Sens at Land’s End

Seven goals. Two shorties. Several players with multi-point games. A goal from each line. No major defensive woes. A bit of truculence. Steve Downie on his ass. Yep, this was a fun one.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. At last! An offensive breakthrough! I really hope this is the start of a trend and not just some flukey one-time Tampa-induced outburst. No, I don’t expect them to start scoring seven per game, but three or four would be a level to aim for. It would be wonderful to think the offense has started to click.

Manic Michalek! This is what I’m going to be calling Milan Michalek due to his foot speed and his hilarious speed-talking in interviews. Michalek was clearly the star last night. Two shorthanded goals is pretty impressive, and it was exciting to see him get his first NHL hat trick.

All Aboard the A-Train, Part Whatever This Is. Yet another high profile rookie learned the hard way about Anton Volchenkov’s ability to throw a hard bodycheck last night. This time it was Victor Hedman who went down after a big hip check. It seems Volchenkov is on a mission to educate the young ‘uns this year. He’s had a fantastic start to the season.

Alas, Poor Giggles. Jason Spezza, on the other hand, probably hasn’t had the start he’d hoped for. With just three points in six games, he’s currently ninth on the Senators in scoring. Despite that, he’s playing very well. He’s leading the forwards in icetime, and he’s been noticeable doing little things like winning puck battles. Cory Clouston has been using him in all situations and Ray Ferraro singled him out during TSN’s broadcast last night for his “exemplary” effort in the game. Spezza has said he feels he’s starting to click with his linemates, Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo, and his beautiful pass to set up Michalek for the hat trick goal seems to back that up. No doubt Spezza will break through with some points soon — maybe even as soon as Saturday when the Sens play Montreal, a team Spezza has traditionally destroyed.

Is There a Matt Carkner Fan Club? Because I’d Like to Join. How long have Sens fans been waiting for someone to come along and beat the crap out of Steve Downie? Two years. That’s how long. Last night, Matt Carkner did exactly that. Afterwards, Carkner said: “Payback for McAmmond … I hate that little prick.” Music to our ears! Unsurprisingly, Downie went for the eye gouge and kick post-fight, but Carkner prevailed because Downie is a pathetic little boy and Carkner is awesome.

No I in Beatdown. I also saw Carkner standing up in the penalty box and cheering after one of the Sens’ goals. He seems to be a real team player, and his kind of attitude appears to be one Cory Clouston has somehow managed to cultivate on this Senators team. From the Sun:

“The atmosphere is good on this team,” Volchenkov said when asked to explain his early season success. “It feels good. I like playing with this team.”

You can see this positive atmosphere in the way they’re standing up for each other, and in the small stuff like Spezza grabbing the puck as a souvenir after Michalek scored his third goal. I also see it, or think I see it, in how I feel after I watch the games. I come away from Sens games these days feeling that I haven’t really noticed any one forward or forward line standing out (last night Michalek was the obvious exception), but they’ve all generally played well. I think what I mean is best expressed by Spezza’s good play, and by the fact that I was really shocked to discover that Daniel Alfredsson is the team’s leading scorer with seven points right now. His performance hasn’t stood out to me as being particularly strong; in fact, I thought he was having a rather slow start.

Now, this team-wide invisibility could be a horribly negative thing if it meant all the forwards were playing badly, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. They’re just quietly going about the business of, you know, winning a few games. Their philosophy seems to be that there’s no need to be flashy: just get the job done. The Sens are playing a real team game so far, and it definitely feels good to watch.

Toot Toot

If I may belatedly promote myself a bit: I was asked to contribute a short piece on the Sens’ “sore thumb” — that is, the one issue that might be the team’s greatest weakness this season — for Cycle Like the Sedins. No, my answer was not “everything.” See what I came up with here.