The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

The Senators were challenged by their coach and GM to play a full sixty minutes of hockey, and it turned out they only needed to play about 40 minutes to turn out a victory.

Ottawa went all out from the opening face-off and scored three goals with only eleven shots. Pressing hard, finishing their checks, battling for the puck...they were eager to show what it's like to play at their best. Martin Havlat, who so far is turning into Ottawa's most consistent forward, scored the first goal and there was no turning back. To give you some indication on how some of Ottawa's big guns are turning things around, in the 2004 playoffs Havlat recorded no goals in their 7 game series loss to the Leafs. Three games in against the Lightning he's already potted four.

Good players bounce back from mediocre performances and Alfredsson, Spezza and Heatley played perhaps their best game of the series so far. And in the background is Wade Redden, who's performace last night was sorely missed in game 2. Scoring a goal and adding two assists, he showed why he is such an important part of the Senators defence. Ottawa had trouble getting the puck out their end in game 2, but his tape to tape outlet passes solved that problem in spades last night.

A player who didn't get on the scoresheet but was nonetheless effective was Chris Neil. His chippy play got under the skin of the Tampa players and distracted them from getting back into the game. Chris Dingman landed seven minutes in penalties trying to fight Neil and effectively killed any chances of a comeback with Ottawa scoring two goals on the resulting powerplay. If Neil is a marked man in Tampa, so be it. They can try to get back at him while Heatley rips slap shots past John Grahame.

Other thoughts:

Two words came across my mind when Zdeno Chara tangled with star forward Vincent Lecavalier: "broken" and "hand". Luckily nothing happened, but he had a hilarious quote when asked about protecting his previously injured right hand: "I have no problems fighting with lefty"...Martin St Louis talked about "hating" Ottawa a little more in game 2, and after all the hits, fights and physical play, Ottawa has that "hate" they need to motivate themselves to beat the Lightning...CBC, we ain't in Tampa. I wasn't terribly interested in that Martin St Louis "tribute" before the game started...Ottawa needs to keep tough but still be smart. They allowed eleven powerplays and three of Tampa's four goals were powerplay markers, including one from a 5-on-3. Tampa is no match for Ottawa 5-on-5, and they need to keep it that way as much as possible...I was extremely pleased with Ray Emery's play and was solid in the first two periods stopping 29 of 30 shots. Hard to guage his third period, it got up to 7-2 at one point and turned into pond hockey. What would your mindset be to play under those conditions?...We shall see if Ottawa truly has a killer instinct tomorrow and be able to bury Tampa with another strong performance.

Fourteen to go.

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