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Okay, so it’s just a week into the Senators’ regular season.
It’s a pretty tight snapshot, but the view from the top of the Northeast Division has to be plenty fine at this point, especially after the developments in Saturday night’s tidy 4-2 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at Scotiabank Place.
The win, the Senators’ third in a row to move to 3-1, saw the first-place club knock off another couple of firsts, including the first goal as a Senator by Alex Kovalev and the club’s first power-play goal of the season — the winner by Mike Fisher.
The win, in front of 19,360, was the first of the season for goaltender Brian Elliott.
Heading into tomorrow night’s visit from the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators’ third and fourth lines continued to be the underpinning of their successful start to the season, but the top two lines are also showing some life.
After Kovalev converted a heady pass from Fisher to open the scoring just 43 seconds into the game, the fourth line of Jarkko Ruutu, Chris Kelly and Shean Donovan came through with another goal for a 2-0 lead at 2:25 (Donovan scored in the 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and with his assist last night, he must lead the league in points per minutes played. He’s averaging about seven minutes a game.)
The Thrashers tied it up on goals by Ilya Kovalchuk (five already this season; got to love a contract year) and Ron Hainsey before Fisher knocked in a rebound with the man advantage after a nice move down the right wing by rookie Peter Regin (who later left the game with an upper-body injury).
Chris Neil got his first at 5:12 of the third on some nice work by the third line for the insurance goal.
“You hope the first two lines cancel each other out and the third and fourth lines can win you games,” said Neil. “Ruutu, Kelly and Donovan. When those guys are on your fourth line, you know you have a good team.”
“It’s a nice feeling in the dressing room to get contributions from everybody,” said coach Cory Clouston, whose tweaking of the first two lines — putting Kovalev with Fisher and captain Daniel Alfredsson, paid off.
“When everybody is involved, it creates energy and it’s just a really good situation to have. We’re fortunate the third and fourth lines have gotten some dirty goals and given us momentum.”
While the power play finally came through after going 0-for-7 in the first three games, Clouston still isn’t satisfied with the number of penalties the club is drawing.
Part of the problem has been the slow start by the club’s top half up front. They haven’t been buzzing yet, putting defenders in positions where they have no choice but to take a penalty.
The Senators still only drew three power plays last night.
“In order for our power play to really get going, you need five or six (power plays) a game just to give it some momentum,” said Clouston, “and to get an opportunity to make adjustments to what a penalty kill is doing.
“To get a goal when we did, I think, was very important. Sometimes it’s not how many, but when you score them.”