A lot of good on the ice tonight, as the Ottawa Senators took down the undermanned Washington Capitals 2-0 at Verizon Center. Kyle Turris had the opening goal, and Jason Spezza added a power-play marker of his own in the third-period. Craig Anderson -- who has had a rough go of things all year long -- was exquisite in his best performance of the season, stopping all thirty-four shots he faced.
Little help on the out-of-town scoreboard, though. Ottawa could have been sitting in a playoff position by nightfall if things had broken their way, but two big upset victories away from D.C. -- including New Jersey's beatdown of St. Louis, and Columbus' two-goal win over Los Angeles -- ensured very little movement in that middle pack.
Ottawa did leap past idle Detroit, though. The Red Wings are in tough once again on Wednesday night, taking on the Blackhawks at Joe Louis Arena.
The lesson, one that I'm sure Paul MacLean knows full well at this point in his coaching career, is that you can't sit and rely on outcomes falling favorably. The only thing you can control is what your team does, and Ottawa took care of business to open up their four-game road swing. The Senators have three tricky tests on the horizon, including the Lightning, Hurricanes, and Blue Jackets -- in succession.
They'll get a big reprieve thanks to the Atlantic snowstorm that hit on Tuesday, forcing the postponement of tonight's Carolina/Philadelphia game to Wednesday. Due to the change, the league had to move back the Senators/Hurricanes affair on Friday night to Saturday afternoon, effectively taking Ottawa off of a back-to-back.
How big of a change is this? I've looked at some of the data in the past, and road teams on the second-leg of a back-to-back see their win probability drop by as much as 6.5%. That's obviously enormous, and really, it's crazy the league has so many of these games. They, I'm sure, are well aware of what some blogger can find out on his own through some quick schedule grabbing.
Oh, and two quick notes back to the game (the formatting of this post was, uh, not my best work). One, I thought Patrick Wiercioch had a very sound game in relief of Marc Methot, enough to merit another start in Tampa Bay, at the very least. Two, Jason Spezza -- like most Ottawa Senators -- ended on the right side of the possession-battle. He looks like he's skating in concrete more often than not, but he's still got a howitzer of a shot. I think, if you're hellbent on playing Mika Zibanejad at center, his best linemate option is Erik Condra. Two years ago, I would've winced at that. But Condra has a funny way of carrying guys into the offensive zone with regularity. Maybe that's what Spezza needs. The two, at least this year, have had great possession splits together.
Back with more tomorrow.
--
Thanks for reading!
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»