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In the first game after losing Matt Duchene and Bobby Ryan to injuries, Ottawa somehow eked out a 2-1 win against Pittsburgh on Saturday night. They were looking to build on that as they faced off against the Boston Bruins on Sunday at an early start time. It was an incredibly light Senators lineup though, as in addition to Duchene and Ryan being out, Mike McKenna started in goal, and Dylan DeMelo and Christian Jaros were not healthy enough to play.
Because of that, Erik Burgdoerfer got called up from Belleville in the morning and these were the pairings to start the game:
I legitimately can’t remember a worse defense corps for the Senators…
Nevertheless, after the first period, it was 1-0 Senators. With the number of players out of the lineup, it’s no surprise that the top line of Tkachuk-White-Stone got on the board first. Colin White used his much-improved speed to get down the ice and fed a fantastic pass to Mark Stone to give them the lead:
The Bruins hardly even had many chances in the first period, and the Senators could have even added to their lead but they failed to convert on a 5-on-3 powerplay.
That inability to convert would come back to bite them soon after, as Brad Marchand was able to tie the game at one almost eight minutes into the second period. It was an unlucky bounce for McKenna, as Magnus Paajarvi blocked the shot but the puck went straight to an open Marchand right after. On the goal celebration, Marchand made sure to stick it to the Senators bench, drawing the ire of Zack Smith:
Not much else had happened through 40 minutes, and it was tied 1-1 going into the third period.
Considering how bad the Senators lineup looked, it was quite the even matchup throughout the night. The Bruins are supposed to be one of the best teams in the league, but they weren’t very impressive. Yes, they have a lot of injuries of their own, but on paper, they are still much better than Ottawa. So when it was still tied 1-1 late into the game, it was quite the shock.
McKenna continued to have his second straight great performance in a row and even stopped two straight breakaways from Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. The final 10 minutes of the game changed pace as it became a back-and-forth frenzy and Nick Paul had a fantastic chance of his own to give Ottawa the lead. Unfortunately, Tuukka Rask was also on his A game tonight. The fact that the game went into overtime was astonishing considering the rosters on paper.
In overtime, McKenna made an incredible stack the pad save that would have looked even better if the Senators had scored the next goal...
However, just about a minute later, Torey Krug won it on a back-door pass that McKenna had no chance to save. The final score, 2-1 for the Bruins. The shots ended up being 44 to 28 for the Bruins, but the 5v5 attempts were only 46 to 40. Overall, it was a solid effort, and they were almost rewarded with two points.
Just like with the last few games, Colin White and Mark Stone were the two of the biggest positives, as they connected for the first goal of the game, plus they had four and six shot attempts, respectively. Ryan Dzingel also produced a lot offensively with seven shot attempts, although he did not appear on the scoresheet. It’s hard to not mention Thomas Chabot’s efforts either, because with Ottawa being down some defensemen during the game, his ice-time ran all the way up to 26:01 during regulation.
McKenna deserved a better fate tonight, but we can still salute him for a game to remember.
To finish off your week, enjoy this masterpiece by Chabot and the Sens social media team from last night, and a repeat from today:
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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