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Senators down Rangers 2-1 in series opener

April 28, 2017, 8:40 AM ET [170 Comments]
Jared Crozier
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As expected, the goaltenders were in the spotlight, but it was the Ottawa Senators who found a way, as they have done so often this season, to come out with a win in a tight game.

Henrik Lundqvist was the star of the game (despite somehow not being named one of the three stars in the building), stopping 41 shots, including 21 in a first period dominated by the Senators.

But, as I have said about Craig Anderson so often, it isn't the saves you make but the one that you don't that makes the difference, and fellow Swede Erik Karlsson beat him with a shot from below the goal line that went off Derek Stepan on over the shoulder of the crouching goalie to break a 1-1 deadlock with just over 4 minutes left.

Ryan McDonagh and Ryan Dzingel had exchanged second period power play goals, with each team going 1 for 4 with the man advantage.

It was a character win for the Senators, who could have understandably been frustrated with the result after 20 minutes, feeling that they should probably have been up by at least a couple of goals following the onslaught and the chances that were consistently turned away by Lundqvist. Then falling behind on a point shot through a screened Anderson and some teams might just pack it in and say it wasn't meant to be.

However, if the first round against the Bruins told you anything, it is that no lead is safe either way, and it took about 10 minutes, but the Senators capitalized on a rebound that Dzingel lifted to the roof of the net and it was back on even terms which set up the late heroics from the guy Ottawa needs to be the best player in the series if they are going to win it.

It could have gone either way, for as good as the Senators were from the start, the Rangers did some counter-punching of their own, using the stretch pass to create multiple breakaways but Craig Anderson made 34 saves of his own to preserve the win. That included closing out the game with 40 seconds of 6-on-4 after a neutral zone tripping penalty put Ottawa shorthanded.

Ottawa was the only team in the four series to hold onto home ice advantage in the first game, with Washington, St. Louis and Anaheim all dropping their opener on home ice.

As I said in my series preview, Karlsson is the X-factor, and he delivered as promised not only with the game winner, but played just a shade under 29 minutes, including the last 2:06 of the game while protecting the one goal lead he provided.

As for the Rangers, their best player was Lundqvist, and in the post-game interview he was certainly dejected that his tremendous standout performance was for naught and was essentially wasted because he got beat for a bad goal late, and his team wasn't able to bail him out by providing him some offensive support.

I did a lot of reading yesterday about predictions for this series, mostly from the Rangers' point of view, and to a person they vastly underrated Ottawa's depth and skill level, to the point of asserting that after Karlsson and Derick Brassard (being a former Ranger) they don't have much. Ottawa might not have the scoring punch on its fourth line like a Grabner, but they have grit and experience, including a guy with a Cup ring (something that no Rangers player has) in Viktor Stalberg and a player who went to the finals last season, Tommy Wingels.

I also don't understand the "trap" label that the Senators have been tagged with, and it has really bothered me for the last little while. This is a team that activates its defensemen along the boards almost every chance they get, and "trapping" teams don't get 43 shots on goal in a game. If playing on the right side of the puck and being responsible defensively is a "trap" then so be it, but Ottawa's game is to create turnovers before the opposition exits the zone. The goal is to maximize offensive zone time, and that is what led to the game winning goal - a pinch down the boards by Marc Methot to create the turnover and keep the puck alive in the Rangers' end. The Senators rarely sit back with four or five guys in the neutral zone waiting for teams to come at them. They do it when it is warranted, but for the most part they are all about containing teams in their own defensive zone, by having a third forward high for support of the pinching blueliner, which in my mind is the exact opposite of what I would consider a trap team doing.

In a series that will go longer than most people outside of Ottawa might have predicted, getting that first win on home ice is huge, but they have to do the same thing on Saturday afternoon to really put themselves in the driver's seat.

They just need to find a tether for Anderson to keep him in front of the net and not playing the puck because that is going to be his undoing. Both goalies struggled with that aspect in game 1 and had to make brilliant saves while recovering from their misplays.
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