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Well, what else can you say other than, what a NICE win by the Ottawa Senators tonight over the Florida Panthers! The Sens knocked off the best team on home ice in the NHL in convincing fashion by a score of 8-2! Ottawa frustrated the Panthers all night long and played their best game of the season, playing as 5 man units each shift. This team responded both times that Florida fought back to tie it after Ottawa had taken a lead, only to regain the lead each time. In fact, the Sens are notorious for having a bad 2nd period but not tonight as they scored 3 goals in the 2nd period and kept their foot on the gas scoring 4 more times in the 3rd period.

The Sens have now won 5 of their last 6 games and during that stretch, they have defeated some of the best in the league in Carolina and Florida on the road, plus TB and Colorado at home. Ottawa's top line continues to roll as they had a combined 8 points on the night. The secondary scoring was huge tonight as Nick Paul scored a PPG late in the third period to end his 17 game scoreless drought. The Paul/Gambrell/Watson line was super all game long which allowed DJ Smith to roll those top 3 lines. Many fans thought the 3rd and 4th lines could be either-or, but tonight it was clear that DJ thought the Paul line was their 3rd line. It seems the 4th line of Sanford/Tierney/Ennis were in the doghouse a bit as they saw very little TOI. I still don't know why Tierney is in the line-up, give Gaudette a look as he has only played one game since being claimed off waivers. When this team does well in the faceoff circle it usually leads to a win. Tonight Ottawa won 57% of the faceoffs, so it limited them chasing puck like they did a lot during that awful stretch in November.

When looking at special teams tonight, the Sens killed off all 6 PP by Florida. Ottawa didn't have a single PP in the 1st period but they killed off 3 by the Panthers. Alex Formenton had another terrific game, using his speed to create scoring chances and it was the work of Alex and Connor Brown that led to the beauty goal by Stutzle. Brown quietly had 3 assists and played his best game of the season.

The bottom defense pairing of Mete/Heatherington saw the least amount of TOI and I wonder why Dylan is even in the lineup when the team has called up JBD and has yet to play a game. DJ has changed the lineup before after a win, so that narrative needs to stop. If you want what's best for JBD, leave him in Belleville to get game time. He has missed 2 games down in the AHL already with a 3rd to come tomorrow. Games are more critical for his development at this point and sitting him because the team won on Saturday just doesn't hold any water at this point.

Lastly, Forsberg wasn't really tested even though he made 33 saves. That might've been one of the quietest 33 save performances by a Sens goalie, ever!

Off the ice, in a surprising announcement, Chris Schwarz is leaving the Sens organization as of this February. He has been with the team since 2009, as their Conditioning Coach. He'll be leaving a huge hole with the team and it has many people wondering he's departing.

Sens GM Pierre Dorion was on TSN5 during the 2nd intermission. Two comments really stood out for me. The first one is about how Forsberg is the hardest working goalie he's ever seen! Hmmm.....what about Craig Anderson?! Or was this just PM being petty, taking a shot at Matt Murray?! Dorion needs to grow up because we all know who that comment was meant for as it's been talked about how Murray has very lazy practice habits. The second comment about how DJ had a plan all along to play Stutzle at center for 80 games seems so odd. Why didn't he play him at center during the pre-season?! Why did he stop his supposed plan for a few games after the west coast road trip? Oh, and where is Pierre McGuire? It would be nice if Dorion did an interview for TSN1200 the station that broadcasts all the Sens games. But instead, Dorion does an interview with TSN5 because he knows he will get softball questions, rather than hard-hitting questions that fans want answers to.

Thanks for reading. Comments on Dorion, JBD, or Schwarz? Ottawa now gets TB on Thursday night. They're red hot and I can see them continuing to roll with their confidence. Sens fans, do you think Ottawa can sweep this road trip now?

Kevin

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