The Silfver Surfver

Since last night’s pretty performance against the Winnipeg Jets, I’m sure we’ve all seen at least ten witty wordplay headline nicknames for Jakob Silfverberg in the sports press: Silfver Star, Sterling Silfver, Silfver Spoon…

But let’s face it – mine is the wittiest.

Jakob Silfverberg scored two laser-beam wrister goals (from nearly the exact same spot) to help take the Senators up to 2-0 in the first period and 4-1 in the third.

Coming off the high of their first actual win in nearly ten days in Buffalo on Saturday March 17, the Ottawa Senators returned home on March 18, 2013 to a packed Scotiabank Place crowd and gained something that they haven’t been able to attain in some time – breathing room.

Possibly due to a late shootout game against Toronto, the Jets looked a bit gassed out of the gate. Winnipeg was never able to recover from an early b-line goal from Alfredsson (which was later assigned to Latendresse, even though Alfie did all the work) and Silfverberg’s sweet powerplay finish from a ‘silfver platter’ Gonchar pass. (Silfver platter? Not too shabby, hunh?) At the end of the first, the Sens had outshot the Jets by a mark of 19-6. The Sens were out-skating and outplaying the Jets in every aspect of the game.

After a scoreless second period, and a few great saves by both Robin Lehner and Ondrej Pavelec, the Jets got lucky early in the third with a blistering point-shot by Zach Bogosian. After the high-flying octane of the Sens so far, the crowd got the feeling that the scoring wasn’t done – and it wasn’t.

Scoring his third goal in two games was Kyle Turris off another golden feed from Alfredsson. Turris even scored from the exact same spot that helped get them past Buffalo in OT. Just over a minute later, Silfverberg shone again on another wrister that baffled Pavelec (Get it? Shiny silfver? Eh?)

The Senators played well and now sit 4 points ahead of the 6th place Toronto Maple Leafs with a 15-8-6 record. By winning twice in two days, the Sens have moved themselves out of the Eastern Conference log jam that runs from 6th place all the way down to 11th place (the Leafs have 32 points but the 11th place Flyers have 27).

A great thing about this Sens team is that everybody is pitching into the workload. Even tough guy Chris Neil (who set up Gonchar to make the first powerplay pass to Silfverberg) seems to have a spring in his step and looks happy playing any role that Paul MacLean wants him to play. No one is claiming a superstar role and they are sticking to what works. Turris scoring from impossible angles? Sure. Alfredsson almost soccer-booting the first goal in the net to gain momentum? Why not.

Robin Lehner put on a first-star solid performance in front of his hometown crowd, and made a beautiful 2 on 1 stop against the Jets in the 2nd to keep the lead.

But shining brightest last night was the calm, cool and collected Jakob ‘Silfver Surfver’ Silfverberg. Barely ever showing more than a slight smirk after scoring two goals, the fast release hands of the young Swede seem to be giving A-list netminders a hard time.

If the Sens stick to these working (and sometimes shiny and ‘silfvery’) parts, the ticker tape point parade will float on.