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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Senators Sunk by Bubble Demko

March 15, 2021, 11:01 PM ET [31 Comments]
Michael Stuart
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It took an all-world performance from Thatcher Demko to thwart the Ottawa Senators in their quest for a victory tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The Senators were only able to beat Demko twice on 46 shots, which resulted in them dropping a 3-2 overtime decision. Here are tonight’s thumbs:

Thumbs Up: The Overall Team Play
The Senators were the better team today by a not-insignificant margin, especially in the first and second period. They were the ones generating zone time and quality chances, but just couldn’t beat Demko. As Natural Stat Trick’s numbers – including a 58% five-on-five expected goal share for Ottawa – suggest, this was a game in which the Senators got “goalied,” and really nothing more.

Thumbs Up: Joey Daccord’s Back-to-Back Performance
Three goals on 28 shots against may not look particularly impressive on the surface, but I thought Joey Daccord was excellent for the Senators once again. His performance was extra impressive when viewed through the lens of this being the second half of a back-to-back for both him and the team. It’s hard to blame him for the breakaway goal against in overtime, and even harder to blame him for Colin White’s assist on Tanner Pearson’s first period goal. Daccord made the stops he needed to make, and did enough to give the Senators a chance to claw their way back to even footing before overtime.

Bold take: He’s this team’s number-one goaltender, even with everyone healthy.

Thumbs Down: Thomas Chabot Looked… Uncomfortable
You wouldn’t know it by looking at his stellar underlying numbers, but – at least from my perspective – Thomas Chabot appeared a little bit uncomfortable with the puck on a number of occasions tonight. That was particularly true whenever the Senators were trying to break into the zone on the power play. He would bobble the puck, stumble with his skates, and fail to advance things into the offensive zone. It resulted in Ottawa spending an inordinate amount of its power play time in the neutral zone.

Thumbs Up: Artem Zub Shreds the Defence
Players like Connor McDavid do it nightly, so it kind of loses its luster after a while. When someone like Artem Zub cuts through the opposition defences like butter and generates a chance for himself, though, it’s a special thing:

Signing this guy is Pierre Dorion’s crowning achievement.

Thumbs Up: Stützle Continues to Produce
With his near-goal-turned-assist on Josh Norris’ tally, Tim Stützle now has 18 points through 29 appearances this season. Over the course of a normal 82-game schedule, that would put him on pace for 50 points. Even with some of the defensive issues he’s had to work through on certain nights, it’s hard to call that kind of production anything but a major win for the franchise. He’s been electric, and he continues to look more and more comfortable with each passing day. Tonight’s assist gives him points in three straight, and four of his last five games.

Thumbs Up: Brady Tkachuk, The Beast
This game was an example of Brady Tkachuk at his best. He was only credited with a single assist on the night, but he was everywhere for Ottawa. There were countless thundering hits, beautiful feeds, and chances of his own. He’s a player who is as close to the definition of “the whole package” as you’ll find in the league today.

The eye test results were matched by similarly impressive underlying numbers. Per Natural Stat Trick, both Tkachuk’s five-on-five expected goal and shot attempt shares sat north of 70%. The Canucks had no answers.

Thumbs Up: DJ Smith, The Sicko
I laughed. Did you?


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The Senators will see the Vancouver Canucks again on Wednesday.

As always, thanks for reading.
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