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

Bleech. The 5-2 score doesn't tell the true story of Ottawa's victory. It's a good thing Tampa Bay goalie Johan Holmqvist couldn't make a timely stop (which was pretty much the exact opposite of his performance last Sunday) in the first 10 minutes of last night's contest, otherwise we'd likely be discussing how much the Sens looked like the October version of their team, how they were lazy and were just plain outplayed.

Well actually, maybe you can still talk about that, because the last 50 minues of the hockey game were pretty uninspired and Tampa Bay might have deserved a different fate. I guess it may be difficult to play hard when you manage a 4 goal lead after one period, but still, Ottawa played like they were supposed to against the Panthers Thursday night under similar circumstances: Despite the big lead, they didn't take their foot off the gas pedal and played hard.

Once in a while during the long 82-game season, you get wins you don't deserve and you also lose games you should have won. We'll chalk this one up to the former, and it will serve as a reminder of how not to play when you have the big lead.

In any event, Ray Emery was solid in net again, and he's looking more and more confident as each game passes. He ensured the Lighning threat was contained making 34 saves on 36 shots. But outside of this, one of the few highlights of last night's contest was Antoine Vermette's 1st goal of the night where he got the puck behind the net, dragged it to the side of the crease by pulling the puck with his stick between his legs, then roofing it over Holmqvist's shoulder while said stick was still between his jambes. He may never score a prettier one than that.