A Magical Night in Ottawa: Senators' Norris scores twice in return

After months of painful shoulder rehab and 270 days between games, Ottawa Senators centre Josh Norris didn’t mind admitting he leaned on his religious faith to get him through the tough days.

“I think God is pretty amazing,” Norris said, after a comeback night that would make an inspiring storyline for a children’s book.

The hockey gods weren’t bad either, deeming that Norris should be rewarded with two goals scored and a game of health and vigour in Wednesday’s 6-1 romp over the Washington Capitals.

Fans at the Canadian Tire Centre cheered Norris the moment they spotted No. 9 on his first shift, less than two minutes into the game. They cheered louder at a closeup of him on the scoreboard monitor. 

“It was a pretty long road and some hard days and we’re finally here now,” Norris said, notably reserved in a dressing room scrum postgame. 

“It’s just a great night and I’m happy we won this game,” Norris said. 

Norris scored his first goal on the power play at 12:29 of the first period, to give the Senators a 2-0 lead. Standing near the goal crease, Norris accepted a blind backhand feed from Drake Batherson and he had nothing but net, as they say in basketball. 

Batherson said he had practiced the play so often with Norris he didn’t even look to see if he was present. 

“I figured he was there, I didn’t know he was there,” Batherson said. “I got lucky.”

Norris’ second goal, early in the second period, came off a pass to the slot from Batherson, as Norris wired a snap shot past the glove side of Darcy Kuemper. 

With primary assists on both Norris goals, Batherson had an eventful reunion with a linemate he has known in Ottawa and AHL Belleville and was more animated than Norris about the young centre’s night of triumph. Norris seemed humbled by it. Perhaps shocked.  

“I was excited and I didn’t even score the goals,” Batherson said. “I can’t imagine what he was feeling.”

Despite the anticipation of getting their No. 2 centre back in the lineup – Batherson said his teammates were “pumping his tires all day” – Norris was determined to remain calm. Treat it like any other game, he said, which was no small feat, given that he played just ten games last season while undergoing a second shoulder surgery. 

“I did hear the fans kind of give me a nice little ovation,” Norris said. “So, I thought that was really cool.”

Though he didn’t specify exactly when he knew his shoulder was ready for the first test of game action, Norris said he was told recently by the team’s medical staff that he was physically set to go. Some rather intense practice sessions, including aggressive faceoff work with assistant coach Ben Sexton, helped Norris find the confidence he needed in his own body. 

“After talking to some docs and making sure everything was OK, I think most importantly, I just had to feel comfortable in my own brain,” Norris said. “Just trust yourself.”

There wasn’t much doubt about Norris’s comfort level with Batherson, who finally had the centre he needed to form an effective line with newcomer Dominik Kubalik. 

“He’s such a good player,” Norris said of Batherson, “I like having him on my line.”

There’s an understatement. 

Such was head coach D.J. Smith’s belief that Norris was ready, he let him take 11 faceoffs in the game, winning five of them. It was on a faceoff, remember, that Norris hurt his shoulder, almost one year ago to the day. He returned for three games in January, before shutting it down and getting surgery. 

“Clearly, he’s in shape and give the development guys credit, they had him ready,” Smith said. 

“I don’t know how many faceoffs he took leading up to this.”

Inference? A lot. 

While Smith said he could hardly have expected a two-goal night in the 24-year-old’s first game back, he was not really surprised. 

“You can see the difference (he makes),” Smith said. “He only needs one look and it goes away . . . one look, bang! It’s in the back of the net and now you’ve got the game under control. If he’s not there, do you win? You don’t know. If it’s a night where it’s not going in for us.”

The Sens have not had any of those nights at home this season, where the puck is not going in. They have scored 16 goals in three home games while outscoring three Eastern opponents 16-5. 

Despite what appears on paper to have been an easy game, Ottawa was not sharp in the first period against Washington and turned a lot of pucks over. Washington didn’t ‘Cap-italize’ and Sens goalie Anton Forsberg was a large part of the reason. He stopped 23 of 24 shots, including an early flurry in close from T.J. Oshie and Connor McMichael when the score was 1-0 for Ottawa. 

This was the third straight game in which the Sens have allowed the visiting team fewer than 25 shots on goal as they improved their overall record to 3-1, tied with the Detroit Red Wings for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Wings visit Ottawa on Saturday. 

The fact the Sens weren’t sharp early and still put a six-spot on the board is yet another sign of the team’s progression. Even on nights they aren’t at their best they have the firepower to win games. 

Nice team win, but a spectacular individual show by Norris, who played 16:34 and had three of Ottawa’s 29 shots in front of 15,021 fans. 

“He did what he gets paid for, put it right in the back of the net,” Batherson said. “Super pumped for him and his family. For him to get back out there tonight, I know how excited he was. He was just happy to play, let alone get two.”