Sens at Land’s End

The first half of this game was extremely entertaining. The Sens managed to trap the Islanders in their own zone for long stretches of time and everything was great. Then the Islanders came back, and it seemed as though it might end up being a wasted opportunity. Luckily, Mike Fisher played hero in overtime and Sens fans everywhere went to sleep happy.

Luck Be a Lady Tonight. Interesting trend in Sens games this season: good luck. Two reviewed goals go in Ottawa’s favour. The refs fail to blow the whistle when the puck hits the mesh, and Peter Regin scores. Is this good karma saved up from the whole Heatley thing? Whatever has caused fate’s fickle finger to point favourably at our heroes, it’d be nice to see it keep up for a while. (Although it’s also possible that the botched goal call had something to do with the almost complete lack of Ottawa power plays last night, which is less great.)

All Aboard the A-Train, Part II. Rookies of the NHL take note: the A-Train changes track for no one. Not even you, John Tavares. Evander Kane is probably feeling a mysterious sense of creeping dread right about now.

Dazzly Pazzy, Part II. Another solid performance from the goaltender. That one save? You know the one. I pressed the little 15-seconds-back button on my remote to watch it again about five times, my jaw hanging wide open all the while.

Long Time Coming. Matt Carkner’s goal was a real bright spot in the game. You can’t help but root for a guy who’s spent the better part of 10 years in the AHL and is now finally, unexpectedly, getting his shot in the big league. Carkner’s total joy after he scored what was his first NHL goal — he must have wondered if this moment would ever come — was infectious. His teammates on the bench were smiling. I was smiling as I watched on TV. Heck, I bet even the Islanders were smiling as the crowd at Scotiabank Place gave Matt Carkner a standing ovation. It was lovely.

Woe! I was happy for Carkner, and happy to see the third line of Jonathan Cheechoo, Chris Neil, and Peter Regin playing a great game. It’s wonderful to get goals from unexpected places. It really is. Nonetheless: I think it would be advisable for the Sens’ top six offensive players to start scoring soon. For example, Mike Fisher obviously knows how to shoot. Maybe he could try doing that before overtime in a future game.

Like maybe Saturday would be a good time for that to happen. I know it’s the Thrashers and we’re used to not taking them seriously, but they’re tied for the league lead in goals per game right now, with an average of five. Five. Granted, they’ve only played two games. Still, that’s impressive and, given that Ottawa is tied for 25th in the league right now with an average of 2.33 goals per game, a bit scary.

Cory Clouston has attempted to address the scoring problem by putting Nick Foligno on the first line with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek, and moving Alfie to Foligno’s old spot on the second line with Alex Kovalev and Mike Fisher. The second line seems like it could work. Alfie brings out the best in Fisher (he does that for everyone except Leafs fans, actually) and he might be a good intermediary between Kovalev’s fanciness and Fisher’s … non-fanciness. I’m not convinced by the first line, but Spezza and Michalek seem like they might be developing chemistry.

If the big guns don’t start producing then, well, Chris Neil may just beat them up. Awesome! I think Darren over at Silver Seven summed it up best: “Good to see the team playing with intensity at practice, bad to see Chris Neil ready to punch the team’s top centre in the face.”