“HIYA FOLKS!” – You, coming home to your parents’ house, pretending you’re not high.

What more is there to say about the week that was other than:

Sharing the laughter and loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove.
But it wasn’t all hipchecks betwixt dudes that we’re traded for each other since the “Bolts” (cool nickname!) last met the “Sens” (much cooler nickname).
We’ve seen solid goaltending, weak goaltending, Stephane DaCosta with his trademark multi-goal game and Platinum Angel Kyle Turris with his very own DaCosta-like two goal game in a losing effort against the Canes…what else? Jason Spezza is good again, I’m really starting to like Eric Gryba, ummm Bobby Ryan, Jared Cowen and Turris all missed an open net while in the attacking zone (Life Hack: Just pass it to MacArthur). Anyway, a solid road win and an ugsome afternoon loss…basically an encapsulation of the season.

Let’s focus on Tampa. The biggest plus I took from the last game against them was, yes, it was great to see Ottawa battle back 3 times but to me what was important was that they scored on Ben Bishop just in general. I still trip out over the fact that on skates his waist is at the same level as the crossbar. He looked huge all through the beginning of the game and was getting in the way of everything Ottawa was throwing at him. Spezza, Turris, Michalek (back from the dead?), and Spezza combined for 17 shots that game and none of them finished the game with a goal. Despite losing in the shootout, a reminder for tonight: do NOT go up against Bishop in the shootout!, I was very happy to see them make him look human and get a few past him. Especially late in the game. Last thing this team needs is a monster division rival goalie (THANKS Brybama!) who can get in our boys heads.
Honestly, Tampa Bay reminds me a lot of Montreal, a team that is not devoid of good players, in fact some great ones are in the mix, but if that goaltending falters? Not that intimidating. It’s teams like the Lightning (14th in the East last season) that make me confident that if Ottawa could just get some shit [goaltending / defense] to really click on a consistent basis they could do some damage. Come talk shit with me!

I guess no better place to start than…continuing to talk about goalies.
The gap betwixt games has given coach MacLean the opportunity to ride Anderson in net and its worked out pretty well. Ottawa is a surprising 5-2-3 in their last 10 and Anderson has been a huge part of that. I found against the Jackets he was his trademark combination of great positioning, timely acrobatic saves, and straight up good luck. Not even hating with the luck comment. You have to have a bit of that to succeed.
This is all we need from him here on out: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency.
Anderson is a pretty impressive 6-2-3 against Tampa with 3 of those wins shutouts. I know, when did THAT happen?
After this morning’s skate Paul MacLean announced Robin Lehner has been upgraded to “bread, water and 1 hour of yard time” so…pretty good progress there.
Bishop is a perfect 3-0 against the Sens since being traded to the Lightning so…this brings me to the next item of business:

Hood Pope Cory ChronicHerb 
What? It’s his rap alia$. Anyway, I’m not even bringing him up to pick that trade apart. What’s done is done. I can see taking a Calder candidate over the Oilers offer of Ryan Jones (?) for Bishop. I’m aware that he’s not riding shotgun with Stamkos anymore (welcome to your playing with DaCosta on the fourth line years!) but Conacher can you please choose a time to become a “Lighting killer”?
RANT: Maybe it’s that our team is heavily built ‘in-house’ but do we have any “<Insert team> killer” guys on this squad? Sure Anderson plays really well against his former Panthers club but does that REALLY count as an NHL team? You’re telling me I had to watch JOE CORVO score a hatty against Ottawa when he was a Hurricane for NOTHING? I’m not expecting the world from Conacher but he has 6 goals in 63 games here. He is playing with DaCosta tonight who’s gotta be feeling pretty great about himself right now but on the 4th line it’s hard to expect a lot of output. You know what? Just go out there and HAVE FUN……………………………but seriously score some fucking goals.

Karlsson Korner: 
The Glamours Child looks to continue is just supreme play (now featuring hard hits!). It’s funny as I feel like EK is pretty consistently heralded as one of the best players in the game yet I still think he is underrated. It’s called being a homer, its probably not in the dictionary LOOK IT UP. Anyway, Karlos the Jackyl had an outstanding game the last time the Sens took on the lightning with a goal and an assist. He has 9 points in his last 7 games and I for one would be in favor of his extending this streak. Its crazy to think that the Senators have 4 forwards currently on pace to score between 20 and 30 goals and Karlsson has at least a 9 point lead on all of them. Hail.

Factoid of the day: Karlsson currently trails Chris Phillips for second in all time scoring among Ottawa Senators defensemen by 70 points. He has only 836 games to catch up though.

We in the club like: