First off, for the latest Sens updates, please follow me on Twitter at
Follow @KevinFr65525204
Give me a Twitter follow, I will give you a follow too!

After a four day rest, the Ottawa Senators jumped on the Dallas Stars early and often tonight, grabbing a huge road win 4-1! This was a team effort in every way but it was Filip Gustavsson standing tall in the goal stopping 38 of 39 shots and on a few occasions he came up with huge stops that could've changed the momentum of the game. He has defeated the Stars twice in less than two weeks too. He definitely earned the start in goal on Monday in Chicago and all of a sudden the Sens could claim four of a possible six points on this road trip with the Blackhawks struggling big time. Ottawa has the weekend off before they play back-to-back road games on consecutive nights in Chicago and Minnesota.

Ottawa was outshot badly, out-chanced, outhit, and lost the faceoff the battle too but the one stat that was telling tonight which led to numerous odd-man chances was that Dallas had 21 giveaways! The Sens made the most of their chances and on a couple of instances, Alex Formenton could've had two more goals, but was stoned by Brayden Holtby.

Connor Brown and Brady Tkachuk scored their first goals of this young season, while Josh Norris notched a pair to give him five goals on the year. The biggest aspect that stood out to me was the balance of the ice time with all four lines. For the first time this season, all four lines had a minimum of 10 minutes of ice time. The addition was of Dylan Gambrell certainly helped the cause tonight as both Logan Shaw and Zach Sanford had their best games in a Sens uniform. I doubt Austen Watson draws back in on Monday after the way the 4th line played tonight.

The third line all saw between 13 and 15 minutes of ice time which finally allowed the second line to have more quality time on the ice, rather than being overplayed compared to what they are used to. When you can have the bottom six forwards going the way they were tonight, it contributes to the team's success in a bigger way with this Sens team as guys like Brown and Nick Paul can play the role on this team that they are used to, in making them more effective. I always say, quality over quantity with these two players. It will be nice to see Tim Stutzle finally get rewarded for his play when he buries one in the net.

When looking at the defense tonight, Chabot and Zub continued their consistent ways while Nick Holden really helped Zaitsev tonight. Holden is easily this team's 3rd best on the blueline. The bottom pairing is where there is a serious dropoff with Mete/Brown. Mind you tonight, those two did enough to hold off Dallas, not like on Monday against Washington when every mistake they made ended up in the back in the net. I mentioned this in the blog comments today, Carson Soucy is a healthy scratch out in Seattle, 2 years at 2.75 million on his deal. He would be a great fit here and stabilize that blueline.

Question to Sens fans, as I know it's been a small sample size, but is Filip Gustavsson the future in goal for Ottawa? Imagine a 6 million dollar backup in Matt Murray, it could happen!

I am going to post a fun contest tomorrow to win a $50 gift card to the Sens store! Be sure to check it out.

Thanks for reading.
Kevin

Join the Discussion: » 39 Comments » Post New Comment

» Which player has exceeded expectations so far this season?!

» The Sens are in the playoff conversation to start 2023!!!!

» Sens set for critical back to back home games!

» Sens Gameday/More injuries/Sale of team

» Sens Gameday in Dallas/Dorion tried very hard to trade Formenton!