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Senators down Islanders the way Boucher wants it |
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Guy Boucher has wanted greasy goals this season...tips, traffic, screens and rebounds. That is what he got on Sunday night as the Senators won their second game in as many nights.
A shot from Kyle Turris that went in off the arm of Bobby Ryan opened the scoring, and a deflection of Mark Stone's point shot by Zack Smith, who was also providing the screen of J.F. Berube made it 2-0 in support of Andrew Hammond.
Then Hammond tweaked something in his lower body and had to leave the game after 16 minutes, bringing in Mike Condon. The Islanders got one back in the first minute of the second on a goal from Anders Lee. Ottawa carried the play through most of the second until a strecth pass from Travis Hamonic caught the Senators defense by surprise and Anthony Beauvillier snapped one off the post and in to tie the game.
Shortly after that Thomas Hickey took a penalty and the Senators wasted little time capitalizing on it, and you guessed it, it was Mark Stone johnny-on-the-spot to provide traffic for Erik Karlsson, and then Stone stuffed home the rebound from in close after the initial shot was stopped to put Ottawa back in the lead.
Derick Brassard provided an insurance marker when he picked up a missed shot off the back boards and slid it home from about two feet away and with the goalie pulled the Senators added a pair of goals from Smith (shorthanded) and Tom Pyatt to make it look more uneven than it was with a 6-2 final score.
Smith led the way with two goals and an assist, perhaps proving that whoever plays with Mark Stone is going to be successful more often than not. He has five points (3 goals, two assists) since moving into Mike Hoffman's spot while the latter served his two game suspention. Albeit, two of the goals were empty netters, but he has certainly been more noticable, and it was after the Stone-Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Smith line was put together last year that Smith did most of the damage in his career season. Stone had a pair of assists to go with his game winning power play marker and Erik Karlsson also added two helpers.
Ryan, meanwhile, has goals in three straight games to double his season total to 6, but the last two went off his body and were nowhere near his stick. Hopefully for Ryan, the adage is true that a couple of greasy ones can turn a slump around because he desperately needs a good second half. His trend over his Senators career has been solid play early on in the season only to tail off dramatically in the second half. There isn't much room for tailing off at this point for him, although Boucher won't be complaining about how his goals against the Devils and then the Islanders went in, because that is what he has been preaching for.
These two wins have come against the bottom two teams in the Eastern Conference, so you still have to take that for what it is worth, but no doubt Boucher will have the same game plan on Tuesday when the Senators step up in weight class to face the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Traffic, screens, tips and rebounds.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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