Spazzbot said it best: It was a nice, solid beatdown. The Ottawa Senators rolled into Washington last night, and dropped a 6-1 decision to the league-leading Capitals. As bad as the final scored looked, it was really the second period that cost the Sens a chance at victory. They looked competitive in the first, managing to earn themselves a 1-0 lead, but absolutely cratered in the second period. Washington scored three unanswered goals in that frame, and added another three in the third period to ‘cap’ the 6-1 win.
There’s no real point in doing the typical ‘thumbs’ recap, as there simply wasn’t enough good for the Senators in that hockey game. Rather, the focus of this recap is on the play of Drake Batherson and Rudolfs Balcers, two players who are really making a mark since being called up from Belleville.
Per Natural Stat Trick, both Batherson and Balcers ended up on the right side of the five-on-five shot attempt share last night, with Balcers helping the Senators control 52% of those attempts and Batherson driving nearly 58%. Of course, score effects in the third period play a role in those totals, but it was still really positive to see. That's especially true when you consider that players like Connor Brown, Chris Tierney, and Anthony Duclair hovered around the 30% mark.
It’s not as though shot attempts were the only area in which those players had success on Tuesday. In terms of expected goal share at five-on-five, Balcers helped the Senators to generate 59% and Batherson did the same at a 68% (!) rate. To have fresh call-ups do that against the best team in the league, even with score effects in play, is a huge positive for this Senators group moving forward.
While Batherson didn’t earn himself any tangible scoreboard success last night, Balcers was credited with the only assist on Artem Anisimov’s first period goal. The helper was Balcers’ first point in the three games he’s been with the Senators this year. And, even though the goal itself was quite weak, the awareness shown by the Latvian forward to steal the puck in the neutral zone and immediately transition it back to offence was impressive.
All of this is to say: The Senators are a better team with players like Balcers and Batherson in the lineup. They give fans a glimpse at what will hopefully be a bright future, while also contributing in not-insignificant ways right now. The hope has to be that a lopsided 6-1 defeat doesn’t convince D.J. Smith that lineup changes are needed, because that often means young players sit. These players don’t deserve to sit right now.
The Senators now have the opportunity to rest, with their next game being on Friday against the Detroit Red Wings. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to call the upcoming game one of the most important in the campaign to date, as every lost point matters in the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes. Both the Red Wings and Senators have only two wins in their last ten games, suggesting that this will truly be a battle of the worst.
As always, thanks for reading.