Sound Tigers 5 - Senators 4
October 16, 2005
Last night was the home opener for the 05-06 B-Sens. They lost, but I saw many reasons to be excited for this season. The paper has a good game wrap up so I’ll just cover a few things that stood out to me.
The Good - This years Senators came out of the gate with HUSTLE. I didn’t see anyone coasting and they showed a strong forecheck. Led by Steve Martins, one of the hardest working players in the game, the new B-Sens had me excited from the first shift. With the new rules, teams need to be fast and work hard if they’re going to win games.
I was also very impressed with Filip Novac. With only two defensemen returning from last years team, this was my biggest concern, but Novac showed tremendous speed and good puck handling. If he keeps this up we won’t be missing Pothier and Schubert as much as we thought. Tomas Malec also showed some nice moves and with his size he is a great addition to this club.
Danny Bois can skate! Bois, along with most of last years B-Sens really stepped up their game and impressed with their play. These guys really needed to up their level of play now that they’ll be looked upon as the veterans on this young team and tonight they did just that.
Fighting - I was worried the only fight we were going to see was in section 18, but Brett Clouthier dropped the gloves with Robinson and opened a can of whoop ass! No need to worry about McGrattan being with Ottawa, this team has its enforcer.
On offense we got what we expected from Martins and Hamel, but we also saw two goals from Jeff Heerema. If he can stay healthy, he’ll make the top 3 or 4 scorers on this club. We’ll have to wait to see Patrick Eaves since he was busy getting his first NHL point in Ottawa.
The Bad - Like a lot of teams this season, the Senators are not used to the new rules and drew a ton of penalties (eleven!). Last seasons Senators were know for their clutch and grab play and they need to curb their reflexes with the stick. Was almost comical to watch Jan Platil reach over a guys shoulder with his stick, realize what he was doing, and quickly pull his stick away to avoid the penalty. Of course the reason he was in that position to begin with was because he let the Bridgeport player past him to begin with. I think we’ll see a lot of penalties until these guys learn to keep their sticks down and cover their zone better.
The Ugly - Turnovers! I’ve never seen so many turnovers behind our own net as I did last night. The Sound Tigers saw this weakness early and whenever a Senators took the puck behind our own net to slow down play, a Bridgeport player moved in and created a turnover. The Sens also had a lot of problem with passing. Our rushes were very sloppy with poor passes into skates or, worse yet, onto Bridgeport sticks. A lot of fans were booing the ref at the end of the game, but it was these turnovers in our own end that cost us the game. Top that off with Denis Hamel getting called for diving (surprise, surprise) in the last minute.
The good news is that sloppy passing and hesitation with the puck are common with a team that is so young and unfamiliar with each other. Give the kids a couple weeks of practice and a few more games and they’ll get it under control. I went into the game very apprehensive about this season, but I left with a smile on my face and excited about the energy I saw on the ice. We won’t be coasting to a division title this year, but this team will be playing in May.
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