A quick post-game scroll through the online fan reaction on Saturday night delivered an instant message: the landscape has changed around the Ottawa Senators.
Just last season, this would have been enough: a hard-fought, physical effort against the Toronto Maple Leafs that ended in a late Leafs goal by Justin Holl (!) — a game that could have gone either way, but fell to Toronto.
Afterward, the scrutiny of Ottawa’s defensive-zone coverage on the winning goal was suitable for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final, never mind Game 2 of the regular season.
Similarly, Senators head coach D.J. Smith took a lot of heat for his personnel decisions (eg. starting Nikita Zaitsev over Nick Holden), the coverage issues, and for defensive players on the ice late in the game.
If only hockey was clearly defined and didn’t lend itself to so many grey areas. The fact is, Zaitsev played pretty well for as long as he stayed in the game, but he got injured and the Senators finished with five defencemen, giving coaches a lot less flexibility on which players were on the ice in given situations. (Zaitsev was on the practice ice Monday morning).
The bigger point: would we even be going down this rabbit hole of micro-analysis if Brady Tkachuk’s power-play shot goes post-and-in instead of post-and-out?
Certainly the tough loss to the Leafs was a bigger pill because the Senators dropped the season opener in Buffalo two nights earlier, a game in which Ottawa so thoroughly dominated the Sabres in the first period there should have been a two or three-goal lead.
Instead, the Senators led by one after two minutes, Buffalo rallied for two goals in the second period (another Ottawa bugaboo of the past) and the Sabres added a couple of empty-net goals.
If you are scoring at home, and evidently many are, that’s two games, two losses against Atlantic Division opponents. Already, four teams in the Atlantic are sitting at four points, so they are out of the gate smartly.
The Senators can get back in the mix with a victory in their home opener Tuesday against the visiting Boston Bruins. The Bruins are an older team and play at home to Florida Monday night, so will be in a back-to-back scenario. On top of that, they started the season with Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk on the shelf, and now have lost Brandon Carlo with an upper body injury (suffered Saturday versus Arizona) in what could be a concussion.
Ottawa is in no position to assume anything or take any team lightly, least of all the Bruins, a team that Smith has always admired.
Tkachuk: ‘Not time to panic’
The Senators vowed to avoid the slow starts that have plagued their past three seasons, but here’s the thing: With a five-game homestand, and games against Boston, Washington, Arizona, Dallas and Minnesota, Ottawa can still have a strong start off their first 10 games if they take care of business at home this week and next.
As captain Brady Tkachuk said, following the 3-2 loss in Toronto:
“I don’t think it’s any time to panic — it’s two games, and of course, we’d like to win both those games. But it’s still two out of 82. So we’re not too worried about it.”
Tkachuk admitted the loss “stings” and the way he expressed it, sounded close to it “stinks.” Either word would have covered it.
Rightly, Tkachuk was pointing to the Bruins game as a chance for Ottawa to get behind its team at the home opener. After all, haven’t fans waited all summer and early fall to see the new roster, including the additions of Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat?
“We’re excited to see that place rocking,” Tkachuk said. “I keep seeing — standing-room tickets only. We need (fans) to be loud … we’re definitely excited to play in front of our home fans again.”
Take your pick. Glass half empty or half full.
I’m in the latter camp. I thought the Senators played with a lot of energy and enthusiasm in those opening games on the road. Mistakes were made, but the Leafs made mistakes, too, and got bailed out by goaltender Ilya Samsonov. Equally stellar was Senators starter Anton Forsberg.
Forsberg has a goals-against of 2.56 and save percentage of .924 — off a pair of road LOSSES.
The Senators scored just three goals in those two games, which is not going to get it done, no matter where they play. But should there really be concern about the Senators scoring?
Before the game in Toronto, a Hockey Night In Canada conversation discussed how many potential 30-goal-plus scorers Ottawa has in its lineup with the likes of DeBrincat, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Giroux, Tim Stützle, Tkachuk.
This team is going to score. Defensive-zone coverage will be a bigger issue, but it’s going to take a larger study sample to judge this group. Subtract the empty-net goals in Buffalo and Ottawa yielded two goals and three in their first two starts, without the benefit of last change. The Sens will take those odds most nights.
“I don’t think we could play two better road games and come out with no points,” Smith said.
That the head coach took as much heat as he did off these two tight road losses says two things.
One, expectations are ramped up. Those ‘woulda, coulda’ nights when the effort is there and the bounces don’t go the team’s way don’t hold sway with the fan base anymore. Like the players, coaches and staff, fans are looking for wins now.
Two, those who are ripping on Smith already are using the 0-2 start as an excuse to pile on. That is, they wanted a more proven NHL coach before this season and have carryover issues with his strategy and personnel decisions of the past three years.
Just as his players will, Smith is going to get the chance to “coach” his way out of a small 0-2 hole that can’t be allowed to get bigger.