Good Evening Blues: Ottawa 3; St. Louis 1

The Sens played a strong 60 minutes and got timely saves from their goaltender, allowing the Senators to walk out of St. Louis with a 3-1 win over the Blues. The story lines in this one are pretty obvious, so let's dive in.

Mike Fisher had a monster night even when one discounts the empty net goal that accounted for his second of the night. Fisher had 7 shots on goal, threw 4 hits, and looked like a man possessed. His first goal was the result of following up on his own rebound, and a poor turnover from David Perron. Fisher now leads all Senators not named Heatley, Alfredsson, or Spezza with with 7 goals.


Peter Regin scored his first NHL goal on a nice individual effort. Regin looped around the St. Louis net, and fired a wrister low short side from a tight angle, eluding Chris Mason. While Mason should probably have had the angle covered, give Regin credit, as his patience paid off. Regin also threw a nice hit (I believe on Patrick Berglund, but don't take me to task on that one) in the first period.

Brian Elliott stood tall, allowing only one goal on the 23 shots he faced. I gave Elliott flak Tuesday in New Jersey for having a poor showing, so I will give him credit for not folding and making some nice 3rd period saves. He had absolutely no chance on the Blues' only goal; If Brad Winchester hadn't caught the puck with his skate, Brad Boyes would likely have buried it on the cross-crease pass. Elliott was making his 7th straight start, and will get a well deserved break tomorrow night when Alex Auld starts against the Blue Jackets. I would like to see Auld push Elliott for playing time with a strong performance, as I am a firm believer in the desirability of healthy competition between a team's two goaltenders.


Watching the Senators on the power play during the first period gave me flashbacks to Tuesday night. The Blues succeeded in the keeping the puck away from the Sens for extended periods of time, and got the best scoring chance over the combined four minutes of Ottawa's first two opportunities with the extra attacker courtesy of a David Backes rush. Ottawa also failed to capitalize on 1:34 of 5-on-3 time during the second period. The inconsistency and intermittent futility of the Sens power play will have to be rectified if the Sens want to spare Melnyk the embarrassment of having to live down his various mid-season assertions that the Sens will make the playoffs.

While the Sens did have a strong effort, I feel it is important to taper any excessive optimism with a reminder that the St. Louis Blues are, in fact, now just one point behind the Senators in the NHL's futility bowl. This team has yet to win three games in a row all year, so let's keep this victory in perspective. The Sens need 53 points in their final 36 games to reach the hypothetical 94 point standard that will likely serve as the cut-off for playoff participation. That means the Sens have to pick up points at a .736 clip. The silver lining for those of you who still hope to see the club qualify is that, having picked up 9 of a possible 12 points over the last 6 games, the Sens are currently accumulating points at the right rate. Whether that is sustainable remains to be seen.



Notes:
The NHL Network's broadcast - featuring Bill Clement, Gary Green, and some other dude - was just awful. A brief sampling of their many sins.

1. Bill Clement compared the St. Louis Blues to "hyenas on hamburger." While I am unclear on exactly how he dreamed up such a witty, complex analogy, Bill was humble enough to break it down for us, "The Blues being the hyenas, and the opponent being the hamburger." Thanks Bill, for catering to my inferior intellect by explaining your complex use of similes. He went on to reference the comparison at least twice more. Has anyone ever seen a pack of hyenas come into contact with ground beef (prepared in any manner) in their lifetime? If so, please let me know.



2. Bill also referred to the line of Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher, and Chris Kelly as the "Helicopter Line" as there are "no wings," an admittedly vaguely clever way of noting that all three are natural centres. Clement pointed this out during the first period, and then near the end of the second, stated "I know I called them the 'Helicopter Line' earlier, but did I mention it was because they have no wings!?" with the utmost sincerity. Yes, Bill, you did, and it was almost an apt remark until you ruined it.
   
   
3. The other dude (aka the guy who did the play-by-play) mentioned that Andy Murray loves intensity, and actually uses Carlo Colaiacovo as an "intensity barometer." A baffling statement, one I felt required much explanation. No clarification ever came, though the comment was succeeded by a comical, 10 second long awkward silence amongst the broadcast team.
   
   
4. The audio feed cut out for the first 2 minutes of the second period, an error in which I took great pleasure. I thought back to the SRC announcer strike before the lockout when Radio-Canada still carried the Francophone Saturday night hockey broadcast. I always enjoyed watching the game without commentary, as it forced you to pay more attention to the game if you wanted to know what exactly was happening. The technical difficulty was a nice vacation from the blithering of these three stooges.

The broadcast crew did have one interesting tidbit of information. In speaking with Sens GM Bryan Murray, they learned that Murray feels the biggest mistake the Senators organization ever made was letting Zdeno Chara walk away. Murray was a year away from being named GM when Chara chose to sign with Boston in July 2006, so this amounts to a pretty stinging criticism of his former boss John Muckler.