Senators continue to stay alive against the Canadiens, reaction to the Oilers hiring Peter Chiarelli and more.
The Senators score one of several goals through traffic against Canadiens goalie Carey Price.
OTTAWA SUN/MONTREAL GAZETTE: The Ottawa Senators continue to stay alive in their best-of-seven series against the Montreal Canadiens, downing the Habs 5-1 in Game Five. Bobby Ryan scored twice while Craig Anderson made 45 saves for the victory. Game Six goes on Sunday in Ottawa.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canadiens still lead the series 3-2, but if the Senators should win Game Six, it becomes a one-game, winner-take-all in Game Seven and that favors Ottawa. The surging Senators have done a great job getting traffic in front of Canadiens goalie Carey Price, scoring most of their goals in the past two games coming on screened shots. The Canadiens, meanwhile, seemingly have no answer for Craig Anderson, who’s outplayed Price since taking over from Andrew Hammond in Game Four. The Habs also aren’t getting anything going with their power-play, which has sucked on toast all season long.
THE VANCOUVER SUN/CALGARY HERALD: Vancouver Canucks goalie Ryan Miller is expecting a hot time in Game Six against the Flames, who will be under pressure to finish the series on home ice tonight. The Flames lead the best-of-seven series three games to two.
THE EDMONTON JOURNAL/EDMONTON SUN: Reaction to the Oilers hiring former Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli as their new GM and president of hockey operations is overwhelming positive in Edmonton.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Follow this link to read my take on the Chiarelli hiring.
WINNIPEG SUN: Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff keeps the faith with Ondrej Pavelec as his starting goaltender.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Two months ago, I wrote off Pavelec as the Jets’ starter and believed he was an offseason trade candidate. His solid performance down the stretch got the Jets into the playoffs and ensures he gets another shot at strengthening his hold on the role of starting goalie in Winnipeg.
TORONTO STAR: Maple Leafs executives are concerned over the toll this past season has taken upon the club’s brand.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Leafs were able to ride the good will of their patient fan base for nearly a decade, but after reaching the playoffs only once in that period, that patience has finally run out. Leafs fans are justifiably pissed off. They’re starting to feel they’ve been taken for granted and there’s a perception ownership only cares about money, rather than building a contender. Little wonder there was a major front-office housecleaning at season’s end, which will likely be followed by a major roster overhaul this summer.
Ottawa the team who has never been shut out is up against the team with the consensus pick best goalie. So far the team who can not not score is benefitting, if only one of those OT games went Ottawa’s way.
Oh well. Thought Montreal pressed most of the play last night. Ottawa did a good job of keeping that perimeter team to the out side and the few hey have who are willing to go to the net were boxed out well. They also kept a good eye on PK Subban’s shot staying up on him all night. They waited for their opportunities and scored on their 4th ahot, Once that went in you could see the confidence grow as their legs started moving.
I was very confident they would win last night. Ottawa survival instinct is exponentially greater than Montreal’s killer instinct. Now the pressure is pushing on Montreal as well as they don’t want to go home for an elimination game. Perhaps Montreal’s fear will push them far enough to topple the Sens finally. Maybe Ottawa’s confidence in elimination hockey will continue to carry them over.
It’s an earlier start Sunday all. Get ready it will be fun.
habs just didn’t get any bounces and the sens did habs dominated the play almost doubling the shots!
True enough, I suppose Ottawa could stick to the boards and lob shots at the net as well but they realized out scoring the opponent is how you win, not out shooting them and they know how to score the goals and it isn’t simply putting the puck on the net and hoping it goes in.
one really weak shot beat Anderson game 3 ot so the more shots the better sens got a ton of lucky bounces last night habs didn’t that was the difference
So what your saying is the Habs need luck to win.
every team needs luck to win look at last game sens mightly outplayed but got the luck and won!
kudos to Bob Nicholson for making the decision to hire Chiarelli to make the hockey decisions for the Oilrs going forward, Lowe and MacTavish had their chance and messed it up. the job Chiarelli (and perhaps Todd Mclellan) is huge as while they may have a lot of talent up front it came at the expense of their back end. one big benefit of bringing in someone new is their objectivity, Chiarelli has no loyalty to current players so if he feels he can use some of his depth upfront to acquire a young top dman (for example Nugent-Hopkins for Seth Jones of Nashville) then he can, he’s traded young talented players before (trading Kessel for Seguin & Hamilton). the bottom line is the staus quo wasn’t working for Edmonton so they had to make a change and they acted quickly when they saw the opportunity, even if they hadn’t gotten the top pick in this years draft they’re still better off than they were before.