OTTAWA — Change for the sake of change isn’t always good, but change with a purpose can make a difference.
The change that Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green made in Saturday afternoon’s game against the unbeaten Tampa Bay Lightning was to flip his top three lines on their head. He dropped the veteran Claude Giroux to the second line alongside Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. He inserted third-liner Michael Amadio onto the first line along with Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk. And Noah Gregor fell back to the third line with Shane Pinto and David Perron.
When Green was asked by Sportsnet about the shuffling of the lines, he said, “We just felt like we had to switch things up.”
Maybe that feeling came because, in the first four games of the season, the duo of Norris and Batherson had been out-chanced by their opponents 26 to 41 at five-on-five, playing with either Ridly Greig or Noah Gregor on the left wing according to Natural Stat Trick. Norris and Batherson had failed to score a single five-on-five goal before Giroux joined their partnership Saturday.
But Green wasn’t ready to give up on the duo of Batherson and Norris.
“They’ve had moments where they looked like they could be pair. I’m trying to stay patient with a few of our lines,” said Green.
How did the insertion of Giroux onto the second line go?
Extremely well.
Giroux, Norris and Batherson all got on the scoresheet in a 5-4 win over the Lightning. They combined for six points.
It started off the jump, in the first shift of the game the newly created second line earned a chance leading to a Lightning penalty. Soon Tampa Bay was down two men and Batherson rocketed a slapshot 1:50 into the game to open the scoring off a saucy pass from guess who?
Claude Giroux.
Giroux’s playmaking was evident throughout the game, even on left-wing which he hadn’t played regularly since his days with the Philadelphia Flyers. Not long after setting up Batherson’s first goal, Giroux raced up the ice, catching a Batherson saucer pass which carried him past a flatfooted Victor Hedman to float a silky pass to a trailing Norris in the slot. Norris snapped it past Andrei Vasilevskiy to extend the Senators’ lead to 2-0.
Batherson was pleased when he found out Giroux was joining their line.
“I always joke about it with him,” said Batherson. “(Giroux) was one of my favourite players growing up. So, I said I was excited to play with him today.”
The line was not only good on offence, but made an impact on both ends of the ice. In the second period, Norris backchecked to impede a slot shot from Ryan McDonagh; later in the period, Batherson raced back to tie up Mikey Eyssimont’s look on goal.
Green has preached to his team to create pressure off the forecheck.
“If you watch the NHL nowadays it’s fast. Teams that play that way get the advantage,” the coach said.
Using pace to forecheck was exactly what the trio of Giroux-Norris-Batherson did.
After Tampa Bay tied the game 2-2 in the second period, who else but Giroux skated cross-ice to stick-check Darren Raddysh allowing Batherson to walk into a breakaway, outwaiting Vasilevskiy to reclaim the Senators’ lead, 3-2.
Norris and Batherson, both former 25-goal scorers, needed a set-up man and now they have it.
If there was a downside to moving Giroux, it was that as much as he helped the second line, his absence from the first line was apparent. The trio of Giroux-Norris-Batherson out-chanced Tampa Bay 11 to 8 during five-on-five play while the new top line of Tkachuk-Stutzle-Amadio was out-chanced 9 to 12 according to Natural Stat Trick. When Giroux was playing on the first line, they out-chanced opponents 43 to 28 five-on-five through four games according to Natural Stat Trick.
Nonetheless, Giroux downplayed his contribution Saturday against Tampa Bay.
“It’s the first time we played together, all three of us,” he said. “I know there was a little excitement playing together. They’re very fast players, and they can both shoot it and make plays, so it’s a lot of fun for me to play with them.”
Green usually plays Shane Pinto’s third line to protect leads late in games. But instead, he put in the Giroux-Norris-Batherson line with two minutes to play, and they effectively killed off a late-game surge by Tampa Bay.
“Sometimes you just put a line together that might look good,” said Green when asked about the line. “I thought that line was outstanding.”
Dominant special teams
For a team that struggled mightily last season on the power play (24th in the league) and penalty kill (29th), they dispelled any worries about their special teams on Saturday.
The Senators scored two goals on the man advantage against Tampa Bay. The team has now scored eight power-play goals on 21 attempts over five games, jumping to 38.1 per cent on the season and third-best in the league. The Senators’ elite firepower has been on display with Stutzle, Tkachuk, Batherson, Norris and Jake Sanderson creating chance after chance on the number one unit.
“When you’ve got good players, they’re going to make plays,” said Green when asked by Sportsnet about the power play. “Nolan Baumgartner and Daniel Alfredsson (assistant coaches) have been preaching certain parts of our power play and they’re listening. At the end of the day, the players got to make plays.”
Sanderson has cemented himself as the showrunner of the first unit with six power-play points so far this season, including two power-play assists on Saturday.
“It’s big, especially in a game like this where it matters,” said Sanderson when asked about the power play’s early ascendancy. “I have four great players around me. I’m more of a distributor, but I’m not afraid to shoot it too.”
Sanderson’s shot had been just off the mark early on, finally breaking the glass against New Jersey on the power play Thursday night. Sanderson told Sportsnet that he can hit 100 m.p.h. on a slapshot after working on it during the off-season. Sanderson’s added power was on display Saturday when his slapshot almost beat Vasilevskiy in the second period on the power play, forcing the goaltender to leave a juicy rebound for Tkachuk who scored to retake the lead 4-3 with 1:04 left in the second period.
The Senators’ special teams dominance translated to the penalty kill, where Sanderson earned his only point outside of the power play this season. After killing off the first penalty of a five-on-three in the third period, Sanderson deflected a pass intended for Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point, leading to Pinto rushing up the ice on a two-on-one and sliding the puck to Noah Gregor who quickly made a backhand move to score, extending the Senators’ lead to 5-3.
The Senators’ penalty kill had struggled in the first four games with the fifth worst percentage in the league at 69.2 per cent, but killed all three penalties Saturday, while their short-handed goal was the difference in the game.
Three of the five Senators goals on Saturday were special teams tallies. After five games, nine of the 18 Senators goals this season are from special teams. That may not last, but if it’s a trend, it’s a great one for the team.
Pure and simple: Good special teams equals wins.
Fun tidbit: In a conversation with Josh Norris about nicknames, Norris explained that his nickname was “Newf” for Newfoundland because his father, former NHL-er Dwayne Norris is a Newfoundlander. However, he didn’t get why fans sometimes called him “Neuf” instead of “Newf”. For context, Norris, despite his father’s Canadian heritage, grew up in the United States and doesn’t speak French, thus didn’t understand the nickname. After a conversation with Sportsnet, he now knows that when fans call him “Neuf” it’s because that’s French for nine, which is his jersey number.