Ottawa Senators: Flourishing In The Florida Sunshine

If you didn’t have Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ playing in your head last night, you need to reassess your priorities.

Hoffman and Stone were the particular boys who were back in the Senators lineup. Rejuvenating the stagnant squad, after the somewhat upsetting result in Carolina.

It was a physical game, a rare sign of emotion from the Panthers and the half-filled BB & T centre. I think Canadian fan bases in particular disdain at any empty seats in the NHL, after all, it is the world’s best hockey league.

Shawn Thornton in particular accumulating 24 penalty minutes as he looked to fight anyone and everyone.

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Zack Smith got the Senators up and running with a juicy rebound offered up by James Reimer as he tucked it away after Karlsson went on a spree to score himself. Even more impressive was that this goal was shorthanded. Six minutes and twenty-eight seconds into the first frame and the Sens looked good but not overwhelming.

The Panthers had clearly watched the tape from Ottawa’s drubbing in Carolina, and they too were quick out of the blocks. I was going to say they were lightning, but that wouldn’t be fair to the Panthers faithful.

Interestingly, Karlsson’s ice time was down to 21:30 last night, significantly lower than his 26:53 average.  Phaneuf and Ceci playing the majority of the game, 28:02 and 27:01 respectively. Fascinating to see that the Senators don’t need to over milk their prize cow so to speak, and still get the job done. That has to be encouraging for the other members of the defense too, knowing that it isn’t just the Erik Karlsson show.

The Senators slotted the winning goal, nine minutes fifty-eight seconds into the second, after Hoffman fed Kyle Turris and he stuck the puck top shelf over the despairing Reimer’s glove.

Fairly even in the shot counts 38-33 in favour of the Florida Panthers, Craig Anderson having yet another spine-tingling night in net. A save percentage of .974 it’s save to say that he single-handedly kept the Sens in the game.

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Final Thoughts

Tampa Bay is next up tonight for the Sens, who after last night’s shock trade are without goaltender Ben Bishop. Once again, they are picking up wins where they shouldn’t, which can only mean they will lose when expected to win. The Amalie Arena awaits the Sens who can hopefully return home with a better win percentage than .500.