Scouts often tell stories about going to an arena to watch one prospect, only to leave the rink raving about a different player.
The same can happen to fans and media where the home team is concerned. Watching the Senators play the Seattle Kraken and Nashville Predators Saturday and Monday, the pregame focus in Ottawa was all about the Sens. Naturally. Could they win their third straight game (Saturday) and fifth in six games?
After that sobering 8-4 loss, followed by their first shutout loss of the season, 3-0 to Nashville two nights later, we were all talking about the visitors. Weren’t the Kraken amazing with their five-on-five play, scoring eight even-strength goals on 24 shots? Oh, wait. The Preds also scored three five-on-five goals, but on 36 shots.
And what goaltending by the Predators athletic goalie Juuse Saros, who stopped all 38 Ottawa attempts. Saros stands five-foot-11. Imagine that? He’s no six-foot-five giant taking up space. Saros is the kind of goaltender some of us grew up watching, small, but quick and daring. Exciting.
The common denominator in this praise of the opposition? These teams that protected their own net so fiercely, exploited the Senators defence and were opportunistic with their chances. As winning teams do. You can learn all about the local team by observing teams that look good by comparison.
Neither Seattle nor Nashville would be considered a strong Stanley Cup contender at this point, although the Kraken are a huge surprise, sitting third in the Pacific Division and have amazing numbers at even-strength. They don’t have a single scorer over 35 points and their offensive heroes are castoffs Andre Burakovsky and Jordan Eberle, plus draft pick Matt Beniers (second overall, 2021).
Yet, the third-place Kraken and fifth-place Preds (Central) outclassed the Senators in their own end at times.
While the Senators certainly had their chances on Saros, and had a goal by Brady Tkachuk called off after an offside review (the Preds lost a goal the same way), the three goals allowed by Ottawa were instructional.
Goal No. 1: Senators defenceman Erik Brannstrom makes a terrible turnover near centre ice on a pass attempt, which creates a two-on-one for Nashville. Nino Niederreiter dishes to Roman Josi. And so, after a strong opening 10 minutes, the Senators are trailing 1-0.
Goal No. 2: Just half a minute later, the Senators get outnumbered behind their own net, Tanner Jeannot tries a wraparound and goaltender Cam Talbot can’t get over in time. The puck hits Jeremy Lauzon on the way in and he gets credit for the goal. 2-0.
Goal No. 3: About seven minutes into the third period, defenceman Thomas Chabot can’t keep a puck in at the enemy blueline (a recurring problem this season), dives for it and loses possession as a two-on-one forms the other way. Artem Zub, generally Ottawa’s most reliable defender, cheats so far over to take the pass away that Filip Forsberg has a great shooting angle, a right-hand shot down the left side. He snipes to Talbot’s glove side. 3-0.
Game over. The Senators amped up their shot attempts to 16 in the third period, fattening Saros’ save percentage, and at the buzzer, it was Talbot who was called on to make one last save on the night.
Afterward, Senators head coach D.J. Smith was about as pointed in his criticism as he has been all season. Not with the effort, but the mistakes.
“I thought we had a great start – all over them,” Smith said. “Then, a real bad turnover (by Brannstrom). That changes the momentum of the game. They get an ugly goal (the wraparound) and then we turn one over again in the third period (Chabot).
“You can’t shoot yourself in the foot, and we did. We had lots of chances, their goalie was great. But again, you’re at home, you’ve got the game in control, just let the puck do the work. We didn’t do that.”
The Senators power play, a source of strength all season, was 0-for-5, after going 1-for-3 against Seattle. Of course, the power play can’t rescue the Senators every night.
Tellingly, Ottawa sits tied for 30th (with Anaheim) at even-strength goals with 74. The Kraken are No. 1, with 119.
Veteran winger Austin Watson, the former Predator, credited his old team but felt the Senators veered from the type of hockey that had them winning last month.
“If we’ve learned anything from when we got going good, in December, it’s that we’re good when we play the way the Ottawa Senators play,” Watson said. “We don’t play run-and-gun, we don’t turn pucks over. We’re north and south, we dump and chase. It might not be sexy, but it works for us.”
On Tuesday, the Senators flew south to Arizona, where they will skate Wednesday in preparation for a Thursday game with the Coyotes. On Saturday, the Sens visit Colorado and the three-stop trip ends Monday, in St. Louis.
“It’s a huge trip for us,” Smith said. “We had the month we had in December (8-3-3), we’re 2-2 in January. We need to be over .500 in January, we know that. So, now we’ve got to get our game back, on the road.”
