It’s safe to assume the Ottawa Senators coaching staff spent at least some part of Wednesday going over game video of Canadiens goaltender Peter Budaj, looking for strengths and weaknesses.
About Ken Warren
Citizen sports writer/columnist Ken Warren has been covering the Ottawa Senators and the National Hockey League since 1995, bringing readers excitement from arenas throughout North America, including the Stanley Cup finals and the World Cup of Hockey finals. Warren has won Professional Hockey Writers Association awards in both the features and game story categories. During his 23-year career at the Citizen, Warren has also written from the Grey Cup, the Memorial Cup and about professional baseball -- both at the major league and minor league levels. He has followed the fortunes of the Ottawa Rough Riders and Renegades, the Ottawa 67's and Gatineau Olympiques. Warren, who graduated from Carleton University's journalism program, began his career in the newspaper business at a tender age, delivering the Citizen as a teenager.
Perhaps nobody bothered to tell the Ottawa Senators’ rookie forwards that inexperienced players aren’t supposed to have instant success in the NHL playoffs.
In the moments afterwards, Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean was positively giddy. Montreal Canadiens counterpart Michel Therrien looked like he had been hit by a truck.
The hockey gods are looking out for the Ottawa Senators after all. Kyle Turris’s goal, 2:42 into overtime, gave the Senators a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday in a game that appeared long, long gone only a few minutes earlier.
Guillaume Latendresse received some post-game criticism following the Senators Game 2 loss when he didn’t drop the gloves to fight Canadiens fourth-line pest Ryan White.
If the Montreal Canadiens are focussed on targetting Ottawa Senators defenceman Eric Gryba in Tuesday’s Game 4, Senators centre Zack Smith says bring it on.
Blood, sweat and teeth. It has been all that — and so much more, too — and we’re only a mere three games into the best-of-seven opening round NHL playoff series between the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens.