As expected, the Ottawa Senators are being carried by the goaltending of a former Pittsburgh Penguin.
It’s just not the ex-Penguin the Senators brass imagined it would be.
Filip Gustavsson, a second-round pick of the Penguins in 2016, came to Ottawa in 2018 in a trade that made ‘Gus’ just one of many goaltending prospects in the Senators system.
Over the past year, though, Gustavsson has emerged as the Senators’ most reliable backstop, most recently evidenced by his heroic performance under siege in Minnesota, an eventual 5-4 loss in overtime on Tuesday night. Though he was victimized on a couple of strange bounces and a plethora of all-alone chances, without Gustavsson, the Senators would have had no business earning a point.
But dear lord, the man needs some defensive help. Factoring in the 38-save performance in a 4-1 win in Dallas last Friday, Gustavsson has faced 82 shots in his last two starts. Many of those shots were from cozy spots in the slot.
Filip Gustavsson stood tall last night in Dallas and earned Performer of the Game honours in a 4-1 #Sens win! pic.twitter.com/9avdAvAHM5
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 30, 2021
Alleged No. 1 starter Matt Murray came off the injured list to lose 5-1 to previously winless Chicago on Monday. Murray is 0-2-0 with a 2.78 goals-against average and .897 save percentage. That swiftly moving vehicle that just blew past Murray is aka ‘Gus the Bus.’
Gustavsson is 2-1-1 with a 2.96 GAA and .916 save percentage. In his overall early career with Ottawa, Gustavsson carries a 7-2-3 record with a 2.42 GAA and .927 save percentage, numbers that reflect how important he has been to the Senators in 13 games played.
Head coach D.J. Smith knows he has to have dependable goaltending for a young, maturing team. Murray’s early struggles last season earmarked a horrific start that doomed the season.
Is there any doubt that Gustavsson will carry the load until Murray eventually gets sorted out? The injury-ravaged Vegas Golden Knights are in Ottawa on Thursday and the Tampa Bay Lightning visit Saturday.
Anton Forsberg, who was supposed to back up Murray while Gustavsson was supposed to be playing in AHL Belleville, has had some rough outings. He is 1-2-0, with a 4.80 GAA and .885 save percentage in four appearances.
Murray, who came to Ottawa a year ago in a trade with Pittsburgh and then extended with a four-year, $25-million contract, may yet lead the way for the Senators this season. But as they arrive home from a three-game road trip to the U.S., it’s the 23-year-old Gustavsson who has the reins, not the 27-year-old two-time Stanley Cup winner Murray.
“He just looked calm,” Smith said of Gustavsson’s battle vs. the Wild, which in the world of a coach is high praise.
It’s not the first time Smith has described Gustavsson as calm. At times, Murray has been anything but calm. And yet, there have been flashes of excellence from Murray until things unravel due to physical injury or a confidence problem.
After getting shelled by the Blackhawks 5-1 on Monday in just his third start of the season, Murray seems stuck on an endless, vicious cycle: poor play, a breakthrough, an injury, poor play, a breakthrough, an injury . . . .
Murray was brilliant in what should have been a tidy home-ice win against the New York Rangers on Oct. 23, leading 2-0 late in the game while stopping all 22 shots he had faced. With about five minutes left in the third period, Murray was simultaneously scored on and banged into by Rangers winger Chris Kreider. Murray left with a neck injury, rested and rehabilitated for the better part of a week, then was declared good to go in Chicago on Monday.
It felt like the right call, saving the sharper Gustavsson for the back-to-back challenge in Minnesota. The Blackhawks hadn’t won a game yet and Murray’s teammates figured to be well rested after the weekend to recover from the win in Dallas on Friday, where Gustavsson stopped 38 of 39 shots to deliver the victory.
Murray allowed five goals on 31 shots by the Blackhawks, including a slow roller from the distant stick of Brandon Hagel that eked past a couple of bodies in front of the goalie to tuck in just inside the far post to give the Blackhawks a 3-0 lead.
“I think, honestly, that third one is kind of the killer,” Murray said. “If that one doesn’t go in, we don’t have to open up quite as much with a two-goal lead. But that third one — and that’s on me — if that doesn’t go in, maybe it’s a different game.”
It’s a different goaltending triad at the moment, with Gustavsson at the top.
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‘Dangerous’ power play
The days of Ottawa having one of the NHL’s worst power plays appear to be long over. While they were only 1-for-4 against the Wild, with Josh Norris scoring on a second-period advantage to tie the game 3-3, the Senators have been impressive all season with the extra man. They are 12th in the league at 23.3 per cent, but the numbers aren’t what hockey observers in Ottawa are noticing. It is the way this group of five on the first power-play unit — Norris, Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle and Thomas Chabot — is throwing the puck around.
“Dangerous,” was the word Smith used to describe his top unit.
Tkachuk says it is only a matter of time before Ottawa’s production with the man advantage really takes off.
“It’s huge for our confidence,” Tkachuk said, about the dominant puck movement and opportunities generated on the power play. “Last year we had a tough time, a bit, but coming back this year we have a lot more confidence as a group and I think we’re going to keep progressing.
“That long two minutes (of first power-play unit time) we had a ton of chances and they will soon go in on those,” Tkachuk said.
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One point, moral victory?
Though they eventually lost in Minnesota on an overtime goal by Kirill Kaprizov, the Senators were pleased that they rebounded from a terrible first period, down 3-1 and outshot 13-7, to make a game of it.
“A year ago, we would have lost that game 6-1,” Smith said, praising his team for growing in maturity. “We stayed in the fight.”
Ottawa was 1-1-1 on the three-game road trip, which passes for .500 in today’s NHL, but in reality the Senators won one game of the three and that was due to some spectacular goaltending from Gustavsson when Dallas was all over the visitors early in that game. The Senators are going to have to get more tangible results on the road if they are going to hang around in the Atlantic Division race.
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Blueline help
Smith finds life easier at home, where he can get his line matchups and at least somewhat keep his defence from getting exposed. But with Chabot and Artem Zub as the only dependable defence pair at the moment, the Senators are either going to have to A) get help from outside (their track record in trading for veteran D-men is not great, to be kind) or B) promote someone from Belleville. Highly considered right-shot D-man Lassi Thomson has played in just four B-Sens games but is expected to return from an ankle injury this week.
Erik Brannstrom has changed agents and may be looking to find a new home, but the Senators were better defensively down the stretch last season with Brannstrom as part of the mix than they are today.
