Sens at Land's End

Oh, curling. I enjoy watching curling at certain times. Interestingly, those certain times do not include times when the Sens game is supposed to be on my TV and the online stream of the game isn’t working. I hate the CBC.

Once the game did start up, we found that Chris Neil (as expected) and Alexandre Picard had returned to the Sens’ lineup. Christoph Schubert was a healthy scratch while Dean McAmmond is apparently still sick. The Sens came out with a very solid effort today, outshooting Pittsburgh 31-19 overall. The last two minutes or so were incredibly stressful as the Penguins were all over the place in Ottawa’s end trying for the tying goal, but it all worked out in the end. I thought the Sens looked strong in pretty much every aspect of the game, a couple of players in particular.

Hats for Giggles! Jason Spezza scored his second career hat trick today with three nice goals. On the first, he managed to get Penguins goalie Dany Sabourin to come completely out of his net before scoring on a wraparound. The second came off a very nice behind the net feed from Daniel Alfredsson. The third was a bit flukey: Spezza, standing behind the net, put the puck off Kris Letang’s skate and the back of Sabourin’s pad, into the net. After the game, Spezza said: “That was a pass with a good bounce … Heater was actually open in front, so it woulda went either way.” Despite the dubious grammar, I thought that was a good line. Spezza also took a massive hit from Brooks Orpik in the second period which saw him end up horizontal against the boards, his chest hitting the side of the first pane of glass after the players’ bench. I don’t know what that thing is called, but I’m sure glad it’s padded. The hit didn’t seem to faze Spezza, though: he got up afterwards with a big smile on his face.

Captain Awesome. Alfie had an excellent game today. He just seemed to be everywhere and doing all the little things that make him Alfie especially well. At one point he was surrounded by four Penguins in their zone, unable to touch the puck because it had been hit with a high stick, but he protected the puck with his body as it rolled towards the goal, not letting any of the Pens touch it, and Sabourin eventually had to freeze it for a faceoff. In the second period, he blocked a shot with his leg and appeared to be injured: he went off the ice without putting any weight on the leg and had to have two people help him to the dressing room. I started to panic, but he was back within a few minutes to set up Spezza for goal #2. It should also be noted that the blocked shot led directly to Spezza’s first goal. He got a big cheer from the crowd at Scotiabank Place for a diving play he made to bat a puck away from the Penguins with his hand (he was without a stick at the time), and again later when he walked up to Evgeni Malkin and took the puck away from him before Malkin even knew what was happening. Oh sure, these fancy young Penguins are pretty good. But Alfie is a wily veteran.

The Bell Tolls For Thee. Big whoopsy by Brendan Bell on a Sens power play in the third period. He turned the puck over at the Sens’ blueline and then really took his time getting back into the play as the Penguins went in on a two-on-one. Bell failed to catch up to Malkin, and Malkin scored a shorthanded goal. Not very impressive for a guy who’s trying to stick with the big team.

Crosby Moment. First, I don’t know if it’s the Sens and their now quite thick moustaches contributing to this, but I found I couldn’t see Crosby’s face today without thinking about his delightful playoff beard from last season. No matter how hard I tried. Second, Sidney, I wish you would mind your temper. Going all Bob Clarke on Heatley’s leg? Not appropriate. We need that leg, Sid. We really, really need it.

Next up: Jacques Martin’s Florida Panthers visit Ottawa for a 7:30 matchup (4:30 if you live far, far away) on Monday and we all consider how Jay Bouwmeester might fit in on the Ottawa blueline.