Craig Anderson faced a tough assignment in coming into the Ottawa Senators net amid personal turmoil, but don’t sleep on what Mike Condon was going through on Thursday night.
Condon’s issues have been more athletic than personal, even if scrambling to find somewhere to live is pretty personal in its own right; with Montreal going in a different direction, the fringe NHL goalie has been bouncing around the league. Now he must follow up Anderson’s incredible, emotional performances on an Ottawa Senators team that ... let’s be honest, hasn’t been super-friendly to a goalie.
So, how does Condon respond against a struggling Vancouver Canucks team with little time to prepare? Well, he kept things going in getting a shutout in Ottawa’s 1-0 shutout.
Granted, the Senators did a better of job of sheltering their new goalie than they did with Anderson, who had to put out superlative performances.
Condon needed to make a manageable 27 saves against the Canucks, and the physical stuff stole much of the story:
Whatever way you slice it, Guy Boucher’s Senators are now on a three-game winning streak in which they’ve allowed a single goal. Pretty impressive for a so-so team that was really struggling to keep the puck out of its own net to start the season.