The Ottawa Senators made it a series tonight by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in double-overtime, a series the Pens now lead 2-1. The heroes of the game were undoubtedly both goalies - Craig Anderson for the Sens, and Tomas Vokoun for the Pens - but the most impressive defenseman for Ottawa was the steady presence of Chris Phillips.
As the top pick of the 1996 draft, there was a lot of pressure on Phillips to perform, and his steady play - and the fact that he now wears an 'A' on his jersey - are a sign that he has lived up to the task. He reached the 1000-game milestone this season, and surpassed the 100-playoff game mark last year - all of them with the Senators.
I met him a year ago, as I went to see the Sens play the New York Rangers since my hometown Habs didn't make the playoffs; he signed these three cards for me in blue sharpie - one before the game, and two after. Ottawa won that one - in overtime, too, if I recall correctly.
First, a card showing the Sens' red (then-third, eventual main home) jersey, from In The Game's 2003-04 Action set (card #487):
But I've always preferred the Senators in black, and this jersey was particularly pretty:
The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Series 1 (card #141), while the card on the right is from UD's 2005-06 MVP set (card #270), one that features a fac-simile autograph on-card and feels weird to present to players, since most of them go out of their way to sign it in another direction than usual to not just sign on top of their already-present signature...
Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with these cards.
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