Down one of their best players, the Sens looked a little out of sorts the first few shifts of the hockey game.
After a sloppy start, the visitors started to roll in a big way. First it was Chris Neil walking out front untouched to give Ottawa a lead. Nick Foligno went coast to coast and set up Bobby Butler to put the Sens up by a couple. Spezza scored one of his best in a Sens uniform early in the second and then Milan Michalek tallied on the power play, his 21st, to put Ottawa up by four.
With a substantial lead, the Senators took their foot off the gas a little bit. Evgeni Malkin capitalized on a turnover and cut the lead to three. The Pens carried the play for the rest of the second but Anderson made some big stops to keep the lead at three heading into the final frame.
The Ottawa Senators haven't had a ton of experience playing with a lead in the third period but I was impressed with the effort the team put in tonight. Granted this was a shorthanded Penguins squad but MacLean's group did an excellent job limiting opposition chances in the final period and didn't give the Pens a chance to play their way back into the hockey game.
With the win, the Senators now have 52 points of the season and hold on to 5th spot in the East. Next up is a real tough test in the form of the New York Rangers, the top team in the Eastern Conference in a battle of two of the hottest teams in the NHL
- Solid offensive night for a handful of guys. Two goal night for Michalek including his 22nd of the season. One goal, one assist for Spezza giving him 44 points on the season, two assist night for Nick Foligno and a three helper night for Colin Greening.
- On a night where scoreboard shows Sens domination, really liked the game of Craig Anderson. Andy stopped 29 of 30 and made a handful of big stops to ensure this Penguins team didn't gain any momentum
- Always interesting to see how a coach manages ice time in a game like this. Jason Spezza played just 15:37, which ranked him 6th among Ottawa forwards. With a lengthy road trip coming up, MacLean will want to make sure he manages the ice time of his stars as best he can.
highlights for me:
1. slick rush by foligno and sweet finish by butler. well deserved.
2. sweet goal by spezza
3. some games you get some breaks, some games you dont-i think it was the former for the sens today with michalek's 21st. im sure he doesnt care and neither do we lol
4. pens tried to bully the sens after going down 4-0, but good on ottawa to play it smart with good mix of physicality and drawing of penguins penalties. good on carkner to give it to cooke and i thought gonchar had an extra physical oomph to his game too and took shots whenever he could.
overall, this team has gelled and wants to win badly to a man.
lastly nice game by anderson.
Really looks like the sens have 3 lines that can contribute offensively for the remainder of the season.
The Pens have alot of injuries but all the more reason to stomp on their throats.
i love our coach as much as he loves his mustache.
Thought the team played a near perfect road game tonight. Got up early, took the crowd out of it and aside from a few moments late in the 2nd didn't let them back in it.
I was impressed by the Sens discipline tonight in only giving the Pens one PP, although I have to admit as much as I feel the refs have screwed us some nights, we got a few breaks tonight.
Nevertheless, great effort heading into a big test Thurs in New York.
Solid news judgement.
it would have been better if the buffaslugs mustered up a win. buffalo was probably the most overhyped team from the offseason with all those acquisitions, what a bust lol
Great to see Butler and Foligno get together again, it really does give 3 full lines that can be rolled out there against most.
Bring on the Rangers, they will be the true test! GO SENS GO!
Looking forward to Thursdays game against NYR! Should be a great battle!
however, there is already nice news filtering through: Halak shuts out the canadiens.
He always finds ways to make them play better as a team.
His line combinations are the same for past 10 or so games, which has built strong chemistry within this group.
Next challenge is Thursday vs the Rangers, and Lundquist in goal.
Let's hope they get a fast start, and pull away with an early lead, and put pressure on the Rangers, who could make mistakes and / or cost turnovers !
I believe we can beat the NYR.
Great game tonight. The top line really stepped up with 7 points! That's one thing that's great about the team right now. Different lines are firing on different nights, and coming through as a team.
KJ
Can't forget how many injuries Buffalo has had though. If they can get healthy I could see them making a nice 2nd half run.
Craig Anderson is a huge part to our success this season. Without him, we wouldn't be a playoff bound team.
GO SENS GO
Hemsky would make a great replacement for Alfie when he retires. Besides who wants to play in Edmonton.
Michalek Spezza Hemsky
Greening Turris Alfie
Foligno Smith Condra
Butler Konopka Neil
Daugavins Winchester
Karlsson Kuba
Gonchar Cowen
Philips Whitney
Carkner
Anderson
Nabokov
You can't be serious?? Hemsky is a soft and injury prone. Whitney is also always injured and we have better D prospects than him. And why would we trade away our future #1 goaltender?? Also Kuba will not be resigned, Gonchar may very well get traded come trade deadline and guys like Konopka and Winchester will not be resigned.
wtf lol.....are you an oilers fan trolling here on senschirp haha?leaving out the obvious idiocity in trading for hemsky and whitney......YO U WANT TO TRADE LEHNER? wtf lol
FAIL TRADE. wow.
