- Zenon Robokopka
A few stats to consider:
- Ottawa only had three giveaways last night to seven takeaways.
- Craig Anderson: .941% SP, perfect in the shootout. Exactly what we need from him: bail the team out when it’s shitting the bed, just BE SOLID when they’re not.
- Gonchar looked effective, and played about 21 minutes, compared to 27 (!) for Karlsson and Kuba. Maybe we’ve unlocked the secret of Gonchar’s effectiveness: just don’t play him as much. BONUS FACT: Gonchar to Konopka will literally never happen again.
- Ottawa has the No. 1 powerplay in the league: 31.2% (Their PK is second last in the league but SHUT UP.)
- The standings always look weird so early in the season, but ONE POINT OUT OF A PLAYOFF SPOT. If we get there I’m taking a screenshot and making it my avatar for the rest of the season then never watching another game.
- Spezza is 2nd in league scoring, Michalek is 4th in goals scored, and Dany Heatley can suck an egg.
- Stephane Da Costa played eight minutes last night. At one point they panned to him on the bench and he was reading Owl Magazine. (In French, of course. “Revue Hibou.”)
- This is not only Ottawa’s first road win of the season, it’s the first time they beat a real team this season. No offense Winnipeg and Columbus, but…wait, offense, actually.
- Paul MacLean patted players on the back and was just generally likeable 247 times last night.
- Carolina had an announced attendance of just over 12,000. If this happened in Ottawa we’d have to read a thousand editorials about how wonky the market is.
- Did you know that Joni Pitkanen and Eric Staal both got about four minutes of powerplay time? Four minutes! That’s enough time to build a deck out there.
- QUESTION: if Ottawa reaches .500, will we still have to read about how “lowly” Ottawa is every time they’re mentioned by a non-Senators blog? The “lowly Senators” who are “destined for last place” and other such burps, are above lowly Boston, Montreal and Nashville in the standings, and tied with San Jose and the Rangers.
- Spezza made this face exactly 400 too few times last night. He looks like “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan:
Welcome To Your Karlsson Years 