Sens Win...Is This Right? A Shootout???

What's all this then? Senators? Not sucking? I'm unfamiliar with their whole new confidence and intensity thing. It confuses and frightens me. Saturday night, the Sens looked great, rattling the Sabres in a shootout, 3-2. The Sens finally brought guns to a shootout.

The Sens have crashed hard over the last calendar year. It's insanely early, of course, but they seem to have rebooted since Craig Hartsburg's firing and Cory Clouston's hiring. Bryan Murray, as he did with Mike Babcock in Anaheim, went off the page to hire Clouston but there’s no question the team has improved in every game since he was hired.

That means one of two things is happening right now. Either Clouston is an awesome young coach, suddenly getting the best out of a stuggling team. Or the team is just enjoying a temporary respite from hearing the same guy hammering them night after night for not being very good. It feels so good when the hammering stops.

No matter how it plays out, Murray is in a tough spot. If the Sens get back to sucking, Murray will not be allowed to blame another coach. If the team thrives under Clouston, it'll be hard not to pose the question. Why didn't they do all this a month ago when there was still time to save the season?

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Ryan Shannon must have read my recent blog about not being visible some nights. He is in no way a make or break player but he has looked right at home in the NHL. Like his new linemates, Mike Fisher and Nick Foligno, he's quick, forechecks well but won't score much. Shannon has the advantage of having worked for Clouston all year. He said yesterday he's so used to Clouston that it's everyone else who feels like a call up. Call-ups generally have to deal with nerves and a new system. So far Shannon has had to deal with neither.