By Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
It’s been quite some time since the Battle of Ontario held any relevance in the standings, but that might be changing this year. The Senators have had an up-and-down start to the season, but have also been battling injuries and a difficult schedule, and have already recorded wins against several divisional rivals. On Tuesday, they came into their road game vs. TOR with all of their top-3C, top-4D, and #1G in the lineup for the first time since mid-October. The result was one of their best games of the season, where they won 3-0, outshot TOR by a 41-27 margin, and played right to the final whistle to ensure Linus Ullmark earned his first shutout as an Ottawa Senator.
OTT 3 - TOR 0 (NHL Game Highlights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paj6lVvu1KY/
The Senators have been guilty of surrendering momentum-shifting goals at key moments in far too many of its games early in this season. But on Tuesday they came out swinging early in both the first and second periods, and were rewarded with goals that really seemed to set the tone for the rest of the game. For the second game in a row, Josh Norris opened the scoring just 0:41 into the first period, which led to a 1-0 lead and 17-9 shot advantage after 20 minutes. Tim Stutzle scored just 3:12 into the second period, which led to a 3-0 lead and 18-9 shot advantage after 40 minutes. And while it probably shouldn’t matter as much as it does, OTT is now 7-1 when scoring first and 1-6 when they don’t. This speaks to the persistent fragility of the group, which is something they’ll need to continue working on.
The Good - Linus Ullmark gets the first nod for earning a 27-shot shutout, where he made several big saves at key moments to deny the Maple Leafs any kind of momentum. Josh Norris scored his second 1st period goal in as many games, and continues to show that when playing with Brady Tkachuk he looks a lot more like the 35G-scorer that earned an 8-year contract. Tim Stutzle gets credit for playing through his eye injury, and scoring another big goal. In fact, that whole new Giroux-Stutzle-Batherson line played very well, and had a combined 14 shots on goal. Michael Amadio gets the final nod for scoring his 2nd goal in as many games, after having so many games of working hard without reward.
The Bad - Pretty much everyone on the Maple Leafs roster gets some kind of mention here, given the relative lack of energy and push back they showed. Matthews being injured is obviously a big deal, but it doesn’t mean the rest of the core-4 have to be shut-out. Nylander was a -2 but had 5 shots on goal and you could see him trying, but Marner having just 1 shot in a game like this is hard to defend. The Senators were also able to score their goals right through the top D-pairing of Reilly and Ekman-Larsson, who were both -2 on the night. When your best players aren’t producing and are also the ones being scored on, you’re going to lose that game.
The Ugly - For the second game in a row, the Senators appear to have caught one of their key divisional rivals at a low point. Rare is the game where you can hold the Bruins to zero shots in the 3rd period of a close game on their home ice, and the Maple Leafs are rarely shutout on home ice against a Canadian rival. This takes nothing away from a pair of very solid efforts by the Senators, where they had all lines skating hard and looked like the better team on both nights. But it’s hard to assess where the team is truly at when they clearly didn’t get their opponents’ best effort. The real test will be to try to pick off 2 points from these teams later in the season in more consequential games.
The win improves the Senators record to 8-7-0 on the year, and they’re now effectively tied with BOS/TBL in terms of being 1 game over .500. Given the level of competition they’ve faced early in the season it’s a respectable record and position in the standings, but it’s also important to note that they had an identical 8-7-0 record last year. In fact, this was precisely the tipping point when they lost 7 of their next 10 games, and lost control of their season. However, it’s noteworthy to point out that 4 of their 8 wins this year have come against FLA, TBL, BOS, and TOR, which are exactly the kinds of teams they’re going to need success against if they expect to challenge for a playoff spot.
Regardless, with so many players now back in the lineup after early-season injuries, the Senators need to keep their foot on the gas, and not fall off like they did in the BUF/NYI stretch. They have 5 of their next 6 games at home, but this stretch also includes games vs. CAR, VGK, EDM, VAN, and CGY… all of which have equal or better records than OTT so far this season. So it’s not a time where they can afford to come out flat, or start believing that a pair of wins vs. BOS/TOR in November will mean anything if they can’t translate it into more of a sustained winning streak.
What did you think about the Senators’ shutout win vs. the Maple Leafs? Please leave your comments below, and as always thanks for reading!
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