One team has a great big question mark in net, lost its top two offensive defensemen in the offseason leaving them with no obvious option on the point for the powerplay and is rumored to be a part of virtually every potential trade right now. The other team is the Pittsburgh Penguins.
This was a matchup of mirror images. The Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins both lack reliable options on defense. Pitt was decimated by injuries to their D-men and Ottawa by defections and unfavorable trades to shed salary. The Pens have a netminder in Marc Andre Fleury that has intermittently been both brilliant and awful. The Senators have the tandem of Martin Gerber and Alex Auld, who between them have played their way out of more starting jobs then the Senators have playoff series (oooo burn).
SO... with that backdrop, thoughts from the second game of the NHL season, coming at you live from Sweden (the game, not me):
- Why are these teams in Sweden anyway? Why not the Red Wings who are like 80% Swedish? OK... so lets start naming the Swedish players in this game... Alfredsson...and...uh....
- Its still unclear what the Pens plan to replace Gonchar and Whitney on the point is (though Scuderi had an even strength goal). The Senators, however, seem to be going with Filip Kuba. Kuba failed to impress in this role last year on the Lightning, when Dan Boyle was injured, but had two assists for the Senators.
- The Sens were defensively impressive when they had to be in the third period, allowing only five shots. Gerber was not equal to the task however and allowed 4 goals on 30 shots. Ouch.It wasn't like they were fantastic goals either. With the exception of Malkin's which he literally scored FROM HIS ASS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-e_3K7KSME , all of the goals were scored from odd angles and seemed to go through Gerber. Not a good sign.
- From the "I've got a bad feeling about this" category: The Defensive pairing of Alexandre Picard and Brian Lee was atrocious, accounting for two of the Pens goals. Alfredsson was a -3, being on ice for EACH of the Penguins 3 even strength goals. If you believe in bad signs this could certainly be taken as one for Sensei Swede. Alfie had more ice time then any Senator besides Martin Gerber and Filip Kuba (who played nearly 30 minutes). This may be a simple case of the Captain trying to do too much.
- Fleury actually wasn't that bad. 3 goals to this Ottawa team is almost expected (particularly when one was scored by a guy named Heatley and another by a pretty talented guy named Spezza). What I would be concerned about is that the Pens defense looks about as bad as I thought it would look. Spezza is going to score every time you let him walk in shorthanded like that, and Fleury can't be called upon to face 35 shots a night and not expect him to start breaking down. There's no Ty Conklin safety in net this season, Pitt has to protect M.A. or else face the consequences.
- I wouldn't make too much of Tyler Kennedy's two goals. Let someone else make that panic trigger pull. Satan did show some nice chemistry with Sid the Kid though.
All in all I don't think we learned much that we didn't already know from this game. Gerber is not the answer between the pipes (nor is Auld for that matter) for Ottawa. Both team's D is sloppy (a short handed goal a piece on opening night tells you that) but their offense will keep them in most games.
I think that while many writers are tentative to underrate Ottawa after so many years of "Being surprised" that they were a playoff team this Ottawa squad has finally lost all of the things that made the other ones so successful. One line does not a playoff team make. Pittsburgh looks deep. Three lines deep, and that's without Sykora. If Staal continues this strong play they might just survive until they can get Gonchar and Whitney back.
We'll do this again tomorrow. See you then.
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