Its not just the title of a bad (an assumption, I never saw it) 1994 Luke Perry and Stephen Baldwin rodeo movie any more!
An 8 second first period meltdown in what was otherwise a nearly perfect game was the difference as the Ottawa Senators fell to the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Thursday night.
They held the Panthers to just 16 shots and just a handful of scoring chances. And I mean on the entire night, but I would forgive you if you thought I was referring to per period given the way the Sens have been going of late.
Ottawa came flying out of the gate, with all 4 lines setting a faster pace than they have played with in some time. They held the Panthers without a shot for the first 12 minutes but then...the wheels fell off for a moment.
Reilly Smith fired a shot through a Patrick Wiercioch screen that beat Craig Anderson clean and gave the Panthers a lead on their first shot. No worries, right? It is just one. However, after Jean-Gabriel Pageau won the ensuing face-off right into his own end, Freddie Claesson felt the pressure from Smith on the forecheck and made a tremendous pass right on the stick of...the Panthers' Vincent Troheck who one-timed a rocket past a startled and non-suspecting Anderson. Two shots, two goals, 8 seconds and an early timeout forced on Dave Cameron.
From that speed bump the Senators resumed their dominance and if not for Roberto Luongo being on top of his game it could have gone the other way in a hurry. Max McCormick managed to get one past him for his first NHL goal, one that went off the post and in off a giveaway by Alex Petrovic that was very similar to Claesson's. The Senators continued to press now down by a goal, but found out just why the Panthers have now won 11 straight and are opening up space at the top of the Atlantic Division - they don't give you much in terms of quality and when they do Luongo is there more often than not.
Florida got that one back early in the third and again Claesson was in the middle of it. The rookie made a soft pass attempt across the blue line that was picked off by Jaromir Jagr, who started the rush that resulted in a nice 3-way passing play by the Panthers' top line finished off by Aleksander Barkov. It was Claesson who lost Barkov in his defensive zone and allowed him to be open and although he got a piece of the cross-crease pass it still got through and Claesson didn't see the ice for the remaining twelve and a half minutes.
The Senators fought back again and an errant clearing attempt was picked off by Erik Karlsson whose pass was adeptly re-directed past Luongo by the returning Milan Michalek to close the gap to one again, but they would get no closer.
The one thing that didn't work, aside from a couple of rookie mistakes from a rookie, was the power play. Ottawa went 0-for-4 with the man advantage including just over a minute of 5-on-3 time early in the second period. Once again this group seems to look too often for the "perfect" play instead of just letting Karlsson or Mike Hoffman wind up and fire and hope for a deflection or rebound. Of course, when they do, hitting the target is paramount as well.
It was a rough outing for Claesson, his first real taste of NHL adversity, and although he rode the pine after the Panthers 3rd period goal, hopefully he takes it as a learning experience and also that the coaching staff addresses it but throws him right back into the fire on Saturday.
It is also a game that Kyle Turris probably lost some sleep over. He had a game-high 6 shots on goal (nobody on either team had more than 3), and at least 4 were prime Grade-A scoring chances. Luongo had his number more than anyone, and Turris ended up with nothing.
That is when the Bruins come to town and the teams meet for the first time since the crazy goal and penalty filled Jan 29th meeting that Boston won 7-3.