UPDATE: There will be no supplemental discipline to Gryba, Tropp or Neil arising from the game.
The action was fast and furious as Ottawa played Columbus, and for the first time this season played a game that didn't come down the the final moments. The Senators survived a somewhat sluggish and undisciplined start and played probably their best second period of the season, and then exploded for 3 goals in the third to upend the injury riddled Blue Jackets 5-2.
Clarke MacArthur led the was with a pair of goals and added an assist, with Erik Karlsson adding a goal and an assist. Singles went to Zack Smith and Alex Chiasson, with Kyle Turris chipping in a pair of assists.
Here are some random thoughts on the game
* There will be lots for the NHL department of player safety to look at after this one. Things they will look at will be Eric Gryba's hit on Artem Anisimov, Corey Tropp's check from behind on Mark Borowiecki and Chris Neil's eye-gouge of Jared Boll.
Itemized, here are the likely results:
1) Gryba will likely get a suspension, because a) he will be considered a repeat offender dating back to the "Player 61" and "Player 81 incident in the playoffs a couple of seasons ago; and b) John Moore was offered an in-person hearing for a very similar hit the day before, which could bring a suspension of 6 or more games. Moore is also a repeat offender.
2) Tropp will likely escape suspension, but could be given a fine to get something on the record. Borowiecki turned his back at the last second and put himself in a vulnerable position. A hit that was targeted for the shoulder became the number.
3) Neil was obviously and immediately apologetic after realizing what he did. It was purely unintentional and in a fight it was a pretty easy mistake to make.
* There was a lot of chatter in the comments section of yesterday's post about the AHL depth of the Senators blue line. Well, assuming Gryba gets suspended, and if Borowiecki has any lingering symptoms from the hit, we could get a look at one of them. Either Frederik Claesson, Aaron Johnson or Chris Wideman would be the likely call-up, each for different reasons.
*It could have been a vastly different game early on. Borowiecki's unnecessary fight with Boll following a pretty innocuous and clean hit on Gryba gave the Senators an early penalty kill and resulted in the game's first goal. Chris Phillips coming to the aid of Karlsson after a jolting hit against New Jersey, good play. Borowiecki last night, not so good. Gryba can stand up for himself physically, and that play was totally clean, and Gryba barely flinched on the hit. Both plays resulted in power play goals against, and Phillips' resulted in a loss, but it was something that needed to be done. Those types of decision by Borowiecki were what worried me and made me wonder if he was ready for full time NHL duty. He has been pretty good so far, and I will chalk that up to an isolated incident.
* The Senators scored on their first power play of the night, and I will flash back to what a very smart man said they should do on the power play...
Ottawa's play with the man advantage has been average and they seem to be trying to set up perfect plays instead of keeping it simple, letting Erik Karlsson fire from the point and getting traffic for a deflection or rebound. In my opinion, once you get that established (even if it isn't successful), teams have to respect the shot and THEN you can move it around a bit and try for the tic-tac-toe.
Not to pat myself on the back, but that was yours truly, yesterday.
Sure enough, the first Senators power play goal was scored on a deflection by MacArthur off a point shot from Karlsson, with Turris also providing traffic in front of Curtis McElhinney. Later on during their 5 minute power play, they tossed the puck around pretty well and finally got through with a Chiasson goal.
*Rather than look at the standings this early, when all teams have played a varied number of games (Boston has played 11 while only Florida has played fewer than Ottawa's 8), you can look at the pace of points to determine how a team is playing. Looking back, since the 2004-05 lockout, 93 points has been pretty much a guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That equates to needing 1.14 points per game, or essentially 11.3 points in every 10 game segment of the season. If you break it down that way, no matter how you get them, as long as they can keep that pace, and for safety's sake round up, then a playoff spot is virtually assured.
Ottawa sits with 11 points through 8 games, a very nice pace. That being said, any cushion to that pace that the Senators can build early on, will benefit them later, say, during the annual California trip that will come later this season.
* One thing that cannot be denied is that the Senators' goaltending has been pretty spectacular, and has masked a lot of mistakes from the players in front of them. (Aside from wraparounds) there haven't been many bad goals, which is a huge turnaround from last year.
*For all the uproar over the way the Senators have been dominated in second periods, they are actually even with 7 goals for and 7 goals against in the middle frame. They are actually minus in the first period (3 for, 5 against), while they have been very good in the third (11 for, 4 against). The definition of Pesky Sens was being able to come back in close games, and the reason the Senators have been in those games is because of goaltending of Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson.
The Senators come back home to face the Blackhawks for the second time in 5 days on Thursday night. Stay tuned for information regarding any potential supplemental discipline as well as updates on Borowiecki's health.
All this and not a mention of Jared Cowen...
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