It was a pretty exciting 27 hours in Ottawa as the Senators completed a massive comeback from down 5-2 heading into the third only to come back and take it 6-5 in overtime against the Sharks, and then followed that up with an up and down game against the league leading Lightning where they came out victorious once again.
It is amazing what can happen when you play your skilled players with skilled players. I was among a chorus of people begging Guy Boucher to quit Frankenstein-ing his lineup and put the top six on the top 6, and for the most part left them that way. Hallelujah indeed.
And for two games, chemistry has been found and even if he isn't a legitimate top 6, Ryan Dzingel seems to have found a spot with that group.
Dzingel has got the Senators on the board first in each of the last 3 games, and the Sens have come away with points in each of the last 3 games.
It is well known that for Ottawa to win, their best players have to be their best players, and finally that is coming true.
In the last two games, Mark Stone has led the way with 2 goals and 4 assists and been the catalyst, but he has finally gotten some help from the likes of Erik Karlsson (5 assists), Matt Duchene (3G, 1A), Mike Hoffman (1G, 3A), Dzingel (3G), Derick Brassard (1G, 2A) and Bobby Ryan (3A).
If they could just figure out the goaltending and special teams they would be golden, lets take it one step at a time.
The Senators held the Lightning's top line to just one assist (by Nikita Kucherov) and a combined -6.
Ottawa jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead that they coughed away in the second, to end up 3-3 after 40 minutes. On Friday night the Sharks were the tired team on the second half of a back to back and the Senators took advantage of those tired legs and it looked like the Senators were going to fall victim to the same scheduling crunch, but after withstanding a 10-1 shot disparity, Stone pounced on a loose puck, gave the Senators the lead and this one they wouldn't give it up. They added on a couple more for good measure for the 6-3 final.