After watching the first 10 minutes of the Senators game in Pittsburgh on Saturday, I was expecting the worst. Mental and physical mistakes, the potential loss their a first line centre, and perhaps an injury to one of the only reasons the Senators have been in most of their games this season (their #1 goalie), and this had the makings of a blowout.
But somehow the Senators righted the ship and got their heads back into it, and actually played an entertaining game before one final mistake with under 2 minutes left ended up costing them dearly.
A broken defensive zone coverage allowed Christian Ehrhoff half the ice and all the time in the world to pick his spot and had Craig Anderson at his mercy, making no mistake for the deciding goal in the Penguins' 3-2 win.
HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
* It was fortunate that Kyle Turris was able to come back to the game after the jarring hit he took from Zach Sill. It was a blind side interference call that deserved the major and game misconduct that he was given. I wouldn't expect any supplemental discipline as replays showed that it was primarily shoulder to chest contact, although he did follow through upwards as he made the hit.
* My big talking point yesterday was the inability of late for the Senators to hit the net on their shot attempts, and Mika Zibanejad missing the net as a Sens power play ended allowed Evgeni Malkin to walk in alone out of the box, where he deked Craig Anderson nicely to give the Penguins the lead.
* To add injury to insult, Anderson stayed down for some time after the Malkin deke resulted in a collision, and it looked like Andrew Hammond might make his season debut for the Senators. Anderson shook it off and remained in the game.
* Taking a too many men penalty while in the midst of a power play was a huge mental mistake and unacceptable. It wasn't as if it was a mixup on a line change and the puck was thrown at the bench like so many TMM penalites result from. This was six players all getting involved in the play.
* That first 6 minutes might have been the worst stretch of hockey the Senators have played this season, between the mental and physical. Somehow they got back on track and actually held the lead for a large portion of the second period. Ottawa tied the game after Erik Karlsson's point shot was tipped by Milan Michalek and then went off David Legwand's butt past Fleury and then Zibanejad made up for his big miss in the first period with a nice pickup of a pass in his skate and tucked it 5 hole on Fleury to give the Senators the lead.
*Anderson didn't have much chance on the goals he did allow, as a deflection right in front of him resulted in the tying goal that was eventually credited to Malkin, and then Ehrhoff's blast from the faceoff dot with no Senators player on that side of the ice had him at the mercy of the Penguins defenseman. Anderson kept the Senators in the game in the first period, with some highlight reel stops on Crosby and Malkin, among others.
* Marc Methot played over 20 minutes in his second game back, and recorded his first point of the season. He played a lot with Erik Karlsson and it looked like it was working until the winning goal where broken coverage made both defensemen look silly because the forwards were out of postion. If you break down that winning goal, yes, all three forwards were on the same side, but when the pass from Crosby found Ehrhoff on the cross-ice feed, Methot has to recognize that breakdown and needed to at least challenge the shooter instead of tying up the guy in front. Karlsson looked silly spinning like a top trying to find someone to cover while Erhoff went unchallenged. It was just a bad goal at the wrong time when it looked like the Senators were going to hang on to get at least a point in a game where they should have been out of it after the first.
* That's not to say that the Senators didn't have chances to put the game away for themselves in the second period. They played a very good frame and despite scoring twice they could and probably should have had 1 or 2 more. In that area they have been their own worst enemy.
* Milan Michalek's best asset has been his speed and his ability to catch up to or pass opposing players. Even while he has struggled offensively in a big way, at least that part of his game was still there. On Saturday, he looked slow all day. Whether it was the afternoon start (no excuse), a nagging injury or something else, he didn't have that extra gear.
* The Senators really missed Mark Stone and the assets he brings to the team. Hopefully he is available for Sunday's game, because there are a lot of candidates to take a seat.
* Also, the healthy scratch, Jared Cowen, has played much better with Cody Ceci than Chris Phillips. Why Cowen gets the pine while Erik Gryba seems to be untouchable in the lineup astounds me. Gryba has been solid, but by no means has he earned the status that he can't sit in a rotation on the blue line now that Methot is back. Cowen would be in my lineup every night with a rotation of Gryba, Borowiecki and Phillips on the third pair.
* It was another case of being in the game with a chance to get point(s) that the Senators came up just a little bit short. Against a team that has been decimated by injuries you would hope for a better result no matter where they are in the standings, and there just doesn't seem to be enough at this point. Some will (and have) pointed fingers almost everywhere, from ownership (for not spending enough) to management (for not spending properly) to coaching (for not deploying their players properly) to the players themselves (for not executing). For me, it is a combination of all of the above and something that is not easily fixed, but they aren't too far off. It is still a young team that will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them in the long run. After Sunday the Sentors are off until Thursday, so in the meantime we can delve a little more into those aspects, because if they lose on Sunday, things are likely to reach a boiling point from the current simmer that is out there.
Now, the Senators are right back at it, when they return home to host the Canucks on Sunday evening.
Vancouver is coming off a big loss in Toronto on Saturday night, so the Senators have about 6 extra hours rest on the Canucks, and hopefully that makes a difference. While I would have expected Eddie Lack to get the start, Ryan Miller was yanked after allowing 4 goals on 14 shots in just 25 minutes, so while Lack could get the call, Willie Desjardins might want to get Miller back in right away. Miller's win-loss record is pretty solid, but in his last 10 games he has 7 games with a sub-.900 SP and allowed 3 or more goals each time. The other 3 games, he either had a shutout (2) or allowed just one goal.
The Canucks have been resurgent, and while a lot of the credit can be attributed to the subtraction of John Tortorella, having a legitimate goaltending combo makes a bid difference as well. The combination of Lack and Jacob Markstrom last year simply wasn't good enough, and although he has had his ups and downs lately, Miller has provided the confidence for the team to succeed. Lack is better suited as a backup.
The other big change for the Canucks has been the Sedins and newcomer Radim Vrbata, who seems to be a perfect fit on the top Vancouver line. They are back to their cycling ways after not fitting in with Torts' game plan last season, and they have been magic.
The Canucks come at you with a dogged 4 line attack, and the Senators need to be ready on every shift because if they take a shift off, it could end up costing them. The third line of Brad Richardson, Linden Vey and Shawn Matthias has been really good of late, but Matthias could miss this game after taking an elbow against the Leafs and missing the rest of the game.
I would expect Cowen to get back into the lineup after watching for two games. Although you could argue the banishment earlier this season was warranted, this one seems like overkill, and him missing a third straight game would be a bit of overkill and unjustified on this blue line.
With Robin Lehner on the IR, Anderson will no doubt get the opportunity to try and snap 2 streaks - the team's 5 game skid and his personal 6 games without a win. The Canucks are playing the 6th game of a massive 7 game road trip, and they have to be getting tired and playing less than 24 hours after a crushing loss to the Leafs, they might be ripe for the picking IF the Senators can get off to a great start and put a couple of quick ones in.