We have the habit(?) of losing to teams we should beat, and bringing our A-game against the top tier teams. It seems like the foot came of the gas in the third and the Bolts had their guard down after roaring back to a 2-goal lead from being down 2 (again). The Sens had obviously seen that movie before and didn't want to watch it again.
That end to end rush from Hedman was beauty to behold. For such a towering guy, his skating is so fluid and agile. He can use that tall center of gravity to lean into his blades and result in some deceptive bursts of speed and direction change. I think it still, after all this time, catches some defenders by surprise at just how dynamic he is when it comes to creating offense.
Coburn looks like he has been born again? How many times in the history of the game has a declining player lost foot speed and turned into a pylon, only to regain some of the speed later? He isn't McDavid by any means, but so far this season Coburn's speed has looked adequate again. He's actually generating some offense, making zone entries, pinching deep, and doing a good job of it - all while cleaning up Sergachev's mistakes (or trying to). Not bad. If he keeps this up, I say we resign him to a very short term deal (1 season or 2 tops).
It was only a matter of time before we had a Girardi own-goal. Well, there it is. Hopefully that is out of the way now - better to have it happen now, than in a playoff elimination game. |