Things have been rolling my way for the past couple of days.
Yesterday, I Blogged about Wade Redden's apparent desire to remain a Sen, even if he must consider a paycut. Then last night, we had spaghetti for supper, my absolute favourite. Further delighting me were snowflakes in the air this morning.
Oh, yes. And the Sens beat the Leafs
again last night. This time, it was a thorough, complete, 5-1 romp!! Life is
good!!Of course, I missed the first period once again, because of Karate, so the Sens were already up 2-0 on the strength of early goals by Chris Phillips and Patrick Eaves by the time I tuned in. Early in the second frame, whilst on the PK, Wade Redden stepped up and chipped a puck to Dean McAmmond, who proceeded in on a 2-on-1 with Captain Alfie, passed it over to our fearless leader, and he rifled it home for his third shorty of the season. (The Sens lead the league with 5 total thus far). Later on in the period, Andrej Meszaros held a puck in at the blueline and fired it past Vesa Toskala for a 4-0 lead on only 13 shots, ending Toskala's night between the pipes.
Enter Andrew Raycroft. And it was also at this time that Leafs coach Paul Maurice called a time-out, gathered his troops, and subjected them to a severe tongue-lashing. I've never seen so many guys hanging their heads. I've never seen a coach look
that mad at his players. Seriously. His head almost popped off.
Well, it kinda-sorta worked, but not really. The Leafs did manage to cash one on the powerplay, but too little, too late. By the time Chris Kelly put one past Raycroft to make the score 5-1, the game was already too far out of reach for the lowly Leafs. They were absolutely atrocious last night. They almost looked lifeless. They gave up odd-man rushes galore, and it sometimes looked like they were just handing the puck over to the Sens, as if they were saying, "Here, just take it. We don't wanna play."
Marty Gerber was a bit of a surprise start in nets. Not that he didn't deserve to be there. By all accounts, he has been the #1 netminder for this team this year. At first, it was just because Ray Emery was recovering from wrist surgery. But Emery deemed himself "ready to go" a few weeks ago, and in the few starts he has had, he hasn't looked all that sharp. Last night, Gerber looked calm, cool & collected, stopping 30 Leaf shots, and he's on a roll so far. Kinda like the dude I expected him to be last year. Oh well. Better late than never, right?
Last night's game was particularly special, not just because beating the Leafs is always a joyous occasion, but because the Sens officially earned themselves the best starting record in NHL history, collecting 26 points after 14 games with a 13-1 record. They're the class of the league right now, and they've got people talkign. They're being compared to the Montreal Canadiens team of the mid-70's that only lost 8 games all year. Perhaps it's a little early to be suggesting a season like that, but this does seem to be a truly remarkable team destined for big things. It's fun to be a Sens fan right now, that's for sure.
Dare I start dreaming of the Cup already??
GO SENS GO!!
