After a first period domination of the Rangers with nothing to show for it on the scoreboard, you would be forgiven if you had the feeling that the other shoe was about to drop for the Ottawa Senators. Given they way the team has played of late, coming out of the gate as strong as they have in some time but not being able to finish might have been a bad omen, especially given the last 4 minutes following a Zack Smith penalty that gave the Rangers some momentum.
But the Senators came out and continued to press in the second, finally breaking the ice with 20 seconds left in the frame when Bobby Ryan tapped home a loose puck after Jared Cowen dented the goal post with a blast from the point that beat Henrik Lundqvist but not the bar. The goal not only gave the Sens the lead, but due to a promise from a father earned a couple of kids a puppy at the same time.
Still, there had to be feelings of unease, waiting for that mistake that never did come, the bend but don't break style that has broken so many times in the last 6 weeks. Mike Hoffman sniped a goal short side on a 2 on 1 to double the lead early in the second and Craig Anderson withstood the pressure the Rangers forced in the third and earned shutout number 3 on the season. For the cherry on the sundae, Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored an empty net shorthanded goal to extend his league lead in that department to 5 and make the final 3-0.
It was a game the Senators desperately needed, and Bobby Ryan backed up his talk following his call-out of his team after Friday's game against the Islanders. Ryan led by example and it was about time someone stepped up and held his fellow players accountable.
This was a team win, and a team shutout as Anderson faced 35 shots, but I can't think of more than 3 or 4 where he had to be really sharp, and those were mainly on the Rangers power play. He had to be good, but Anderson didn't need to be great in this one thanks to the support of the 18 guys in front of him, who for most of the 60 minutes did their job properly.
When the Senators can come out and dominate a team of the quality of New York, it is also frustrating from the point of view of everyone involved that it doesn't happen more often. A game like that can't happen all the time, but certainly they have shown they can do it and now the expectation will be there to get it done in a similar fashion more frequently. There have been more bombs than performances like that of late, and if they can get this kind of performance more often, even without their top centre and a top pair defenseman, then this is certainly a playoff team, like the one that played until mid-December but have looked like a shell of ever since.
With one more game before a full week off for the All-Star break, the Senators must focus and not check out early ahead of Tuesday's game against Buffalo, which is a very winnable game and the first one in some time where the competition might not be playoff level. Unless you include the under-achieving Ducks (who are clawing their way back from the depths), the Senators haven't played a team that is not in the playoffs since Dec 1st when they played the Flyers. Since then it has been a steady diet of playoff caliber, if not elite level, teams. Look at the teams they have faced in the last almost 8 weeks and it is a pretty tough group which might explain some of their troubles.
Now the schedule lightens up a bit and it is home-heavy for the next little while. The Rangers' game was a great starting point, but that won't mean a thing if they lay an egg tomorrow night against a Buffalo team that for all intents and purposes, they should beat.