For the last seven years, today was kinda like Christmas Eve for Bruins fans. The night before one receives their presents, in this case the gift that is playoff hockey. This year, things look a little different with Boston missing the promised land for the first time since spring of 2007.
While owner and management are already planing for next season, 16 teams battle for what they call "the greatest trophy in all of sports" Lord Stanley's Cup.
In this blog I don't want to talk about what went wrong for the Bruins and changes that have to be made and I can honestly understand that the season is done for a lot of fans. Early exits by the Bruins have been my end of playoffs for a long time. This year gives us, Bruins fans first - hockey fans second, the chance to pick on a team right from the beginning and support them through the playoffs.
To me, this year is all about the cinderella story that has been the Ottawa Senators push for the playoffs. The Bruins won their first cup in 39 years by playing their own cinderella story in 2011, when they won a series for the first time after being down 2-0 (MTL) and took revenge for their own breakdown the year before by sweeping the Flyers. Not to mention the Stanley Cup Finals in which playoff hero Nathan Horton got injured and his teammates, taking on the series for that moment on.
But back to the Sens who were 14 points out of the playoffs by February 9th and finished the season with a 21-3-3 run that brought them the second wild card spot in the East. To make this run even more impressive, the team was carried by 27-year old rookie goaltender Andrew "The Hamburglar" Hammond, who became the first goalie in NHL history to win 16 of his first 18 starts.
Hammond, an undrafted Canadian who developed through US college hockey in Ohio, was called up from Binghamton after an injury to starter Craig Anderson in late January. His 2nd season with the Sens AHL affiliate wasn't going to well at that time, letting in about 3.5 goals per game. Things changed by the time he made his first NHL start of the season.
"The Hamburglar" finished the season with a record of 20-1-2, letting in only 1.79 goals per game with a save percentage of .941. But he wasn't the only Sens player that performed beyond expectations. Mark Stone, 6th round draft pick in 2010, was the teams top goal scorer with 26 goals combined with 38 assists for 3rd on the Sens scoring list, above Superstar Bobby Ryan.
In his first year as captain of the Ottawa Senators, former Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson
finished top on the scorer list for the second season in a row. The loss of Center and last years captain Jason Spezza didn't affect them as both Kyle Turris (24 G / 64 P) and Mika Zibanejad (20 G /46 P) performed with career high numbers.
The young forward group is completed with 25-year old Mike Hoffman, a 5th round pick from 2009. After being the Captain of the Sens AHL affiliate in Binghamton last year, Hoffman put up 48 points in his first full season with the big club.
The fact Ottawa faces off against our hated rivals from the North makes it even more fun to cheer for them. In 2013 the two teams fought themselves in a playoff series for the first time in 86 years ! There hasn't been a rivalry between these two for obvious reasons, but oh boy was that series fun for the Sens. Just like this year they finished 7th in the conference to face 2nd ranked Montréal.
Sens split game 1 and 2 in Montréal. Game 1 saw a hard hit by Sens Erik Gryba which left Habs Lars Eller unconscious. Habs goon Brandon Prust called Sens coach MacLean a bug-eyed fat walrus after he had claimed the hit was a (rather normal) hockey play.
The series went to Ottawa featuring a memorable game 3, a game that showed every kind of misbehavior from the Canadiens side.
Whether it was Ryan White crosschecking the hip of a sens forward, P.K Subban punching a defenseless Kyle Turris who was laying on the ice, Brendan Gallagher sucker punching Corey Conacher or Josh Georges taking a shot at Turris. The 3rd period also featured a bench clearing line-brawl between the teams in which the Sens won every fight to the wire.
At the end of the night 236 penalty minutes were assessed in the game that many "consider as best home game in Senators history". Hockey was played as well, 20-year old rookie Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored a hat trick and the Sens won 6-1.
After a comeback win in Game 4 the series shifted to Montréal with the series on the line.
Lead by 2 goals from Corey Conacher, Ottawa humiliated the Canadiens for another time beating them 6-1 on their own ice, going on to win the series 4-1. The Sens were eliminated by the Penguins in the next round but had given their fans one hell of a battle against Montréal.
On that note: Do it again Sens !
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credit to @myregularface and the crew of Stanley Cup of Chowder inspiring this post: Why you should cheer for the Bruins - 2013 SCF
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