I attended Game 1 between the 67s and Sudbury Wolves.
They had to play it at ScotiaBank Place (Sens home ice) instead of their own rink (Landsdowne Park) as there was a spring home show displaying there this past weekend.
I don't know if it was the week off between games or they thought this series might be a cake walk because of them being the favorites, but Ottawa came out flat and had a bad game.
That is not to take away from Sudbury's game, as they came at Ottawa all afternoon. I don't overly know the Wolves that well, but from what I saw, they have a fast, hard working team. They also weren't afraid to get a little dirty as they took a whopping 14 penalties, including three 5 on 3's.
If the 67's didn't have all of those power play opportunities, as they scored 4 or their 7 goals on the PP, they would have been hemmed in their own zone for the entire game and the score wouldn't have been close.
Game 2 is crucial for Ottawa, as this game and Game 3 are back to back and in Sudbury. If Ottawa loses tonight, they will find themselves in a heap of trouble going into tomorrow night's game.
Some good news for the 67's is Shane Prince will suit up and rejoin Toffoli and Martindale on the top line for this game since suffering a concussion a few weeks ago.
I personally have been paying close attention to one of Ottawa's defensemen, Cody Ceci.
I noticed him 2 years ago at one of the 67's scrimages during training camp and the thing that stood out, him being only 15 at the time, was how big this kid was (not sure of his size then, but he's 17, 6'-2" and 203 at present time), and not too bad in the skating department.
As last season wore on, he displayed some nice poise while handling the puck and possessed a nice shot. During this season, 67's coach Chirs Byrne urdged him to shoot more frequently and he ended up putting up 9 goals and 25 assists for his second campaign.
He could use a little more speed and nastiness, but he's only 17, and will have a good 2 or 3 more years at the junior level to develop.
Let's see what happens tonight in Game 2!
...if I might add, we are currently dating, and she is quite a handful in the bedroom...