2 Boston 39 27 11 1 55 146 76 15-7-1 12-4-0 8-2-0 Won 1
3 Florida 42 21 13 8 50 109 116 11-4-5 10-9-3 4-4-2 Won 1
4 Philadelphia 41 25 12 4 54 139 122 10-6-2 15-6-2 5-4-1 Won 1
5 Ottawa 44 23 15 6 52 140 144 14-8-1 9-7-5 7-1-2 Won 2
6 Toronto 42 22 15 5 49 135 131 12-5-4 10-10-1 6-2-2 Won 4
7 New Jersey 41 23 16 2 48 114 117 11-7-1 12-9-1 6-3-1 Won 2
8 Pittsburgh 41 21 16 4 46 124 111 11-7-2 10-9-2 4-6-0 Lost 5
nuff said
65K must have taken some Alfie strength Advil to come back next game!!
GO FUCKING SENS GO!
PS - Peluso...can you 'wipe' that smirk off Cooke's face?
Lol, my security code is vgnaa! Priceless
E
There were a ton of what if's coming into this year. usually the more what if's you add the lower your odds of success.
Tell me Melnyk isnt loving this rebuild. He's probably sitting there saying, "let me get this straight, we get rid of our vets, drastically reduce payroll and expenses, win more and increase revenue with sell outs and playoffs? uhhhh...I'm not sure understand this business model"
I fully expect Philly to lock up that 4th spot in the end and for the Devils to go on a little run here. I think we'll finish 7th or 8th. I just hope we dont get the Bruins first round cuz we'd get swept
Pray for the 6th seed and a matchup with Florida/Washing ton
to play, we are on track for another 45 points, giving us a
final 97 points.
If we increase the ratio of wins, we could break the 100 point plateau, and finish somewhere in top 5.
I have a feeling that this team, can achieve much more than
we all thought at start of the season !
Hoping for a First Round Matchup with Maple Leafs !!!!
Agreed. Not to mention the fact that when Karlsson is playing he's out there for half the game. Really lightens the load on some of the other guys having EK to eat up huge minutes.
With that said, the guys that did play did a good job of holding down the fort last night.
With that said, the guys that did play did a good job of holding down the fort last night.
Ya, our D stepped up last night. We caught a break on the Neil goal and from there we started playing our game again. The first 5 minutes of the game were really ugly for the Sens. Let's hope we can start games better. Thursday should be a great tilt. I hope we beat those Rags
Spezza is so friggin good. What a beauty goal.
And I feel like no one is talking about this, but Alfie is on pace for 71 points. 70+ at 39...unbelievab le
Yeah that would explain Bert's Bar 2000sqf extension!!
No but seriously, seems we cant do nothing wrong, even when we do, something good happens out of it, lol!!
Loving it!
Spoke with Sens GM Bryan Murray this a.m., says if his team can continue what it's doing, he'll be looking to add come the trade deadline
Real_ESPNLeBrun Pierre LeBrun
But Murray says that this is a tough month for his team, lots of hockey to be played... Murray also lauded work of head coach Paul MacLean
Real_ESPNLeBrun Pierre LeBrun
Overall, Murray was clear in saying the overall plan hasn't changed, this is still about the Sens building a foundation through its youth
just read that, i hope that he means he wants to add youth through trades and no vet additions.
You know we are all waiting to see how we do the last half of the season but if we play like we are and better, the cup is not out of the realm of possibility this year, anything can happen in playoffs.
Would that not rock the hockey world for underdogs like us to take it all.
@ Rizzo,
I really thought that this would be Alfredsson's last year as a Senator.
Seemed slower and out of energy a lot quicker, but since he had surgery, and somehow worked out a lot, he is not showing his 39 years, but looks like a rejuvenated 30 year old. He just might be the next Mark Recchi !!!
Since the Kyle Turris trade, the Ottawa Senators are 8-1-2. Turris has eight points in 11 games with Sens.
1. mtl - because it does not look good losing to a team far shittier than the sens
2. wpg - well because sens have owned them this year and we should keep on doing that
3. leafs - because they are the leafs
4. nyr - because I think they won the game in ottawa cheaply and it would be a nice statement to beat the conference leader.
sens have to beat the leafs for sure because of they have games in hand and only 3 points back.
It would be so cool, but overtaking Boston is going to be tough.
but who knows....one thing I am learning is that its just a big mistake to doubt this sens team's resolve and ability. it would defintiely take 4 straight wins against the bruins.
