Karlsson helps Senators edge Rangers 2-1 in Game 1

He stopped Erik Karlsson and his former teammate Derick Brassard three times and a host of Senators twice, many of his saves of the acrobatic and gymnastic variety.

How else to explain the impossible angle he scored from to make sure the Ottawa Senators didn’t waste a strong performance to open Round 2?

“He’s a good player”, said Brassard of Zibanejad. Unfortunately, a bad second goal with under five minutes in the third made the Senators take the lead and a 1-0 series lead.

Sidney Crosby scored two goals in 52 seconds, Nick Bonino had the victor in the third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Thursday night.

I do believe the players need to be more of a threat to shoot.

It was Brassard to Ottawa in exchange for Mika Zibanejad and a second-rounder in a trade that essentially was completed at the draft table in late June, but was not consummated until the middle of July because of consideration revolving around a bonus payment due to Brassard. Despite playing the first round with two hairline fractures in his foot, he was the best player on the ice for either team. His.947 save percentage was the third highest of goaltenders to advance to the second round, and he looked quite unbeatable against Montreal. On a play eerily similar to the above mentioned, Bobby Ryan found MacArthur perched in the slot, who one-timed the puck top corner to draw the game even and send the crowd into a frenzy.

David: I expected the Rangers to fall to Montreal easily, and Ottawa has come out of an event horizon to swashbuckle with the best of them which means I have no idea what’s gonna happen.

Then, in a flash, Karlsson strikes with just 4:11 left on the clock. “And I think that the amount of pucks that we put at the net we were well-deserved at one of those”. “They’re taxing, they’re hard, they’re long and hard on the body”. The 26-year-old Swede joined Islanders Hall of Famer Denis Potvin as the only defensemen in league history to lead his team in scoring for four consecutive seasons. He plays and plays.

But because he could not do that, it was Karlsson, Ottawa’s best player, who was the hero of Game 1.

Occasionally, the coach needs to remind himself that he’s watching something special. He played in only four games this year, without recording a point.

Earlier in the day Karlsson called the Rangers the favourites in Ottawa’s first second-round series in four years.

“Alex Burrows told me to enjoy it”.

“It’s been so consistent that I guess I got used to it”, Boucher said. “I knew it was going to come up and be brought up a lot, but for me, try and just win”. That simply isn’t true. The goal came on Ottawa’s power play as well, with Ryan Dzingel finishing off a rebound following a scramble off to the side of Henrik Lundqvist.

After outplaying Carey Price, the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist now goes against the Senators’ Craig Anderson. “He’s done a real good job for us”. While Senators coach Guy Boucher liked what he saw from his team against the Bruins in the opening round, he knows they’ll need to be even better to have any chance of beating NY. “There will be no tapping of the butt as they go by on the ice”.

It has been a fascinating year for Karlsson, who bought into Boucher’s defensive system immediately. Maharaj is in his first full season as the Ducks’ goaltending coach, having replaced Dwayne Roloson this past summer. The Rangers goalie was solid in the opening round of the playoffs and Karlsson says the key to any success will be to frustrate Lundqvist. But the Rangers broke the streak during this series with a 2-1 win in Game 4 against Montreal as well as closing out the series at home with a 3-1 victory in Game 6. And yet it remained a possibility with the clocking ticking towards zero.