Craig Anderson has been, without a doubt, the Ottawa Senators' MVP through the first 15 games of the season and the main reason the team has hovered in a playoff spot. So if there is anyone who deserves a pass for having an off night, it is the guy between the pipes. But an off night is what he had. It wasn't his goaltending per se, but it was his puckhandling that cost him and the Senators dearly.
It is never a good sign when your goaltender has more giveaways than anyone on your team except your Norris Trophy defesneman, but Erik Karlsson's 5 is the only total that eclipsed Anderson's 4. And more than one of Anderson's turnovers and misplays handling the puck ended up in the back of his net in the Flames' 4-2 win. HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
* It was a busy night for the trainers, and a scary night for facial injuries. Flames' Norris Trophy candidate Mark Giordano narrowly averted disaster when he caught Chris Neil's follow-through just beside his left eye. That was very nearly a disaster of Bryan Berard proportion, and he was very lucky he was able to come back. Jared Cowen and Mika Zibanejad also took sticks to the face, but fortunately both wear visors and avoided serious injury.
* It wasn't like the Senators didn't have the chances to pick their goalie up. The Senators went 0 for 6 on the power play, not getting much traffic in front of Kari Ramo and making his 9 saves look pretty easy with the man advantage. That included a 53 second 5-on-3 just after the Flames had made it 4-2 and the Senators had a great opportunity to get it back within one.
*It wasn't the Monahan's or Hudler's that made the impact for the Flames, it was household names like Lance Bouma, Josh Jooris and Marcus Granlund that each had a goal and an assist, and then there was the Paul Byron breakaway goal that got things going for the Flames as he used his great speed to get behind Mark Borowiecki and have a long breakaway goal.
*Byron played his 100th game in the NHL on Saturday night. Quite remarkably, the Ottawa native has 15 career goals, with 4 of them coming in the 6 career games he has played against his hometown team.
* The Senators allowed less than 30 shots for just the second time this season (now 0-1-1 when that happens), but as I stated yesterday the Flames are one of those teams that defy the analytics guys (at least so far this season) by having a shooting percentage of 16%, substantially higher than the league average and for such a low possession team they have a remarkably high offensive output.
* There was a lot of broken coverages, and the Senators had a hard time handling the team speed of the Flames in transition. On the goal that made it 2-1 for the Flames, Bobby Ryan felt he had been slashed, creating a turnover just inside the Flames' zone that resulted in a transition back toward the Senators' end. Initially Ryan protested before beginning his backcheck, and he did a good job of hustling back, but instead of taking the trailier, he instead focused on the puck carrier, who was Cody Ceci's man. Ceci was doing a good job of keeping Bouma to the outside, but just as the pass was coming into the slot, Ryan fell and took Ceci out of the play allowing Granlund free reign in the slot to get the shot over Anderson's shoulder.
* At 2-1, it was a couple of terrible turnovers from Anderson that resulted in goals that sunk the Sens chances. The first one he completelymissed the shoot-in behind the net, and a quick pass to the slot was in the back of the net before Anderson could scramble back. The fourth goal was a result of Anderson directly giving it to Bouma right in prime scoring position, and when the cameras flashed to the bench the look of incredulity on the faces of the players and coaches was actually somewhat amusing. The Senators had momentum after Ryan cut the lead to 3-2, and that fourth goal was a needle in the balloon for the Sens.
*It was an off night for the Kid Line, who had less than 11 minutes of even strength ice time, in a game where you would have thought they could excel in a speed game with the likes of Hoffman and Lazar being two of the quicker players on the team.
* In fact, the most effective line for Ottawa start to finsih might just have been the 4th line of Legwand, Smith and Neil in terms of creating momentum on the forecheck and the cycle. Good for that line, but a bad sign for the Senators if that line is your best on the night. The fact that they couldn't finish the cycles and turn it into offensive chances was pretty predicable.
* Through more than half the game, the line of Zibanejad, Michalek and Ryan hadn't even attempted a shot on goal between them, ending up with 6 attempts in the third period and a nice wraparound goal from Ryan to close the gap to 3-2.
* It was a tough way to wrap up their three game road trip, coming home with 3 of a possible 4 points. I am of two minds on the way it went. Coming home .500 on the road is sort of "the goal" and they really didn't play well enough in any of them to deserve a better fate. That being said, the opportunities were there in Vancouver and Calgary to come away with wins, despite being vastly outplayed for long stretches. And the game they did win, they certainly could have lost, so it could just as easily been an 0-for the road trip. I guess you take the three points and run.
The Senators come home still sitting in the second Wild Card spot, thanks to the fact that every team chasing them has also lost at least their last game, if not their last two. It was a chance for the Senators to put some distance between them and the chase pack, but it wasn't to be and now they have to sit around until Thursday when the take to the ice next.
You have to wonder about the decision to stick with Anderson through the three straight games. The rotation worked early in the season, but a couple of so-so starts by Robin Lehner essentially made the decision easy for MacLean to go back to Andy for the whole trip. But he wasn't great in Edmonton and was bad in Calgary, so will that make MacLean get back to the rotation that worked so well early on in the year? My guess is that Lehner's next start, whether it comes Thursday or Saturday at home, will go a long way to determining what that split in the net will be for the foreseeable future. A third poor start in a row by the backup might force MacLean to stick with #1 for long stretches and live with any ups and downs that may come along with it.
It isn't going to be a fun 3 days off for the team.
On a positive note, it was classy of the Flames to post a Best Wishes memo to Bryan Murray during a first period stoppage in play with the message from the PA announcer:
"Although tonight we are opponents on the ice, please know the C of red will always be behind you as you continue your brave fight with cancer."