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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Daccord Earns First Career Win vs. Leafs |
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Buoyed by a quick start and solid goaltending throughout, the Ottawa Senators handed the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-3 defeat on Sunday evening. Here are tonight’s thumbs:
Thumbs Up: Joey Daccord’s First Career Victory
Things got a little bit interesting at the end, but overall Joey Daccord was full value for his first National Hockey League victory. For it to come against an excellent regular season team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, on a night when he wasn’t supposed to play, made it extra special; the only reason Daccord was in action was because Matt Murray was injured during warmup.
Tonight’s performance provides yet another piece of evidence to support the idea that Daccord is this team’s best option in net right now. He was calm, cool, and collected throughout the evening, and frustrated Toronto shooters on numerous occasions. The best part of his evening, though, was the emotional post-game interview he offered after earning that first career win:
Thumbs Up: The Batherson / Stützle Connection
I’ve mentioned this a few times in previous blogs, but the chemistry that’s building between Drake Batherson and Tim Stützle is special to see. They are two incredibly creative offensive players, and it just seems to be working. There was no better example of that than on Drake Batherson’s first goal of the night, his tenth of the season. Stützle fed him a pass that most players wouldn’t even see, let alone try. The result was a 3-1 Ottawa lead.
The pretty-to-watch offensive contribution was matched by superb even strength underlying numbers for the duo, as they both generated five-on-five shot attempt shares in the 60% range and five-on-five expected goal shares in the 80% range per Natural Stat Trick. It was a special, special night for those two.
Thumbs Up: The Right Challenge
With the National Hockey League rules now providing for a minor penalty after an incorrect coach’s challenge, it takes an extra little bit of courage to pull the trigger. That’s especially true with goaltender interference, given that nobody seems to have a clear definition of what does and does not violate the rules.
So, put yourself in DJ Smith’s shoes. The Maple Leafs have just “scored” to make it a 4-2 game, and you need to decide whether to challenge for goaltender interference. If he gets it wrong, the Leafs have momentum and a two-minute power play with which to cut their deficit further. Even with all that weighing on him, he made the right decision to challenge Ilya Mikheyev’s goal.
From my perspective, the “goal” was a fairly textbook case of goaltender interference. Christian Wolanin was pushed into the net by Pierre Engvall, and then Pierre Engvall prevented Daccord from getting across the crease. There were two opportunities to make a call on the play. My Twitter feed was full of people from a variety of fan bases who agreed – the only people who didn’t had #LeafsForever in their bio.
Thumbs Down: The Empty Net
The Senators had more problems with the empty Toronto net than they did with Michael Hutchinson and Freddy Andersen.
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This was a fun one to watch; unfortunately, there won’t be much time to reflect on it, as the Senators are right back in action tomorrow against the Vancouver Canucks.
As always, thanks for reading.