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The Ottawa Senators escaped with a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes tonight as head coach DJ Smith played not to lose in the third period with his young roster and were lucky to walk away with a win! If not for the defense pairing of Artem Zub and Nick Holden, this team would've been faced with playing time overtime and possibly explaining how they blew a four-goal third period lead. This paring has been elite and has led the way for this team while there's nothing elite about the game of Nikita Zaitsev. To hear DJ Smith tell fans and the media that Zaitsev is an elite defenseman is flat out ignorant, but sadly none of our postgame credentialed media bother to ask DJ tough questions about Zaitsev. There's no way in the world that Zaitsev should have the 2nd most TOI on this blueline in any NHL game!
Chabot struggled all game long playing with Nikita and even though the in-house NHL scorekeeper only credited him with two giveaways, I counted five, and his inability to make simple decisions buried Chabot all game long as he was left scrambling in his own end. Chabot has looked far more comfortable with Erik Brannstrom, Lassi Thomson, and JBD but for some reason, we have an NHL head coach that continues to play favourites on the blueline with Zaitsev and Josh Brown. Brown has no business playing in the NHL, he pulled down Brannstrom's transition game all game long too. Enough is enough, Sens GM Pierre Dorion needs to waive Brown now and tell the coaching staff he's hurting the development of Chabot and Brannstrom by giving the wrong players TOI on this blueline!
It's absolutely amazing that this team is getting the results they are attaining with the mismanagement of this blueline. Can you imagine how this team and blueline would look if Ottawa had a competent head coach?! The job of the head coach is to make in-game adjustments and put your team in the best possible position to win a game, he failed to do so with his management of the blueline tonight and this can't continue to happen!
It was nice to see Brady Tkachuk and Chris Tierney end long goalless droughts, as Brady notched two goals(he hit 2 posts on the PP in the 1st period too) ending his 16 game funk while Tierney ended his 19 game slump. Alex Formenton continued his strong play adding another goal to go with his 5 SOG, while Tim Stutzle added two assists and was strong on the puck all game long. Nick Paul continued his strong play as did Connor Brown who led all forwards with TOI for the second straight game.
Adam Gaudette continues to be "found gold" as he has flourished with the increased TOI and role with the Sens. Ottawa dominated the faceoff circle which ultimately allowed them to control puck possession in the offensive zone for long periods of time. Ottawa was outshot 45-31 and outhit 36-29 but still managed to hang on. Anton Forsberg rebounded with a solid outing between the pipes, stopping 42 of 45 shots in goal.
Ottawa is now 12-6-1 when scoring 1st this season and grabbed 5 of a possible 6 pts from Carolina against the 2nd winningest percentage team in the league, 4th overall in points.
Pittsburgh comes to town on Thursday night. The Sens have split the first 2 games with the Pens.
The BSens won on the road tonight at the Lehigh Phantoms with MDZ leading the way, 1G/2A, +3, 4 SOG. He has 18pts in 13 games since being sent down to Belleville. Filip Gustavsson had the shutout stopping all 21 shots. Not sure why Lassi Thomson wasn't in the lineup, but good to see JBD back on the blue line after taking that serious headshot last week.
Thoughts on tonight's game Sens fans?!
Thanks for reading. Kevin