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The Ottawa Senators scored four unanswered goals tonight en route to a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. There were plenty of dominating performances tonight as the Sens had a complete team effort on home ice, to kick off this four game homestand. Matt Murray led the way stopping 32 of 33 shots and making some key saves to stop the Devils from gaining any momentum when the Sens led 3-1. Time and again Murray kept the Devils at bay until Connor Brown salted the game away with 8 minutes to play, giving Ottawa a 4-1 strangle hold. Brown's return to the lineup was huge in allowing DJ Smith some balance with this top two lines with Norris and Batherson injured, as he led the way with 1G/1A, +2, 3 SOG, and led all forwards with 19:49 TOI.
Thomas Chabot was a monster on the blueline tonight, 1A, 3 SOG, +2, 4 BS, and 3 hits! His pace on the back end was tremendous, making swift smart decisions and when paired with Erik Brannstrom, they controlled the play with seamless defensive zone breakouts. Nikita Zaitsev belongs on the 3rd defensive pairing, Brannstrom has earned his stripes and DJ needs to do whatever is best to give his team a chance to win.
Mark Kastelic continued his fine play since being recalled from Belleville, 1A, +2, 1 BS, but 6 hits are where his presence was felt most on the ice, plus his dominance in the faceoff circle going 8 for 10 was outstanding for this rookie! Adam Gaudette had another strong game, scoring again and having 3 hits to go in the stat column. Lastly, Nick Paul continues his resurgence after a mid-season funk scoring again, assisted on Brown's goal, +2, 3 SOG, and 2 hits. There was a lot to like about all three of these players' games.
Seeing the balanced minutes for all players tonight will prove vital for the success of this team with 5 games in a short time span. If DJ can balance the minutes like tonight, it will give the Sens an opportunity to come away with a few wins this week. Chabot having just under 24 minutes of ice time tonight really showed a lot of jump, but the entire blueline had between 17 and 24 minutes TOI and it kept fresh legs going all night long. The same goes for the forwards with all twelve forwards getting between 11 and 19 minutes TOI.
The Sens outhit the Devils 44-28 but were outshot 33-24. The one team stat that stood out to me was how Ottawa had 27 blocked shots compared to 17 by New Jersey. This team played in 5 man units all game long. Oddly enough, special teams didn't factor into tonight's game with the Devils getting the lone powerplay tonight, which accounted for their lone goal.
Carolina comes to town tomorrow night off a 4-3 OT loss in Toronto and one has to think Anton Forsberg will start in goal, with Murray getting the start against his former team on Thursday when Pittsburgh visits Ottawa.
Thoughts on tonight's game Sens fans?!
Thanks for reading. Kevin