Who IS this guy?!?!

Wow, Martin Gerber. Wow.

I don't know what the difference is between last season and this year; is it:

1. More confidence?
2. Better goalie coaching from Eli Wilson?
3. A better off-season workout?
4. The fact that you have little to lose?
5. An attitudinal change?
6. Gypsies?
7. More sound technical abilities?
8. The lust to drink from Stanley's cup?

I'm pretty sure it's number six. No matter what the reason(s), though, all that really counts is that you're playing well enough to steal games for the Sens, which is fine with me.

Last night Gerber's play was out of this world. Anyone who hasn't seen the highlights should check them out; especially that 5-on-3 where the Gerbinator made an incredible save, picked up the puck with his blocker-hand, and threw it down the ice. Only to have the Rangers re-enter the zone and force him to stretch his legs so far across the net that every man--and most women--cringed with thoughts of how much pain we would experience from that sort of athleticism.

Also impressive was Luke "one-punch machine gun" Richardson. Played pretty well in ten minutes of ice time, once again doing the simple things to avoid making costly mistakes. But what was incredible, though was his knock-out punch on Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky. Holy crap.

Dubinsky, a fresh-faced 21 year-old playing in his 11th NHL game, had no idea what he was getting into when he challenged the 37-year-old Richardson in fisticuffs. He found out soon enough, and then forgot about it right after, because he was completely knocked out.

It looked alright at first for Duby, he had a few rabbit-punches on Richie and knocked his helmet off, but he let the old man get him up against the boards--big mistake. In what I'm pretty sure was Richardson's first punch of the fight, he smoked Dubinsky right on the kisser, and you could tell right away by the way he collapsed that he could hear bells. And on the off-chance you didn't know right away, you could certainly tell when he was trying to stand up and didn't look like he had the use of his hands. And then when the trainer was trying to get him to the dressing room, he got lost.

In other news, Brian Elliott is back on his way to Binghamton. Best of luck, Ellie, you did well while you were up here.

That's probably because Ray Emery's on his way back up to the big team. After failing his first test, Emery did well in the second game of his conditioning stint with the Binghamton Senators, stopping 46 of 48 shots, bringing his AHL GAA in two games up to .930; not too shabby. Awesome stat on the post-game show last night; Ottawa's two top goalies combined for 82 saves on 85 shots last night, which is awesome.

I don't know what the hell I'm going to do all week since the Sens don't play until Thursday. Maybe make some trade/signing speculations/ruminations.