Sens at Land's End

Yay, first points of the season! I think we can view this game as a small step forward. It wasn’t a great performance but it wasn’t horrible either and, in the end, it was two points Ottawa got and a divisional opponent didn’t.

All Aboard the A-Train! Everybody knows the story with the Leafs this year: it’s a series of 10 cent words that mean they like violence. Despite that, the Sens were the ones wreaking a bit of havoc in last night’s game. Anton Volchenkov took out Viktor Stalberg with a massive hit in the first period, and I thought Volchenkov and Mike Fisher were pretty big with the bang and crash throughout the game.

Sheantastic. I like Shean Donovan. I wish he got to play more. That is all.

He Doesn’t Really Shoot or Score. As nice as it was to see Donovan get that goal after the Sens caused chaos in the Leafs’ crease, it’s got to be a cause for concern when the fourth line is the only one generating offense. Other than Milan Michalek’s aborted breakaway that led to the Daniel Alfredsson penalty shot (and to Michalek needing some dental work courtesy of Luke Schenn’s stick), I can’t remember Ottawa having many dangerous looking scoring chances. I’d be hard pressed to tell you anything really notable that most of the forwards did during the game, although I did notice the line of Nick Foligno, Mike Fisher, and Alex Kovalev doing some good defensive work in the third period. Kovalev had a nice presence, I thought: he looked steady and calm with the puck.

Dazzly Pazzy. It’s hard for me to trust a goalie. I’ve been hurt, you know. That’s why I’m starting slowly with our Monsieur Leclaire. I don’t want to say anything too positive because it’s only been two games and you never know: he could fall apart — literally or figuratively — at any moment. However, I will say that so far, he looks strong out there. He doesn’t at all make me want to hide under my covers until the puck is out of the Ottawa zone. And I call that progress.

You Can Do Eet! (That’s supposed to be a reference to The Waterboy. I shouldn’t love old Adam Sandler movies so much, but I can’t help myself.) Pierre McGuire offered what I thought was an interesting tidbit from his position between the benches during TSN’s broadcast last night. He said he could hear all the Sens players encouraging each other, and it was “fun to listen to.” The fact that he bothered to point it out made me think this was something beyond the norm. Can it be that there’s a positive atmosphere within the team? I don’t know, but I’d also say Alfie looked pretty darn happy during his second intermission interview, and Alex Kovalev had some very nice things to say about Alfie in particular and the general level of communication between players on the team in his blog for RDS’s website. (Thanks to Battle of Ontario for pointing it out.) We can only hope this apparent positivity will lead to good things on the ice.

Ottawa’s next game is their home opener, Thursday, vs. the New York Islanders. Practice update via Sportsnet’s Ian Mendes: Jason Spezza sat out today but won’t miss a game. Filip Kuba and Ryan Shannon will not play against the Islanders. Jesse Winchester was on the ice today. Pascal Leclaire will probably start tomorrow night.