Sens victorious on Pride Night as Eugene Melnyk mutters nonsense from the grave

Recap

First Period:

• With the CTC’s ad boards rainbow themed and many fans sporting LGBTQ+ paraphernalia, Sens pride night is labelled a big success by the broadcasting team. In other news, one poor intern in charge of the campaign gets a late night phone call from the ghost of Eugene Melnyk, who screams something about “dogs and gays” and claims that she’ll “never work another day in this town.”
• In an attempt to coax Tim Stützle into shooting the puck, Claude Giroux places a plate of Hänchenschnitzel in the net. Vasilevskiy eats it.
• GOAL! (Senators 1 – Lightning 0): Michael Amadio discovers that the easiest way to create an odd man rush is to blatantly interfere with the oppositions players. Shane Pinto scores on the ensuing play. Jon Cooper responds by threatening to put skirts on all the referees.
• The Lightning, realizing the Sens are 11-0-1 when Pinto scores, immediately vacate the bench and return to their dressing room. After 45 minutes, the refs are eventually able to wrangle them back onto the ice surface.
• The refs makeup for the missed Amadio interference by allowing the Lightning to relentlessly abuse any player they want. Oliver Bjorkstrand, who is new to Tampa and hasn’t quite yet figured out who everyone is, accidentally kills Nick Paul.

Second Period:

• The Senators ask themselves the question: “how many times can we try the cross-ice offensive zone pass through five opposing players rather than take the open shot?”. Tim Stützle promptly answers: “eine Million!”
• An errant Tim Stützle pass ends up in the crowd and strikes a fan, who ends up requiring medical attention. “It isn’t enough for me to just hurt the team,” claims Tim, “now I’ve decided to go after the public!”
• Sportsnet cuts to the injured fan approximately one billion times. The Canadian Tire Centre DJ regrets having queued up “Die Young” by Kesha.
• GOAL! (Senators 2 – Lightning 0): Tim Stützle completes a beautiful behind the back pass to Jake Sanderson, who scores. One anonymous writer immediately puts his foot in his mouth.
• GOAL! (Senators 2 – Lightning 1): Ullmark decides that he shouldn’t have to do all the work, and gives up a juicy rebound, feeling confident that his defense will be able to clean it up. He forgets one crucial fact: His defense is made up of Ottawa Senators players. Brandon Hagel takes advantage.
• While on the power play, Travis Green correctly identifies Shane Pinto as one of his best players as of late, and absolutely deserving of some power play time. He quickly puts out Adam Gaudette, who hasn’t scored in his last 22 games.
• Stützle makes another beautiful pass on the power play, this time to Dylan Cozens, who almost buries. The anonymous writer puts his other foot in his mouth, and wishes he would’ve showered this morning.
• Referee Chris Rooney decides the game is getting boring, so lays a blindside bodycheck on Nick Jensen, causing a turnover that almost leads to a Lightning goal. The Bruins immediately sign Rooney to a 6 year, 30 million dollar contract. Zadorov goes on waivers.

Third Period:

• Sportsnet announcer Jim Hughson claims that Jon Cooper is “one of the best two finger whistlers in the game.” Cooper is seen asking league officials if he could trade in that honour for a Jack Adams award. They say no.
• During a Sens power play, Tim Stützle and the rest of the penalty killers get an alert on their phones from Bruce Garrioch, claiming that Brandon Hagel has been traded to Ottawa. They immediately begin feeding him the puck, and are shocked to discover that Garrioch was, like always, wrong.
• Seconds before icing the game with an easy empty net goal, Ridly Grieg sees someone he thinks is Morgan Reilly sitting net to the Tampa Bay net. Out of fear of retribution, he sails the puck approximately 100 feet over the bar.

Analysis

This was Ullmark’s game, through and through. The Sens came out in the first looking lackluster, but good goaltending – including two consecutive breakaway stops – kept them in it until they finally got their feet under them midway through the second. Ullmark ended the game with 31/32 saves and a deserved first star.

That’s not to say the Sens defense was horrible. There were some good active sticks and lots of blocked shots (21 in total). Kleven had a rough game after really showing up against Buffalo. I was hoping to write a feature about his play as of late but may have to hold off until he strings a couple more good games together. Sanderson, on the flip side, was excellent. He does all those little things in his own zone that really go unnoticed unless you watch closely – simple breakouts, shifting away from pressure, passes through the crease that actually make it to their man. He’s second in points by defensemen in the last few months, and I could see him scoring 65+ next season.

I continue to be impressed with the way Shane Pinto and Ridly Greig have been playing. Both had three blocks tonight, and were all over it in the defensive zone. Greig should have had a three point night with an empty net goal, but couldn’t put it in the open cage despite multiple chances. Pinto scores again, making the Sens record when he does so 12-0-1. He deserves more than his box score stats having been showing as of late. He’s playing some terrific hockey and he absolutely needs to get some powerplay time. I’d have him centering the second unit. Adam Gaudette was a great early season story, but has regressed considerably and has no business on special teams when he hasn’t scored in over two months.

With the Leafs win tonight, it’s looking more and more like we may see a Battle of Ontario AND a Battle of Florida in the first round. Not only is that my preferred matchup for the Sens, as we seem to match up well against Toronto, but I think that’s the best matchup for hockey fans in general. The Atlantic is shaping up to be the most interesting division, though Dallas-Colorado will undoubtedly be the best first round from a viewers standpoint.

Next up is the Panthers, who have been sliding a bit without Matthew Tkachuk, and are now without Barkov as well (though he may be back by tomorrow, time will tell). If there was ever a time to gain some confidence against a good team, now would be it.