To win consistently in the NHL, your team needs to be good at a lot of different areas of the game. Everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction, virtually all of the time. Because when you lose the rope, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes, things can go pear shaped really quickly. Like, say, giving up three goals in less than fives minutes. That can happen.
The first period of tonight’s game got off to a good start for the Sens when some solid forechecking and cycling by Matt Duchene led to a wonderful chance in front for Mikkel Boedker, who couldn’t quite find the handle in time to get the puck up and over a fallen Carey Price.