Hockey is a game of moments. Plays made in split seconds can alter the final plot of a game in a flash.
With one simple play, Ridly Greig changed the course of the game in the Ottawa Senators‘ 4-0 win over the Utah Hockey Club Tuesday night.
Greig is a fiery but skilled player who is known for his grit. In this game, his ability to walk the line while throwing off the opponent helped steady the ship early for the Senators.
In the first 11 minutes of the game, Utah had outshot Ottawa 10-1 and carried the play. So Greig ran over Utah’s Jack McBain at the offensive blue line, looking to spark his team. McBain took issue and grabbed Greig, who didn’t want to engage because his job as a pest was done. Somehow Greig avoided punishment himself while his Sens teammate Noah Gregor was caught in the row and penalized along with McBain, reducing each team to four aside.
Every team needs a pest and the Senators have theirs.
By the end of the four-on-four, with more room for the Senators’ attackers, the game had completely changed. The Senators quickly struck with two goals in a 1:23 span from Drake Batherson and Claude Giroux to take a 2-0 lead.
Greig, who returned to the lineup from a three-game absence due to an upper-body injury, was acknowledged indirectly by his coach for his impact on the game.
“I thought the physicality of our game midway through the first helped us turn the tide a little bit,” said Senators head coach Travis Green.
In the modern NHL, pests must do more than simply get underneath the other team’s skin. They have to provide help on the scoreboard, too.
Greig did that by scoring the third Senators goal against Utah, finding the puck in a mayhem of sticks and snapping it through Connor Ingram’s five-hole.
In one period, Greig’s hit and goal put a long distance between the Senators and the Utah Hockey Club, which Utah couldn’t recover from.
Greig epitomized how the 4-2-0 Senators are learning how to win the little battles that shape the outcome in the NHL.
Forsberg for a game fit in Ullmark’s shoes
You couldn’t ask for anything more from your backup goaltender. Anton Forsberg was the Senators’ best player throughout the game, stopping 31 shots for his sixth career shutout.
In the first minute of the game, Forsberg was tasked with making two high-quality saves to keep the Senators afloat.
He was jubilant afterwards, saying “That felt awesome.”
Last season, Forsberg would likely have allowed a goal or two and the Senators would have been chasing the game for the entire night. The team gave up a goal on one of the first two shots an amazing 21 times with Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo between the pipes. Against Utah, Forsberg held down the fort during a poor first 10 minutes and gave his team a chance to turn the game around. They took it.
Forsberg made seven high-danger saves against Utah and allowed zero goals despite Utah having 4.3 expected goals, according to MoneyPuck.com.
“It was one of those road wins that are super nice to get,” said Forsberg.
Star goaltender Linus Ullmark missed his fourth consecutive game due to a muscle strain injury. While Ullmark’s injury still looms large, the anxiety has been dialled down by Forsberg’s performance. Green said Ullmark is still day-to-day.
The Senators are right to be cautious with their newly extended star netminder. Ullmark is 30 years old and only getting older while under contract for the next five years.
Ullmark explained earlier this week that he wanted to stay cautious with returning from his injury.
“I think it’s a fine line. When you’re talking about pushing through things and being stupid,” he said about waiting to return until he’s 100 per cent.
“You damage the (body) in a way that keeps you away from multiple weeks or even months and then you’re thinking about, ‘Why was I so stupid of going out there prior to it and not just letting it really heal up?’”
Jensen and Chabot shine
The contest against Utah was the best game Thomas Chabot and Nick Jensen had played together. Heading into the game, Jensen and Chabot had struggled. Chabot had been on the ice for 12 of the Senators’ 19 goals against and his partner Jensen on the ice for nine.
Offensively, Jensen showed some rare flash as the main catalyst for the first two Senators goals.
On the first, Jensen raced past a couple of Utah players to enter the zone, then smartly passed to Josh Norris who began a tic-tac-toe play finished off by Drake Batherson. Later, on the same four-on-four, Jensen almost scored in a spellbinding move when he deked past the entire Utah defence — but his backhand attempt missed. Seconds later, he intercepted a Logan Cooley pass to spring into transition, finding Claude Giroux who potted it home for Jensen’s second assist in less than two minutes.
“It’s been fun so far, just getting to know each other on and off the ice,” Chabot said of his partnership with Jensen. “We spend a lot of time together, and he’s just such a great defender and skates really well.”
Chabot matched his partner’s offence by straddling the blueline to launch a shot on goal that Brady Tkachuk buried off a rebound for the Senators’ fourth goal. All night Jensen and Chabot turned pucks over, created plays and were able to neutralize Utah. If the chemistry starts to translate into more nights like Tuesday, the Senators’ defence will see a big boost.
Milestones
The Senators matched their road win total from last season against Western Conference teams by getting up to the magic number of one win. The Senators were 1-14-1 against the Western Conference on the road last season, accruing three of a possible 32 points. For the Senators to become a playoff team, winning road games will be vital. They took a small step on Tuesday.
Giroux’s goal moved him past Henrik Sedin for 69th on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,071.