Sens at Land’s End

I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
Till things are brighter, I’m the man in black

Like my colleagues Senators Lost Cojones and Free Willig have already pointed out, live blogging can take a toll on one’s ability to follow the subtleties of a game, so I’m afraid I don’t have a really detailed commentary on this one. I do know the most important thing that happened, though:

SENS WIN! SENS WIN! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY WE HAVE WON AT LAST!!!!

Wow. That was awesome.

Tell Us Who You’re Wearing, Boys. I wore my lovely red Team Canada hoodie while I watched this one, having decided that it may no longer be possible to consider my lucky earrings lucky. The Sens had a new look too: the new black “Sens” jerseys made their debut. Like everyone else, I’d seen the leaked photos on the internet, but I was curious to see the jerseys in action. Now that I’ve seen them, I can say without hesitation that they are … pretty nice. The black is very flattering, and of course slimming — the team looks sleek and trim out there! (But don’t hockey players want to look bulky?) I really like the way the white names and numbers “pop” on the backs, and the red and white striping around and under the arms is a nice detail, though it looks better from the back. The only flaw is the “SENS” logo on the front. I’ve given it some thought, and I think the issue is that the logo is too wide and not high enough, which leaves a lot of empty space underneath it on the jersey.  It needs some detail to complete the look.

Offensive Explosion! Yes, we’re at the point now with this team where four goals has to be considered a huge night for the offense. Ignoring how sad that fact is … yay! They scored four goals!! (Technically five, given that Nick Foligno’s deflection probably should have counted, but then technically four given that Jarkko Ruutu was all over Steve Valiquette like an alien symbiote when Alfie scored his goal.) I thought two of the goals scored were notably impressive: Jesse Winchester speeding to the Rangers’ end and plowing through a guy! The lovely reverse Heatzza on the first goal! This was definitely a Heatley Moment of Awesomeness worthy of appreciation:

Finnish Frustration. Jarkko Ruutu had to be the player of the game for Ottawa. He was in top form, getting in people’s faces all over the place — especially the faces of Paul Mara and Colton Orr, both of whom seemed likely to flip out and kill him by the end of the game. The Rangers appeared to be totally distracted by Ruutu and his hijinks, and it clearly worked to the Sens’ advantage.

Sorry for the lateness of my postgame post. It’s the last week of school and I’ve had a bit of work to do. Since Saturday’s game, we’ve seen Ilya Zubov sent back to Binghamton. Mike Fisher will be back for tomorrow’s game against Toronto, and Ryan Shannon is awaiting medical clearance to play. Unsurprisingly, Alex Auld will start in goal again.

We’ll also have yet another live blog going, though it seems the blogger turnout may be a bit lower this time. That could mean we’ll be more likely to stay on topic … or not.

And now let me end with a random fact, courtesy of Bethany and the Puck-rakers blog at the Columbus Dispatch:

I don’t think there’s been a game in Nationwide Arena all season without a Senators scout on hand.

Make of this information what you will.