Ottawa Senators Lose Heart Breaker In Shootout Against Rival Leafs

The puck drop, scheduled for just after 7 PM, didn’t happen until the end of the Leafs’ 20 minute long opening ceremony. Which was the most exciting 20 minutes Leafs fans will have all year.

Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

GAME RECAP:

The Leafs scored first, 4:21 into the first period. The goal was scored by Mason Raymond, one of the nice surprises for the Leafs this year. The play started with Jared Cowen losing the puck to Dave Bolland behind the Senators’ net. Bolland made a very nice pass to Raymond who just had to tap it in. The Senators evened up the score about 3 minutes later after Turris scored his first goal of the season. The Turris-MacArthur-Conacher line continued to perform well, as Conacher scored, giving the Senators their first lead of the game. They held the lead for the majority of what was left in the period, then the Leafs’ Nazem Kadri tied it back up with only 2 minutes left.

It took a while for the scoring the commence in the second. Almost exactly halfway through the second period, Jared Cowen scored on a confused Reimer, who had no idea where the puck was. The Senators forward line on the ice for the goal? You guessed it. Turris-MacArthur-Conacher. 15 seconds later, Jason Spezza put the Senators ahead by 2. That was the end of the game for Reimer, as Bernier took over off the bench. Joffrey Lupul scored the Leafs’ only goal of the period on the powerplay, with only 16 seconds left on the clock.

The Leafs opened up the scoring in the third period 3 minutes in to tie the game. Again.  I won’t blame the goal on anyone (*cough* Marc Methot *cough*), but this unnamed player played the body when he should have gone for the puck. After the hit, Kessel picked up the loose puck, passing it across to James Van Riemsdyk for the easy 2-on-1 goal.

Overtime was 5 minutes of chances back and forth, but no goals were scored.

Mason Raymond and Tyler Bozak scored the only goals of the shootout to give the Leafs the win.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Kyle Turris had arguably the best game of his career. Scoring a goal and adding two assists to contribute to three of the Senators’ four goals. He’s going to have to continue playing like that if the Senators’ top line can’t contribute to the scoring more often.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS:

• I saw Matt Kassian and Erik Condra on the ice together too often. Way too often.
• Mason Raymond definitely wasn’t this good before. Right??
• While Kyle Turris had one of his best games ever, Erik Karlsson had one of his worst. He couldn’t seem to do anything he wanted to, and even when he did manage to get out of the Senators’ zone, he came close to losing the puck a few times.
• James Reimer had his worst game against the Senators in his career, having gone 8-1-1 all time against the Ottawa Senators.
• This was the first time the Senators lost to the Leafs in Toronto’s home opener, winning the past 5 times they played the Leafs in their first home game.

UP NEXT: 

The Senators’ next game is against the Kings on Wednesday. That game will kick off their 4 game trip out west. The game isn’t the most important, but racking up a lot of points to start the season is never a bad thing.