It would be so cool, but overtaking Boston is going to be tough.
@ hq,
Agree with you re Bruins .
Should we continue on winning more than losing, we meet the Big Bad Bruins on Jan 31st , and in their house.
To beat them, would be telling us, they are ready to take a run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs !!
GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!
@ hq,
Agree with you re Bruins .
Should we continue on winning more than losing, we meet the Big Bad Bruins on Jan 31st , and in their house.
To beat them, would be telling us, they are ready to take a run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs !!
GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!
Boston has 3 points on us and 5 games in hand. Would be tough to catch them, but by no means impossible.
Just ignore the TO media. Why do we continue to waste our time as Sens fans worrying about what the "centre of the universe" thinks of our team. The media in TO is comical. Now "the monster" is the greatest goalie in the world and is the second coming of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur and Ken Dryden all rolled into one and Lupul and Kessel remind them of Gretzky and Kurri. In reality the power rankings mean squat.
One game at a time, just like Coach MacLean keeps saying. Let's enjoy this team for what it is. They are exactly what we have been waiting for, but probably a bit quicker than anyone expected. A hard working, honest hoackey team.
You are undoubtedly right. Doesn't mean I can't be irritated at them. Which I am.
BUT it is not out of the realm of possible.
Also an addition or so going into playoffs could also be a game changer, too early to tell.
Also there are guys in Bingo that could contribute we have not seen yet, Lehner and others.
Good question ??
After seeing Foligno going in on goal, I thought for sure
that Foligno would use Butler as a decoy, and shoot on Fleury, or was it still Johnson??
He then slid a perfect pass to Butler, who shot fast and scored. Really impressed by Foligno's quick decision to pass in lieu of shooting. Butler is a real sniper !!
This was the sort of situation that I believe Clouston would have struggled with, clearly Maclean's communication skills are better than that of Clouston - although that isn't saying much, so were Helen Keller's.
Butler continued to work hard, knew what his limited role in the team was and is now being rewarded - he's a confidence player and it's showing. I still don't believe he is where he was last year, of course he was playing with better line mates last season, but there has been a marked improvement in his play the past couple of weeks.
It's good to see.
Hey Tooks,
glad you are so happy... but you do remember our bet last summer, before the season started, regarding this team making the playoffs...right?
Or shall I remind you what you will do if they make the playoffs?
It is still very early but if this continues, you will lose the bet, and I do trust you are a man or your word.
Interesting.
Just wondering though, what were there be to add? The team is playing great and has good chemistry.
The last thing I want is to compromise draft picks for a Cup Run.
We all know how good this year's draft is going to be.
Really don't want to see any more top 2 round picks traded away.
What was the bet?
Just no 1st or 2nd round picks traded away please. This is still a rebuild.
It was pratically an open net, NHL'ers dont miss that, its not like Butler had to make a super nice shot to score...I dont think Butler gets going in any direction, I think he stays at his mediocre pace since he wont be getting much top 6 minutes.
I really like that description - " a hard working, honest hockey team"
I'll change my name to whatever you want for how many days you want.
Loving the chemistry I see on the ice as well as the comradery. It seems everyone is in tune and it's exciting to watch.
Keep up the good work Sens and keep winning the divisional games. Cheers
- Turris has made a huge difference on this team
- Greening showed he can be creative too
- Anderson is playing well enough for us to win most nights
- finally we have secondary scoring
- for a change the refs didn't hurt us
- Phillips almost did it again
- I like watching Carkner calm things down in front of the net, he makes a bigger difference than most realize
- good team effort from everyone
Trade Lehner? Are you serious? Who tends goal after Anderson is gone. Have you seen Nabocov play this season? Not exactly stellar. NO TEAM will trade for Regin with his constant shoulder injuries.
Stand pat Murray.. DO NOTHING ELSE.
Atta boy, Glad you remember, it was:
whomever loses the friendly changes their name to
"I know nothing about hockey" for the next season.
I will be honest, they are even doing better right now than I had hoped, but there were so many negative nancies at the time, I had to stand up for my belief, and very glad to see them where they are now.
And now all those naysayers are now now back on the wagon,
at least you hold true to your convictions and admit and still think they may not make the playoffs, many others are now forgetting that they too were with you on the not make the playoffs for a few years.
Tookie you were not the only one to say that they were not making the playoffs, but all those others have faded away.
Although it is still early and anything can happen, at least we get to enjoy some very entertaining hockey!
Your not the only fan to have been thinking about this lately, but I think your the first (on this forum to say it). This team has no business competing for a cup this year, but the way we have been winning games and rolling mulit-threat lines, you can't help but let your brain wander a bit.