BREAKING: The Ottawa Senators have loaned 19 year old forward Curtis Lazar to Team Canada for the upcoming World Juniors.
Wednesday's Ottawa Senators win can be summed up in two words: Craig Anderson.
Anderson made 34 saves for his 3rd shutout of the season and continued his personal mastery of the Devils in Ottawa's 2-0 win. While Anderson was stellar, the team in front of him didn't show a ton of offensive push, managing just 16 shots and 25 attempts in the game.
What they did get was a monkey off the back of Kyle Turris and a power play goal. The Senators came in struggling on the man advantage and Turris hadn't scored in 10 games before he tipped in Erik Karlsson's wrister from the point to give the Senators a lead and provide Anderson with enough goal support on this night. Turris wrapped it up with his second of the night, a tap in after Clarke MacArthur hustled to beat an icing call and feed it out front to his centre.
HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
* The biggest difference between this season and last - On nights like this one, despite Anderson's stellar play he would often find a way to let one in and let a performance like that slip away with a bad goal at an inopportune time. That is why the Senators are at least still in the playoff race.
* For those expecting a big impact from Jean-Gabriel Pageau, you were probably a little disappointed. Although he did nothing to hurt the team, he had a pretty pedestrian 10:30, was 0 for 4 on the face-off with a missed shot, a blocked shot and a hit. He was solid on the PK, playing almost 3 minutes with the Senators a man down.
* Not that Pageau was alone in underwhelming performances, because you would be hard pressed to point out anyone aside from Anderson who had a stellar game. When Eric Gryba leads your team in shot attempts (4), you know you haven't had a great night and were probably lucky to escape Newark with a win.
DECISION DAY FOR LAZAR
Today is the day that the Senators will sit down with Curtis Lazar and determine whether or not they will loan him to Team Canada for the World Junior championships. While those of you who read this space regularly probably know my opinion on it, I will refresh your memory.
Sending Lazar would cause him to miss 7 games for the Senators, and he will be a leader for team Canada, and win or lose the pressure that he would face in playing the tournament on home ice can only do good things for his development long-term. He was part of the team the came home empty-handed last season and although he is publicly torn and is willing to do whatever the Senators decide, you have to think that once he gets there, the desire to make amends for last year's disappointment will take over.
Without a doubt I would send him, and the fact that he played less than 20 minutes combined in the last 2 games (and just 8:30 against the Devils) makes me think that the Senators will lean towards loaning him to Hockey Canada.
ANDREW HAMMOND'S VERY BAD NIGHT
Andrew Hammond would like to erase last night's start for the Binghamton Senators from the memory banks. Hammond got the start against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and he was on the bench 36 seconds later. The Phantoms scored 3 times on 3 shots in 36 seconds to force the very early exit. The three goals actually came in a span of 21 seconds and it is quite amazing that it isn't an AHL record.
Binghamton outscored the Phantoms 3-2 over the next 59:24, but couldn't overcome the early deep hole and lost 5-3.
Ottawa is back in action Friday night when they host the Anaheim Ducks, currently the top team in the West (at least by points). The Ducks will be in the second half of back to backs, having played the Habs in Montreal tonight.