As they say, two points is two points and they are now in the bank and cannot be taken away. I said yesterday that the game in Buffalo was a tipping point game, as to the direction the club might head over the next little while.
And although the Senators came away with the two points I am not sure they will be showing a lot of highlights or tossing "good job"s around in any video meeting any time soon.
The ability to complete a pass tape to tape is a skill-set that seems to have left almost every player on the roster, and that his hampering their ability to succeed in all three zones. .
If not for a brilliant solo rush by Ryan Dzingle that ended up as TSN's Highlight of the Night, the Senators wouldn't have much to point at offensively. They did have a few chances, that Robin Lehner turned aside, but he wasn't as busy or challenged as he was in the Buffalo win in Ottawa on Saturday.
Ottawa did do a decent job defesively, holding the Sabres to eight shots in each period, but were lucky to escape overtime and get to the shootout only because of the stellar play of Mike Condon in the extra frame, where he also had to make eight stops. He also stopped 2 of 3 Buffalo shooters in the shootout, while both Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan made theirs count to allow their team to walk out with a second point that they probably didn't deserve. Whether it was pretty or not, they stopped the losing streak at two, which was essential. .
The offense continues to struggle to manufacture chances, and they have now scored just one goal in regulation time in their last five games. Somehow, they have managed to come away with an overtime win, a shootout win and a shutout win in that stretch which is equally impressive and frustrating.
While Ottawa sits second in the Atlantic Division behind the Montreal Canadiens with a record of 8-5-0, only three of their 13 games so far have come against teams that made the playoffs last year or, by contrast are in a playoff spot at the moment.
They haven't exactly been tested against the best of the best so far, and while it is true that you can only play the team in front of you, when that opponent is a higher end team I don't know if the Senators can elevate their play to meet that level. I guess we will see on Friday when they host the L.A. Kings.