On the very day their identity was questioned last week, the Ottawa Senators rediscovered it.
They met as a group prior to their game in Raleigh against the prodigious Carolina Hurricanes then scratched and clawed their way to a 3-2 victory. Yes, they were outshot 49-20, and goaltender Anton Forsberg was the hero of the night, but the underlying theme was the work ethic and tenacity of the visitors, led by the line of Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Drake Batherson.
Head coach D.J. Smith said afterward his young first line “came of age” in that game, the outcome representing a small miracle in the American south, where the visitors arrived in the middle of the night following a game the night before at home, a 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, that was the low point of Ottawa’s season.
Sometimes a bounceback begins with a thump on the basement floor. Such was the case with the Senators. They were embarrassed as a group to be sitting in last place overall while being called out for their lack of effort against Vancouver.
Ottawa’s 22-year-old captain, the youngest in franchise history, took a stand — on and off the ice. He said later the team meeting brought them together.
“I think that was the difference right there, and everyone has been putting it all on the line,” Tkachuk said. “We’re just going to keep going.”
The miracle in Raleigh was followed up with a night of mayhem against the Colorado Avalanche, a 6-5 overtime victory by the Senators, punctuated by an emphatic OT goal by Tkachuk on a breakaway.
“With all that (open) ice I told myself, I better score,” Tkachuk said.
Not known for his speed, Tkachuk put on a burst to separate himself from the Avs’ Valeri Nichushkin.
“I tried to get in my getaway boots,” he said.
Smooth getaway.
Stützle explodes
The Senators’ first two-game winning streak of the season was vital for many reasons. The dramatic wins did wonders for team morale and confidence, even if Ottawa blew a 5-2 lead in the third period Saturday and had to rally in OT.
“The adversity we faced, if it’s earlier in the season, we’d crumble under that pressure,” Tkachuk said.
The victories also highlighted the development of the Norris-Tkachuk-Batherson line, which went head-to-head with Nathan MacKinnon’s line and survived, following a gutsy road effort in Carolina.
The trio’s two-game scoring line: Tkachuk, 2G, 2A, 4pts; Norris, 2G, 1A, 3 pts and Batherson, two assists.
Tkachuk has personally elevated his game, hitting his stride after missing all of training camp while in contract negotiations. Smith said he is seeing “complete leadership” from Tkachuk.
“It’s his play away from the puck that’s adding to the fact,” Smith said. “We know he can be physical, emotional and he can make plays, but his play away from the puck is significantly better.”
Saturday also marked the first two-goal game of the season for sophomore forward Tim Stutzle, who has settled in at centre over the past few games. Stützle scored a weird one, crashing into the net and taking the puck with him, and then added a goal-scorer’s goal, a brilliant shot off a no-look pass from Batherson.
Stützle called his first one “the luckiest goal I’ve ever scored” then poked fun at his own hard luck earlier in the season. When someone asked him if that second goal, the snipe, might have hit the post or gone wide a couple of weeks ago, Stützle laughed.
“Probably, yeah.”
With three goals and 11 assists after 22 games, Stützle seems ready to go on a bit of a tear. He had a lot of good looks early on that didn’t go in for him.
Sleepless nights for Dorion
General manager Pierre Dorion made a surprise and unannounced visit to the microphone Saturday morning.
Dorion hasn’t spoken publicly in weeks, was noticeably quiet during the COVID-19 outbreak in the organization and during a 4-15-1 start to the season. Perhaps emboldened by his team’s win in Colorado, the GM spoke at length about the unexpectedly rough first quarter, about his “sleepless nights” and on the demotion of struggling goaltender Matt Murray.
The Senators were supposed to be closer to a competitive team by now. In fact, if you go back to the predictions of owner Eugene Melnyk and Dorion, 2021 and 2022 were supposed to mark the start of the “unparalleled success” era.
Even granting a mulligan on the timing, Ottawa was expected to be on the verge of competing for a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division this season, an expectation Dorion didn’t deny.
He famously said in October: “The rebuild is over. I don’t want to hear the word anymore.”
On Saturday, Dorion said he regretted using that phrase.
“Probably what I should have said is, ‘pretty much all the core pieces of the rebuild are in the organization,” Dorion said.
Dorion more or less owned his share of responsibility for the rotten start.
“The buck stops with me,” he said.
Yet, he went on to blame his players for not playing up to their abilities.
“I’m not going to name players, but a lot of the players on this team have underperformed this year to the level they performed in the second half last year, or if you look at the whole season last year,” Dorion said. “The players have to step up, the coaching staff has to step up, the general manager and the management have to step up. We all have to be better.”
Could Dorion have done anything differently?
“I’ve thought a lot about that,” Dorion said. “You say to yourself, maybe instead of putting money there, I could have put it towards a centre. But we tried to do that and the fit or term wasn’t right in the summer.”
The reason for second-guessing the centre position is the loss of second and third line centres Shane Pinto and Colin White. Both are out with long-term injuries.
Injuries alone can’t wash away the difficulty the Senators have had patching in experienced help at forward, defence and the goaltender position during recent off-seasons.
On Saturday, two of Ottawa’s recent veteran signings — defencemen Michael Del Zotto and Victor Mete — sat in the press box while $6.25-million goaltender Matt Murray, who was put on waivers last week, was in the net for the AHL Belleville Senators and lost 3-1.
On the flip side, the Senators’ draft picks continue to show well and provide hope. Batherson has blossomed into Ottawa’s best forward over the first quarter of the season while rookie defenceman Lassi Thomson has held his own since being called up as an emergency replacement during the team’s COVID-19 crisis. Defenceman Thomas Chabot’s durability and continued excellence is under-appreciated. He deserves consideration when Canada builds its blue-line for the Olympics. And Ottawa’s top line of Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson has the look of a true No. 1 unit.
As for the goaltending situation, Forsberg is the surprise starter at the moment with Filip Gustavsson backing him up.
Dorion says he still has faith in Murray.
“He’s just got to find his game and not be under the NHL microscope,” Dorion says. “At some point in time, he’ll be back in Ottawa.”
With the makeup game against the New Jersey Devils on the calendar Monday, the Senators have a busy start to the week – Monday in New Jersey and Tuesday back home to face the New York Islanders. Ottawa is then off until a Saturday visit by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Senators takeaways: How embarrassing loss sparked dramatic 2-game win streak
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal
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