I'll give the Senators a lot of credit for being pesky and scoring four goals for the first time in a long time, but giving up five (a couple of which were soft) I blame on the system breaking down and Bishop missing a couple of them. Not a great game at all defensively, but the offense showed up so I hope that can continue.
.....and I hope Dziurzynski is okay. That was ugly.
very good game for the Sens...i knew it wasn't going to be an "easy game" and was rather surprised when the Leafs were up by 3...i was less surprised by the ending (close game), as that is more how i imagined it would be (hoping the Leafs would be on the winning side, of course).
Less than 30 seconds into the game, Dziurzynski gets his bell rung by Frazer McLaren (well out of his weight class) and needs help off the ice. I fully expect he's done for the night, at least.
Alright, so what I've heard (but I'm at least the 4th degree of separation on this, so grain of salt, etc.) is that Dziurzynski and McLaren knew each other outside of hockey, and there was bad blood between them from a few years ago.
Though McLaren said it was to get the Leafs going:
quote:“We had a flat start last game. I was just trying to get us going early,” McLaren said of the reason for the fight. “I asked [Dziurzynski if he wanted to fight] and actually he said no and so I didn’t think we were going to go and then he ended up dropping his stuff when the puck dropped. He’s a big guy and he actually gave me a few good ones early there. It was a lucky punch. It happens sometimes.
yea, this clip shows the slo-mo replay...just happened to hit the jaw and torque the head...get hit like that, you're going down, i don't care who you are.
Not a great play by Lehner on the Thornton goal. Not horrible, but I think he should have had that one. Still, the game is 60 minutes long, not just the moments when the good guys score.
It was an unfortunately collision between two players who were had been changing directions because of the play around them. They are *very* good friends and still train together in the off-season -- Neil would never put a dirty hit on Kelly, no matter how pissed off he might be about the hit he took from McQuade earlier in the game. Even Kypreos and MacLean basically agreed that it was a bad situation but it wasn't a fine/suspendable situation.
Ian Mendes, Ken Warren and others have noted that Neil and Kelly were texting each other last night, and both feel the hit was accidental while they were trying to avoid each other (and they really should have just hit full-on). They are very close friends off the ice, and Kelly still lives in Ottawa in the off season (his first stop on his day with the Cup was CHEO).
The shootout is supposed to be a "spectacle" where players try to score. Which is more exciting: a straight in and try for the top corner, or K-Dawg's move? Yeah, it didn't work this time, but it has before, and there are lots of 'regular shots' that don't work either. If he had scored, there would be no derision for it and everyone would be proclaiming that it was one of the most amazing ever while others would decry it for "taking away from the purity of the game". Newsflash: shootouts take away from the purity of the game. Damned if it worked, damned if it didn't. I have no problem with it at all, and neither did the Paulrus.
Two important wins this weekend, and 6 of 8 points on the week. They certainly can't let off the gas, but it's nice to have some breathing room on the teams behind the Sens.
It's also great to see Silfverberg, Turris and Z-bad scoring, to say nothing of Wiercioch, Gonchar and Phillips chipping in too. I was happy to see Lehner finally get some W rather than OTL/SOL points. Latendresse is contributing too, which is perhaps the biggest surprise of all.
I forgot to mention Eric Gryba. He's another wasn't-supposed-to-be-on-the-big-team-this-year guy who's making a very strong case for himself.
Cowan, Karlsson, Wiercioch, Gryba, Borowiecki, and Phillips. And Ceci to come. I'm really looking forward to what this blue line is going to look like in the next few years.
Michalek opted for surgery, he's now out indefinitely.
Google tells me there is a big spread on arthroscopic surgery recovery time, so he could be back in a few weeks, or out through part of next season depending on a number of factors.
That's a good decision, rather that trying to play and still having to get the surgery after the season is over. They were talking about it on the radio this morning and Yorkie, who's had a couple of the proceedures that 9MM will be getting done said it's the best decision and he'll feel much better afterwards with a good chance he'll play again this season because he's in such good shape with, in JY's words, "tree trunks for legs".
Sens signed Sdao the other day and he's now in Bingo on an ATO; another big blueline prospect to have a look at.
Methot left the game and didn't return; a lot of speculation on Twitter but I've yet to see anything concrete other than "lower body injury". Like we need another blueliner out of the game.
Lundin isn't another Methot, and against the Bruins I don't really like the idea of him, back for his 1st game after a concussion, trying to play a lot of minutes against a very physical team.
