That was fun.
Any time you can territorially dominate a team on the second-leg of a back-to-back, it's an impressive feat. We have a decade of data that suggests it's something that's rarely accomplished in today's National Hockey League.
Ottawa did that tonight against Carolina, though they had to earn the victory the hard way in the shootout. Full marks to Cam Ward to get Carolina through the sixty-five minutes level. Ottawa was buzzing in his crease basically through the entire game, but Ward stood tall.
Paul MacLean's best line tonight was the newly assembled trio of Ales Hemsky, Mika Zibanejad, and Milan Michalek. Though Michalek had a strong game in his own right, I thought he was the beneficiary of some otherworldly play by his linemates. Hemsky was an absolute wizard, per the usual, in the offensive zone. On a couple of occasions I think he got a little too pass-happy and should've fired, but it was amazing to see how many scoring chances he was individually creating. His goal in the shootout would prove to be the game-winner.
And, he might have been the second best forward on the line. Mika Zibanejad skated to a 70% Corsi% at evens, just dominating the neutral and offensive zone in his own right. Playing in lieu of the injured Jason Spezza (lower-back), I thought Mika had his best game of the season. Another redirect goal for the kid, too, getting Ottawa's only score during the normal run of play.
On the back-end, sort of a weird one for the club. I mean, good in the sense that if you've been carrying Patrick Wiercioch's water for most of the season like myself, you looked sort of vindicated here. Wiercioch was Ottawa's best defenseman tonight, even picking up some rare penalty-kill minutes with Jared Cowen out of action.
As has been the case since about November or so, Wiercioch looks strong in all three phases of the zone. And, I reiterate that if anything else, it's Wiercioch's offensive game that's basically sagging a bit to expectations -- I think his play in the defensive third is above what most people expected at this point, and obviously superior to that of Jared Cowen's or Chris Phillips'. I'm not even sure it's close at this point.
The odd thing is, like I said, Wiercioch was Ottawa's best defenseman. How many times since the beginning of the 2011-2012 season can you talk about that subject and not note Erik Karlsson? Even on his worst days, he's usually still the best this team has to offer by a wide margin.
Well, not today. His game was off. Generally speaking, I give guys a pass who dominate play with regularity, because no one's perfect and everyone's going to have a bad day at the office. I think everyone noticed something was off with Karlsson today, including Paul MacLean.
What's interesting is whether or not it's related to his comments last week, where he told a Swedish publication that he still "doesn't feel right" and, to paraphrase, feels exhausted by the rigors of the season (and, I guess by extension, the grueling minutes he's logged).
Anyways, awesome win, very few complaints from me as the team picked up a victory they definitely deserved. And, on a back-to-back, that deserves a lot of credit.
Thanks for reading!