The Home Opener
It’s been a while since Scotiabank has seen some serious hockey excitement. Yes the Sens have played a few preseason games there but everybody knows those aren’t usually the real definition of excitement. So tonight we welcome John Tavares and the New York Islanders for the home opener. After an impressive win over the Leafs on Tuesday, the fans are excited if the Sens can continue the streak. They’re also excited to see if they’ll change their reputation of not being able beat weaker teams.
The Islanders are a younger and more exciting team but not necessarily that much better. That being said, the Sens lost 3 out of 4 games to them last season and I’m sure they don’t want to repeat those stats this season; and especially not starting on their first home game. The Islanders also have a more talented and experienced goalie in Roloson. Will our depth and offense finally break out? It should; after all we have the excitement of the crowd and the players, the confidence and energy from last game on our side.
If last game has showed us anything is that the team isn’t perfect yet and has a long way to go. But the fact that they could grind it out and play smart hockey and hold on to such a close score speaks volume of how far the team has progressed. Will we finally be taking advantages of lower teams to get higher in the standings? The nest two games against the Islanders and Thrashers should be a good indication of whether the team has finally changed or not. There’s also the fact that players’ emotions are on the high end on home openers and tend to get overly excited which can be somewhat worrisome, especially for our new goaltender Pascal Leclaire who has never played a regular season home game in Scotiabank Place before. Another concern is our injuries; we’re already 3 guys down including one of our top defensemen in Filip Kuba. The defence played well in Toronto and found a way to do their jobs but the Isles are a little more offensively charged and filled with young guns that are charged and excited. We definitely need another spectacular game from Anton Volchenkov and a calmer Erik Karlsson to be able to truly dominate the Isles.
All in all I don’t like to presume we’re going to smoke the other team just because they’re less talented than we are because something can always go wrong. But while there are some concerns about tonight’s game, none of them are worthy of being seriously worried. We also still haven’t seen the full potential of our team, and you never know maybe they’re waiting for the home opener to let it all out and entertain us with the game of the century. Let’s hope that Scotiabank is loud and rocking and can provide the team with the energy and motivation they need to win. And don’t forget….
....GO SENS GO!!
__________________
Let's Go Senators!! K.I.C.K.A.S.S That's The Way We Spell Success
|
Linear Mode
