It couldn't possibly have been a repeat of Monday's Canadiens debacle, but I think there was probably an audible sigh of relief after the Senators' 3-1 win over the Red Wings on Thursday night.
Ottawa got back to their style, and for the most part dominated the Wings at even strength for a majority of the time.
Mark Stone was the best player on the ice, netting a goal and an assist while Erik Karlsson bounced back from his personal nightmare of Monday and had a pair of assists, including an unselfish play to not shoot for the open net for what could have been his first goal of the season, but instead deciding to pass off to Nate Thompson for the insurance marker.
Craig Anderson wasn't overly tested, making 24 saves and the only shot to elude him being a nice tip by Anthony Mantha on a 6-on-4 situation.
It was a good effort from the Senators to make the Habs' game a distant memory and just "one of those nights" where nothing went right.
Taking a regulation win against a divisional opponent who they are in a race with at the moment is also a positive thing, that they didn't give the Wings the opportunity to get a loser point.
Alex Burrows scored what turned out to be the game winner, off a great feed from Stone who made a perfect pass to a wide open Burrows in the slot and he buried a wrister past Jimmy Howard, who played a pretty good game of his own in the Detroit net despite taking the loss.
Ottawa had a questionable goal called back early in the first period, when it was ruled Zack Smith had interfered with Howard with some light contact. Senators fans have a right to be a little upset at the call, but the same type of play happened against the Flyers the other way, and a similar call was made. I wrote at the time that Flyers fans had a right to be upset at the ruling and if the roles had been reversed Ottawa fans would have wanted that goal to stand because the contact was pretty negligible. Last night the shoe was on the other foot and, but the resulting ruling was the same. You might like the call or not like it, but at least there seems to be some measure of consistency in the way it is being called. Ottawa was able to overcome the ruling and still get the two points.
The Senators have one more game before they embark on their trek to Sweden, and like Monday's contest it is a game they can't take lightly even if it is the struggling Vegas Golden Knights coming to town. Injuries in goal have resulted in the Knights riding their fourth string netminder and a 3 game losing streak into Ottawa, but if Ottawa isn't ready to play they definitely can get put in their place real quick.