Shootout win? Sens 3, Sabres 2 (SO)

Congratulations, Cory Clouston! Your new strategy for the Ottawa Senators is not only funner to watch, but it also works--and the proof is in the pudding. The pudding being Saturday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres, in which--after a bit of a third-period scare--the Senators prevailed after actually scoring a few times in a shootout. That's something new.

Although Nick Foligno is prone to taking the odd penalty in his youthful anxiety, it's a lot of fun to watch. Especially when he plays as well as he has in the last couple of games, including tonight's showing where he tipped a powerplay goal behind Sabres goaler Ryan Miller. It gave the Sens the 1-0 lead.

Antoine Vermette gave Ottawa a two-goal cushion when he blasted a snapper past Miller in the second period. Good decision not to pass to Chris Neil in the two-on-one, too. There was some controversy after the referee waved off the goal initially and play went on, but it was all sorted out pretty guickly after the next whistle. I'm not really sure how that puck could possibly have bounced out of the net as it did after the shot, but I'll cut the referee some slack--thing happen pretty quickly on the ice.

Then two defensive gaffes, and two Buffalo goals to tie the game. First some miscommunication between Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov left Adam Mair completely alone in front to tip the puck past Brian Elliott, and then Phillips overcommitted on the penalty-kill to allow Drew Stafford to breeze by him and tuck the puck past Elliott, too.

But this Clouston-coached Senators team is different. Too aggressive to sit back on their heels and think about having lost the lead, the Sens kept up their offensive pressure. In the end, the Senators outshot the Sabres 42-30. But Ottawa could still only get two past Miller in regulation, and none in overtime.

The conversation regarding shootout choices will, inevitably, continue. Tonight he started with Jason Spezza, Jarkko Ruutu, and Daniel Alfredsson--the latter two scored to get the shootout into extra shooters. And, unconventionally, Mike Fisher was next, and the guy not only hit the net, but he actually scored. It was surprising and totally unexpected, but it worked.

If you're wondering why Dany Heatley wasn't chosen, I don't think it's just because he has been terrible in shootouts; He also had a pretty bad game. He's obviously frustrated, and could have easily taken a couple of stupid penalties if the refs wanted to hit him with them. His goals will come, but he needs to work harder until they do.

Coach's Corner review: Did anyone else notice Don Cherry getting Hungarian-born Dracula star Bela Lugosi confused with the former Soviet bloc country Belarus? I think he was discussing Maple Leafs' player and Belarus native Mikhail Grabovski, but then he started ranting about Lugosi and showed a clip of Alexander Semin playing the drums on Marc Staal. Cherry's scattered train of thought used to be funny, but it's starting to get a bit confusing.

Does anyone care what Grapes says?

Holy shit, are people even talking about this? On Saturday Don Cherry had a rant about the way the Senators and Lightning dressed while walking into the game, because they were wearing toques and long jacket in an Ottawa winter. He said that Mike Fisher and former Senator Andrej Meszaros looked like thugs that were "going to break into your car" and/or steal your hubcaps. Don Brennan wrote a column devoted to the Coach's Corner segment, and the waste-of-time 'funny' Blackberry column between Brennan, Bruce Garrioch, Chris Stevenson, and Tim Baines was devoted to it, too.

I have a question for you: Is Cherry even relevant anymore? It doesn't make sense. Maybe it looks nice if a team dresses for success, but they really only have to look good on the ice. I wouldn't care if the Sens wore skirts on game days, if it meant they'd play better on the ice.

Here's the video, if you want to waste your time.

Memo to Nick Kypreos: Eat my ass

Dear Nick Kypreos,

You know nothing about hockey, unless it's the Toronto Maple Leafs. When the Ottawa Senators declined an 'offer' from the Florida Panthers to acquire Gary Roberts, Kypreos declared that he had lost all respect for the Ottawa Senators. This is stupid for three reasons.

First of all, this implies that Kypreos had respect for Ottawa in the first place. I think we all know that his love-in for all things Maple Leafs is evidence enough this is not the case.

Secondly, it assumes that Florida was asking the same in return for Roberts from both Ottawa and Pittsburgh. Conspiracy theories are always fun, but I will reference Don Cherry as a citation for the following statement: Jacques Martin did not want to give Ottawa a major factor in the repeated defeats of the Martin-era Senators to the Maple Leafs. Why would Martin offer Roberts to the man who fired him (John Muckler) without trying to gouge as much in return as possible? Especially if the opportunity is there to trade him to Pittsburgh--at a time the Penguins looked to be Ottawa's first-round opponent.

Finally, Roberts wasn't the decisive factor. He pissed all Sens fans off, scored a few goals, threw some borderline hits (which probably should have been penalized if the refs weren't so sorry Roberts is such a poor skater), bitched at the refs constantly (once again, for some reason unpenalized despite the lack of a letter of his left shoulder), and apparently helped the young 'Burgh whippersnappers, but none of it really helped. The Pens lost the series.

In a related story, Oleg Saprykin didn't look like such a bad move, after all. This goes out to all the folks responsible for berating Muckler for this blockbuster (that means you, Ottawa Sun): Don't judge a move until you see what it's brought. Sappy played a solid game last night, and in game four, and probably should have had a goal or two in those matches. Furthermore, he looked like he was willing to take a hit once in a while, and has some darn good speed. Ottawa didn't need a slow old-timer to lead a team with solid internal leadership, they needed (more) offensive depth.

In an unrelated story, Anton Volchenkov might be my all-time favourite Ottawa Senators player. He is certainly giving Norm Maciver a run for his money. Let's take a look at his first-round statistics:

• Points: 4 (1G, 3A)
• Hits: 16
• Blocked shots: 14

What more can you ask for? His one goal was a game-winning goal, too... incredible. Game five was a testament to his toughness; after Roberts appeared to hit Volchie's elbow and bend it the wrong way, "the Big Defenceman" (Bob Cole's nickname for Volchenkov, as well as all other Ottawa Senators defencemen) barely missed a shift, and returned to play the last shift of a 3-0 game rather than staying in the dressing room on a precautionary basis. Still incredible.

Now... awaiting the second-round opponent. Stay tuned for a "Ottawa Senators Eastern Conference Semi-Final Opponent Watch" update later tonight.

Coach's Corner checklist

In preparation for tonight's game against the Penguins on CBC, I've prepared a checklist of what Don Cherry will do during the first intermission on Coach's Corner (in a rough temporal order):

• Yell at least 3 variations of "Watch this," in reference to a clip
• Use at least 3 onomatopoeical exclamations in rant about clip (e.g. bam, boom, pow)
• Talk about Staal brothers for minimum 10 seconds
• Shut Ron Maclean up by shouting "Lookit!" and then ranting about something nonsensical
• Show pictures of most recent casualties from Afghanistan. If no recent casualties, show photos of recently deceased young hockey players.
• Call recent casualties, "Beautiful boys" or, alternately, "lovely boys".
• Get choked up and start crying.