking line of David Dziurzynski, Zack Smith, and Chris Neil, which combined for a -60 (!) marker in just three periods. The Smith line primarily saw the toughest form of competition in New Jersey's top-line of Travis Zajac, Patrik Elias, and David Clarkson, so perhaps a tiny bit of leeway is due. But man, were they absolutely eviscerated.
And, to put a cherry on top of that shit sundae, Erik Condra's work was rewarded with some shattered teeth, after he jumped in front of a shot and blocked it with his face.
Your four-goal scorers on the night: the aforementioned Chris Phillips, Colin Greening on some nifty neutral-zone work by Kyle Turris and Erik Condra, Andrei Loktionov, and Marek Zidlicky. Game puck probably goes to Ben Bishop, though, who stopped thirty-two of thirty-four shots and three of four shootout attempts in the victory.
I'm interested to see how the bench boss calls this one. This game was about as far from Paul MacLean's wheelhouse as you can get, but once in a while, this kind of a stinker is probably understandable. The priority is rinsing this mess, incinerating the game-tape in a fiery pit, and solely remembering the two points Ottawa somehow picked up in the process.
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