Talbot's record performance brings back Hamburglar memories for Senators fans

OTTAWA -- Forget, for a moment, the thought that this win might launch the Ottawa Senators into the kind of second-half charge to make their playoff dreams come true.

Let’s enjoy it for what it was: a thrilling victory on home ice, 65 minutes of action plus a shootout, played in front of the largest crowd of the year at the Canadian Tire Centre -- 20,016.

That several thousand of those fans were wearing Boston Bruins colours only added to the drama, as the Senators silenced the invaders with the 3-2 shootout win.

Winger Alex DeBrincat, who was spectacular throughout, scored a goal in regulation and netted the only shootout goal Ottawa would need as Cam Talbot stopped all three Bruins shooters.

Indeed the night belonged to Talbot, who put on a show in the third period fans won’t soon forget. He kicked out so many rapid-fire Boston shots during a third-period power play, he looked like a video game.

Just a thought, was this Talbot’s tip of the cap to the Hamburglar, the author of Ottawa’s miracle 2015 playoff push who retired recently? The performance was certainly Andrew Hammond-esque. When the ice chips settled, Talbot stopped 49 of 51 Bruins shots, the most saves in a regular season win in franchise history. (Craig Anderson and Anton Forsberg both recorded 47-save victories).

“Crazy,” DeBrincat said, of Talbot’s performance. “He kept us in the game the whole game. It’s fun to watch. Everyone on the bench was up, yelling all kinds of things. I thought he was unbelievable today and he’s a big reason we won.”

Listen to Talbot’s calm voice in the post-game scrum and it’s easy to see how the man stays chill under fire. His pulse barely seems to register. How does it feel to be in a zone like that?

“Honestly, I can’t really describe it,” Talbot said. “You’re just focusing on that puck. Trying to do everything you can to get your body or whatever you can in front of it. I felt like I left a few too many rebounds there, gave them a few too many second chances.

“But more often than not, we were able to clear those and make the stops.”

Talbot admits the sequence in the third period was tiring. Boston ended up with 27 shots on goal during those 20 minutes, with perhaps a dozen of them either during that power play or soon after.

“They just kept throwing pucks at the net,” Talbot said. “I mean, the amount of butterflies and side-to-sides (I had to do), they controlled the play pretty well. That’s a veteran group over there, and we did a heck of a job getting two points from them.”

Incredibly, the last-place Senators are now the only team to have beaten the league-leading Bruins twice. They also won a thriller on opening night at the CTC, 7-5.

On Tuesday, Patrice Bergeron appeared to open the scoring for Boston in the second period, but the goal was called off after an offside review. Tim Stützle got the Senators on the board with a second-period, power-play goal.

Jake DeBrusk beat Talbot with a shot that banked off the end boards and back to the shooter, but DeBrincat regained Ottawa’s lead with a gorgeous snipe to the top corner past Jeremy Swayman.

Though the Bruins finally put a second puck past Talbot, a sneaky shot by Pavel Zacha to force overtime, the goaltender was there for the home team, time after time.

“We’ve had nights where we’ve had all kinds of chances and not won,” said head coach D.J. Smith. “And this is definitely a goalie win. But in saying that, the first two periods I thought we played really well.”

While improving to 9-8-0-1 on the season, Talbot saw his save percentage jump from .911 to .915 after his 49-save performance. Goalies dream of nights like this. Talbot says he has no idea if he’s ever faced 27 in one period before.

“That was a fun hockey game,” said the veteran. “A lot of big efforts from the guys tonight. Never an easy task going up against the No. 1 team in the league after four days off. So, give the guys a lot of credit.

For the Sens, it’s on to Washington and a game against the red-hot Capitals on Thursday.

Stützle emulates Chabot celly

After he scored, Stützle leaned back with both arms in the air, a new kind of goal celly for him. Afterward, he explained he was imitating teammate Thomas Chabot, who used that celebration while playing for Canada at the 2017 world junior championship, where the defenceman was named MVP.

“It’s pretty funny, we were at a restaurant the other day and we were talking about Chabby’s world juniors – he loves talking about himself a little bit – and he did like a crazy celly, and I tried to copy it,” Stützle said, laughing.

That was Ottawa’s first shootout of the season and Stützle said he was a bit “rusty” for lack of attempts. His forehand shot was stopped by Swayman.

“Not sure what I was thinking,” Stützle said. “I actually thought right before I went, ‘I’m gonna go on my backhand.’ I guess my head didn't want to do that.”

The Cat came back

DeBrincat’s shootout winner was a beauty, a lightning fast deke that finished with a backhand into an open net.

“I didn’t really know what kind of move I was going to do, just kind of winged it and, luckily, it worked out,” DeBrincat said.

As DeBrincat spoke to reporters, a distinct “meoooow” could be heard behind a curtain to the back rooms of the dressing room. DeBrincat broke into a grin and said it was probably Travis Hamonic, who loves to do cat imitations around the player nicknamed ‘The Cat.’

Cat imitations, sure, but there were no cat calls for DeBrincat on this night. Just cheering.

When he wasn’t raving about Talbot, Smith was talking about DeBrincat, Ottawa’s best skater throughout.

“I thought one of our best players tonight, on both sides of the puck, was DeBrincat," Smith said. “I just thought he had the puck everywhere. He made that shootout goal look easy.”

Zaitsev leaves with foot injury

Already painfully thin on the blueline, the Sens lost another starter on Tuesday when Nikita Zaitsev had to leave the game after blocking a shot with his foot. Zaitsev was seen after the game wearing a boot cast.

Artem Zub has a broken jaw but is expected back soon. Erik Brannstrom has a lower-body injury. There is a chance that Jacob Bernard-Docker could return this week.