The Ottawa Senators edged a young Bruin lineup 2-1 in overtime last night. The game lacked energy, but had more structure than the first exhibition game against Toronto. I won’t repost the box score (link), but I’ll take a look at the best and worst players for the Sens–keeping in mind that this is the exhibition season and, as such, doesn’t mean much. Paul MacLean, incidentally, said he liked how the entire team performed.
Positive Performances
Peter Regin continued his strong play in all three zones, although like the rest of the team’s centers he struggled on faceoffs
Brian Lee was surprisingly good–he took shots that hit the net, was moderately physical, and cut down on the turnovers
Jared Cowen was solid, getting the second most minutes of any blueliner (eventually rewarded with top-unit powerplay time)
Nick Foligno continued to provide an offensive spark and seems to have chemistry with Regin
Nikita Filatov played hard at both ends of the ice, but wasn’t rewarded with the scoring opportunities he had against Toronto
Sergei Gonchar was good throughout the game, helping out the rookies riding shotgun with him
Struggling
David Rundblad‘s biggest issue last night was defensive coverage; he also needs to work on his pivots when players are rushing on the outside; he continues to demonstrate his fantastic hands
Bobby Butler was someone you’d be excused from asking if he’d played last night; he was unable to generate much of anything
Mark Parrish committed an early turnover and played the least of any Senator
Other
Mika Zibanejad had a rough first period (lot’s of turnovers), but got better throughout the game (he lead the team with three scoring chances) and was rewarded with the game winner
Kaspars Daugavins played a ton; I’m not entirely clear on why, but the coaches were happy with his game
For other opinions here’s Adnan of The Silver Seven (link) and SenShot‘s Jared Crozier (link).
eyeonthesens 