Ugly Game, Better Effort

So I did watch most of the Philadelphia game last night. It featured a better defensive effort from the Senators. Funny how your goalie does a much better job of stopping pucks when he isn't constantly hung out to dry. Elliot still managed to come up with some mega saves at the end when the Flyers were pressing.

The high point: that 2-minute 5-on-3 kill. That was... amazing.

The low point(s): the officiating was incredibly creative inconsistent bad. The first power play to Ottawa shouldn't have been called. It became clear that the on-ice officials were taking it to Philadelphia for some reason. For once Ottawa was the beneficiary, although at the end of the third there were some boarding and elbowing incidents that might have been made against the Flyers but were for some reason not worthy of being called.

Although I will say... "Instigating to the visor." Love it. Handing out a 10-5-2 with the extra five... love it. Too bad that the Senators could not capitalize on the resulting seven minute power play opportunity.

Interesting: the Flyer penalty-kill was mega. They managed to keep the Senators from getting sorted at all in the offensive zone. Five-on-five they were not so good, and I never felt that the Flyers were legitimately in with a quality chance to win. Between the effort shown and the officiating, this game was always Ottawa's to lose.

About Volchenkov's "save". I agree that it was in -- while it isn't clear from the overhead, there is enough evidence from the long-angle shot that the puck was over the line before Volchenkov batted it out. The Senators dodged a bullet with that one, although Toronto took, what, 10 minutes to sort it out? Because of that, the PVR didn't pick up the end of the game for me, although I did get to see the call. Basically even though the puck was in, I think Toronto made the right call. The evidence wasn't irrefutable, and there was no on-ice "no-goal" call to overturn. Therefore, no goal.

So over all a good quality effort in an ugly game.

Did they tilt the ice?

Seriously, ten of the eleven goals scored went in the "visitor" side net: 4 Ottawa goals in P1, 3 Philly goals in P2, and 3 Ottawa goals in P3. Only Philly's opening goal in P1 went in the "home" net.

What's that phrase: "fans of exceptional goaltending should look away now?"

I missed the first period and after the collapse in the second seriously reconsidered staying inside to watch when there was a driveway that needed shoveling. The Senators seemed to keep the pressure on pretty well in the second, but those little mistakes and scrambles in front of the Ottawa net kept adding up. In the third it started to come together again as the mistakes in the Ottawa end were reduced somewhat while the Flyers seemed to just run out of effort and discipline.

Nice to see Alex Kovalev get four goals on the day. Now if he could only do some of that a bit more regularly the fans would be a little happier with the $5 million he is getting paid. I like watching him play, his puck control is incredible and he seems to be creative in generating chances. You can write some of his reduced results off to the opposition paying strong defensive attention to him, something which creates more opportunities for his team mates, but really he is the caliber of player who should be able to deal with that and produce a little more often.

Chris Kelly had an up afternoon -- his stupid penalty to cause a long 5-on-3 (that resulted in a Philly goal) was compensated somewhat by his two goals. Nice chance at the end of the game too, ringing one off the post -- plus I think he banged the cross bar with one shot earlier in the game too? It must be frustrating to get that close to a hat trick and not bag it.

Since both Alfredsson and Spezza went out, this team has really put in some fabulous efforts. Words like "depth" and "secondary scoring" can be applied to them without qualifiers. The results thus far have vastly exceeded my expectations. Hopefully when the big guns return the rest of the team can keep up this kind of pace.