With the injury bug striking, the Ottawa Senators best players have to step up and show the way. That is exactly what they did last night as Mike Hoffman, Bobby Ryan, Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone and Kyle Turris led the way to Ottawa's 4-3 OT win over the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Hoffman, Ryan and Karlsson each had 3 points to set the pace, with Stone and Turris each adding a point. Turris played a season high 25:58, passing 23 minutes for just the second time this season.
It was just enough to counter the line that if it isn't the best in the league, it is a close second to Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and whoever is on the other wing at any given time in Dallas. Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin each had 3 points as the Hawks came back from deficits on two separate occasions to force overtime. Kane extended his point streak to 21 games, tying Bobby Hull's franchise record.
Playing with basically 9 forwards the Senators had the expected lapses, mainly in the second period where they allowed the Hawks back in the game after taking a 2-0 first period lead. A 5 on 3 goal from Kane and a shot from the slot from Panarin were part of the 16 shots from the Hawks. In my opinion, both were stoppable shots that got through Craig Anderson and give the Hawks some momentum.
Stone scored the go-ahead goal in the third, showing remarkable patience and hand-eye coordination to bat in a puck that had gone high in the air off of Corey Crawford. Waiting for the puck to get below the cross-bar and still being able to bunt it home was pretty impressive.
Equally impressive was the tying goal, and the reverse pass from behind the net from Kane to Artem Anisimov that drew Anderson across anticipating the wraparound leaving the back side wide open for Ansisimov. Anderson takes a lot of grief for his ability to follow the play behind the net (and rightly so), but there wasn't a goalie on the planet who would have made that save, the pass from Kane was that good.
After Hoffman rang one off the cross-bar on a rush with 0.2 seconds left that would have given the Senators the regulation win, he had his sights corrected on the first shift of overtime. Karlsson created a defensive zone turnover, beat Kane down the boards and found a streaking Hoffman wide open in the slot and his quick shot over Crawford's shoulder ended it just 30 seconds into the extra frame.
It was another case of the Senators making the most of their opportunities. They scored 4 goals on just 27 shots, or a 14.8 shooting percentage. Meanwhile Anderson stopped 35 of 38 shots against, and even though the first two that got by him were iffy, he made a number of quality saves to preserve the point and give his team a chance to get the win. At some point he is going to need some time off, because he has a history of getting worn down and he has been the only option in the Senators net at the moment.
On another note, if you can't play a player for more than 4 minutes a game, why is he here. I am sure the question was asked from a lot of fans with regard to Colin Greening before the game, but especially when you are already short a forward, having a guy you don't trust to play more than 5 shifts is ridiculous. I know he isn't the best player on the ice by any means, but if he isn't going to be used even when dressed, why is he here. Matt Puempel played more than 12 minutes in 7 of the 11 games he played, and given the level at which the Senators were short-staffed certainly having a player you can trust to put out on a regular shift is more important than whatever they are doing with Greening.
It was another game where the Senators had a dreadful Corsi rating (under 36%) and came away with 2 points. The Senators defy the odds of all the advanced stats, and it will probably catch up to them eventually. They get hemmed in often but the bend-but-not-break style is working more often than not.
The Senators used a physical edge that toed the line at times to take the Hawks off their game at certain points of the game. Mark Borowiecki and Jared Cowen led the way with 8 and 6 hits respectively which were more than the entire Chicago team was credited with.
The Senators hope to have Mika Zibanejad back for Saturday's home game against the Islanders, the last home game before they Sens embark on another 4 game road trip.