By Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
Coming off a disappointing effort on Thursday night vs. NJD, the Senators rebounded with a significantly better performance on Saturday vs. the Lightning. Despite having neither Ullmark or Zub in the lineup, they came out with an assertive first period that earned them a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Their problems in the second period reared their head once again as TBL scored 3 goals, but the Senators showed resilience in making sure they went into the second intermission with a 4-3 lead. They exchanged goals in the third period, but never gave up the lead and held on for the 5-4 win. If the Senators are serious about making a playoff push this is precisely the kind of rival team they’ll need to start taking a clean 2 points from - and that’s exactly what they did on Saturday.
OTT 5 - TBL 4 (NHL Game Highlights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOLjT8_s6mI/
Head Coach Travis Green deserves credit for making some key lineup changes to the roster after Thursday’s game. Chief among them was moving Giroux to play with Norris-Batherson, which resulted in that line being combined 3G-3A, +3, with 11 shots, and over 21min of ice time each. The more the Senators can effectively balance their offensive attack across two scoring lines, the more they create huge match-up problems for opposing teams. Case in point, the Lightning were able to contain the Tkachuk-Stutzle line fairly effectively, but really had no answer for the Norris-Batherson line.
The Good - Batherson led the way with 2G-1A, where both goals came at key moments early in the game to give the Senators the lead. Sanderson proved once again that he is the undisputed #1D, with over 26min of ice time, 3 assists, a +1 rating, 4 hits, and 3 blocked shots. It was also great to see Stutzle engage more physically in this game, as he led all Senators forwards with 4 hits - one of which followed a key defensive play on his part, and led directly to the Senators’ 3rd goal. One last shout-out goes to Pinto, for having the poise to recognize the SH opportunity that led to the SHG... it was an absolute dagger of a momentum swing, and ended up being the critical GWG.
The Bad - The injury to Zub has exposed the weaknesses of this D-group, and they aren’t necessarily where expected. Many were prepared to throw Hamonic under the bus in the off-season, but he started the year as a veteran mentor for Kleven and has even been able to backfill a top-4 role in a pinch. However, the depth is in question with Bernard-Docker already being a -3 after just 2GP with limited ice time. Worse yet, Chabot is now a team-worst -6 on a team where none of the other top-6D regulars are more than a -1, despite having by far the highest % of offensive-zone starts. Jensen has played well as his RHD partner, but it's unclear to what extent he's off-setting Chabot's defensive lapses.
The Ugly - Forsberg deserves credit for battling throughout the game and making several big saves down the stretch, but it really feels like at least 2 of the TBL goals shouldn’t have happened. On more than one occasion you can draw it back to missed assignments, poor defensive zone coverage, or just pure mis-communication. To some extent this can be attributed to the learning curve under a new coach, but these goals need to stop happening because they are just so deflating and nearly spoiled an otherwise strong team effort. Details.
Next up will be the first game of a 3-game road trip vs. Utah HC, followed by VGK/COL. There might be a natural tendency to drift attention on the later two games due to their recent Cup wins, but they need to learn how to just focus on the next game and take every opportunity for 2 points seriously. Utah has already surprised a few teams, and have the young guns up front to take advantage of defensive lapses. It will be very interesting to see if Green has them ready to play with the same level of intensity they showed in their game vs. the Lightning.
What are your thoughts on the Senators win vs. TBL on Saturday? Please leave your comments below, and as always thanks for reading!
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