Seriously, ten of the eleven goals scored went in the "visitor" side net: 4 Ottawa goals in P1, 3 Philly goals in P2, and 3 Ottawa goals in P3. Only Philly's opening goal in P1 went in the "home" net.What's that phrase: "fans of exceptional goaltending should look away now?"
I missed the first period and after the collapse in the second seriously reconsidered staying inside to watch when there was a driveway that needed shoveling. The Senators seemed to keep the pressure on pretty well in the second, but those little mistakes and scrambles in front of the Ottawa net kept adding up. In the third it started to come together again as the mistakes in the Ottawa end were reduced somewhat while the Flyers seemed to just run out of effort and discipline.
Nice to see Alex Kovalev get four goals on the day. Now if he could only do some of that a bit more regularly the fans would be a little happier with the $5 million he is getting paid. I like watching him play, his puck control is incredible and he seems to be creative in generating chances. You can write some of his reduced results off to the opposition paying strong defensive attention to him, something which creates more opportunities for his team mates, but really he is the caliber of player who should be able to deal with that and produce a little more often.
Chris Kelly had an up afternoon -- his stupid penalty to cause a long 5-on-3 (that resulted in a Philly goal) was compensated somewhat by his two goals. Nice chance at the end of the game too, ringing one off the post -- plus I think he banged the cross bar with one shot earlier in the game too? It must be frustrating to get that close to a hat trick and not bag it.
Since both Alfredsson and Spezza went out, this team has really put in some fabulous efforts. Words like "depth" and "secondary scoring" can be applied to them without qualifiers. The results thus far have vastly exceeded my expectations. Hopefully when the big guns return the rest of the team can keep up this kind of pace.
