Sens Game Report - Toronto @ Ottawa - 10.26.06

Raise your hand if you didn't score tonight...

The Balance in the Bank:

Final Score: We’re good, Ottawa wins 7-2
Ottawa Goals:
- Fisher (2) from his knees banging in a rebound
- Vermette (4) floating a wrist shot on from the left side that finds its way in
- Heatley (4) on the first of two great feeds from his boyfriend
- Corvo (2), zinggggg, blasts one in from 20 feet out
- Heatley (5) with another great feed from Spezza
- Heatley (6) continues kills the Leafs banging on in from the slot after fishing out the rebound in his skates
- Spezza (4) with a naughty little move on Raycroft fires on in from an impossible angle.
Making Sens: Spezza, Heatleym Fisher, Neil, Corvo, Phillips, Volchenkov, Eaves
Lacking Sens: Alfredsson, Redden
It was over when: Heatley giving us a 3-0 lead really was a backbreaker for the blue and white.
It was definitely over when: Toronto got two back and made it close, but Corvo’s blast spelled the end of this one and the rest was just a race to the stick rack.
Message in a Molson bottle: Any of you that questioned the character of this team, shame on you. This team has put up 21 goals in its last three games and dominated in every facet. Tonight was no exception as the Leafs big guns were invisible and ours were scoring hat tricks. Great showing and it restores our place as owners of the Leafs. Toronto has far more problems then their first 6 games would have you believe.
Courtesy Boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=261026014
Next Game: Saturday in Boston, and we’ve been asked to bring takeout from Baton Rouge.

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

The Good
- As modest as I’m not, I’ve gotta toot my own horn here for a minute. One week ago in this very space, I told you that Joe Corvo would be a major difference maker for this team and would be a favourite in no time. His 5-point performance should have won the hearts of every single Sens fan. He plays hard every shift and has a hell of a shot. This guy is going to be THE biggest impact player on our blue line this year. Write that down.
- Spezza and Heatley didn’t play fair tonight. It is hard to tell if they backchecked at all because the puck was never in the Ottawa zone when they were on the ice. Chemistry class is back in session here, folks. Watch out.


The Bad
- Powerplay was 1-for-8. While it is hard to call anybody out in a win like this, I was very disappointed with the performance during the 1:20 or so of 5-on-3 time we had. I’m of the belief that a team like Ottawa should be scoring at 100% when they have at least a minute of a two man advantage. Instead, we lollygagged in our own zone and before you knew it, we needed Emery’s pads and Phillips backcheck to break up a Kaberle chance out of the box. Just score on these opportunities, guys.

The Ugly
- Are you ready to have your mind blown? In the 13 goals we’ve put up against Toronto in the past 72 hours, Daniel Alfredsson has zero points. It isn’t a that hard to believe if you watched his presence tonight. He was often skating away from the play and floating in the neutral zone, in my opinion, and really sat back and enjoyed the scene. Now if Alfie is the type that will carry the team on his back in a one-goal game and then lets everyone else have the fun in a blowout, that’s one thing. But given the start this team had and the fact that Alfie has one empty net goal to his name this season, I reckon it is time this guy started to pop a few in there

Overtime
- Fans eat pizza twice in a week.
- Gratts and Kaiger didn’t see the ice until the third period. Somewhere, Jacques Martin groaned at the three-line operation.
- McGrattan, Volchenkov, and Neil all blocked slapshots from the point in the dying minutes of a 7-2 game. That’s awesome. Believe this – we are becoming the blue collar team that our management promised.
- Corvo leads the team with 8 shots on goal. Outstanding. This guy is fantastic.
- Speaking of total domination, Spezza wins 18 of his 20 faceoffs, and we hold specialist Michael Peca to to 45% in the circle.
- Nothing came of the Tucker/Belak/Neil/McGrattan hype, as expected. Maurice must have told them something in the second intermission about how ridiculous they’d look trying to fight after the embarrassing performance they were putting out.