Sens Game Report - New Jersey @ Ottawa - 10.21.06

If we win Tuesday in Toronto, that would be two in a row…
I also want to give a shout out to co-blogger Matthew for amazingly predicting the immediate firing of Hitchcock mere hours before it became a reality. We all knew there was unrest in Philly, but nobody came out and said it would happen so soon. Street cred for NxNE!

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: Ottawa wins 8-1
Ottawa Goals:
- Spezza (3) on the powerplay with a zinger over Brodeur’s glove
- Heatley (2) tipping a Preissing wrist shot through the five-hole
- Vermette (1) banging in a rebound and getting nailed on the play
- Corvo (1) receiving and releasing an Alfredsson pass into the slot
- Preissing( 1) on a squirrelly wrist shot coming down the boards
- Vermette (2) tipping a Volchenkov point shot
- McAmmond (2) hitting rebound off a defender’s skate and in
- McAmmond (3) knocking a bouncing rebound over Clemenson
Making Sens: DMac, Corvo, Vermette, Neil, Spezza, mostly everyone
Lacking Sens: hard to call anyone out after a win like this
It was over when: Vermette and Corvo scored 50 seconds apart to put this away and the rest was just padding on the stats and a confidence boost.
It was definitely over when: Brodeur was pulled after the sixth goal. That typically means things aren't going well for the Devils.
Message in a Molson bottle: We converted on the first powerplay, didn’t give up a shorthanded goal, skated hard and won the battles for loose pucks. This one brought back the memories of last year when we made opponents pay for every misake.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261021014
Next Game: Tuesday starts a home and home in Toronto (we host them on Thursday)

Grab a Timmy’s double double and listen to what really happened:

The Good
- Dean McAmmond and Daniel Alfredsson looked awesome together. DMac’s speed and Alfie’s vision will work very well together. I think Kelly being on that line is a bit of a wasted opportunity, but Alfie and DMac can be great producers on that line. Can Kaigorodov play the wing? That would be an interesting experiment.
- Chris Neil deservedly was awarded the first star. As the New Jersey announcers kept pointing out with amazement, Neil has really redefined his career while at the same time remembering what got him here. He makes the right plays and still manages to be a pest. A good contract there. More on this night later.
- Two goals straight off defencemen’s sticks and another two were deflected on the way. Good things happen when you get shots through from the point as it resulted in four of the goals.

The Bad
- Nothing really to point out here. Fisher had a bad turnover in the neutral zone that led to the Gionta goal, but the whole team regrouped after that. Pass from Meszaros was in his skates and Gionta's shot was unstoppable. It still gave a quick reminder about the importance of moving the puck through the neutral zone.

The Ugly
- Meszaros and Redden still managed to be a minus-1 tonight. That blows my mind. With the way Corvo has fit in and played in his two games, expect to see a lot more of him and the defensive minutes being spread out.

Overtime
- Kaigorodov centering the fourth line went a whopping 1-7 in the faceoff circle. I know he is better at centre, but I wonder what he’d look like on the left wing of McAmmond and Alfredsson.
- Chris Neil had 11 hits, seven more than Fisher’s four (our second biggest hitter last night).
- Neil also led the team with 6 shots on goal.
- A telling sign that the defence is different in Ottawa this year is that Joe Corvo led the team in icetime with 22:23.
- This is a start in the right direction as the team is rewarded for playing hard. Hopefully this feeling will stay with them and they’ll understand that if they do what they’re supposed to do, they win games and people eat pizza.