There has been some tangible angst among Senators fans this last week. Two games dropped against the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, just after three straight games where the Senators felt they were playing their best. Head coach Travis Green kept Travis Hamonic in the lineup at the expense of youngster Jacob Bernard-Docker on the third pairing, an unpopular decision among factions of Senators on X. A loss to Boston might have encouraged more groans and exasperated sighs from Senators fans.
But thanks to a Saturday overtime win, maybe fans can breathe a bit easier. For a weekend at least.
Brady Tkachuk’s overtime winner — a franchise record eighth in his young career — brought the Senators back to .500 and helped assuage some November worries with a 3-2 overtime win over Atlantic Division rival Boston Bruins.
“I think the last two games for myself, individually, I haven’t liked the way I’ve been playing with the puck,” Tkachuk said. “It’s just something I want to focus on.
“I’m pretty confident in my shot that every time I have the puck on my stick that it has a chance to go in. So I’ve just got to start utilizing that more. Today, it just felt like the puck was coming to me in the offensive zone. Every time I had it, I just wanted to get shots. Maybe create some chaos. But also, I trust my shot that it had a chance to go in.”
The win puts the Senators at 7-7-0, the exact record they were at last season. Just like the 2023-24 Senators, this year’s team won their 14th game of the NHL season in overtime.
Here are five takeaways from the seventh win:
Before we analyze his performance, let’s delve into Ullmark’s Friday morning quotes that made a few fans anxious. For context, he was asked where he thought his game was.
“That’s a good question because I do not know,” Ullmark said. “I don’t know if it’s in a good place or in a bad place. All I know is that, for me, it’s going to be exciting to go in there tomorrow and battle my heart out, and try to make the most out of it. Enjoy it. Try to soak it all in. Because at the end of the day, the sun will rise tomorrow. It’s going to be a new hockey game and the game’s going to be played in Boston and I’m happy about that.”
Ullmark responded to the question with as much zen as he could muster. But that first part of the quote will grab people’s ears considering his season has featured some ups and downs, ranging from injuries to some inconsistency.
The spotlight found Ullmark Saturday night, playing his first game in Boston since being traded in the offseason. Ullmark even exchanged one final hug with former battery mate Jeremy Swayman during pregame warmup and said he felt “goosebumps” stepping back onto the TD Garden ice. The Bruins even gave him a standing ovation partway through the first period.
“It was a lot of fun,” Ullmark said. “It’s something that I’ll look back and bring with me forever, so to speak.”
Ullmark didn’t need to be extraordinary against the Bruins, leaving the ice with a modest 14-save performance. But his finest save came in overtime on the first shot he faced since Mark Kastelic last tested him at 13:13 of the second period.
HUGE SAVE FROM LINUS ON LINUS ULLMARK NIGHT IN THE NHL AND THEN HUGE GOAL BY THE TKAPTAIN YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO SEE IT#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/uCHJkVO7t8
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) November 10, 2024
“We don’t get the two points if it’s not for (Ullmark’s) save in overtime,” Tkachuk said. “What a save at the right time.”
So after a game like Saturday night, where is Ullmark’s game now?
“I still don’t know where it’s at,” Ullmark said. “It’s good enough. That’s what it is right now. That’s how it is in this league. You’ve got to be playing good enough and making enough saves for your team to win.”
The Senators’ power play
Ottawa continues to generate goals off its power play, going 1-for-3 against the Bruins. Their lone goal showcased some great work from the Senators’ top power-play unit.
Josh Norris rips one from his spot on the powerplay! Wicked pass by Tkachuk. Love to see Norris unloading again. #GoSensGo
Huge goal to end the period. pic.twitter.com/czD4ohMQpY
— Everyday Sens (@EverydaySens) November 10, 2024
Their speed on their zone entry wasn’t easy for the Bruins to handle and once the Sens set up in the offensive zone, they won a key board battle to maintain possession in the corner of the ice. As Tkachuk maneuvered around, Josh Norris was wide open and waiting for the chance to bury the puck past Swayman. The Senators essentially caught the Bruins napping with a less-than-ideal defensive structure.
Charlie Coyle is the closest player to Tkachuk and he doesn’t keep the puck from leaving Tkachuk’s stick. Nikita Zadorov is the defenceman near Swayman’s right post and while he does try to cut off a passing lane, he too gets beat. Brad Marchand is in a weird no-man’s land. He initially ventures over toward Tim Stützle on the wall.
But, as the screengrab below shows, he realizes a bit too late that’s better off being in a better position to cut off the pass. At the very least, he could go over to where Norris is. Finally, a fourth Bruin is below the goal line covering Drake Batherson who isn’t harming anyone from way behind the net. The recipe was there for Tkachuk to find Norris and for the Sens to score a goal.
A zero-shot third period
At the end of the week when the Sens’ defensive alignment was subject to criticism, it’s hard to find fault in how the Sens kept the Bruins from recording a shot on goal for over a third of the game. Boston rarely threatened offensively in the third period and the Senators deserve credit for keeping their shooters at bay, even if their offence didn’t return the favour by adding more goals when they had the chance.
The Bruins’ Corsi For percentage was at a paltry 18.52 percent in the third period at five-on-five and their expected goals was at 0.1 according to Natural Stat Trick. Boston failed to record a shot in the final 24-plus minutes of the game, only getting one shot on goal in overtime before Tkachuk scored the winning goal coming the other way.
“That was our emphasis on the third period. We need to play winning hockey and start building a foundation of what we want to accomplish,” Tkachuk said. “I guess that’s evidence right there that we played a really good third period.”
“You don’t see that a lot,” coach Green said. “They’re a good team. We were on our game in the third and it was a big step in the right direction.”
Clearing the zone
The Senators, for the most part, played a good game on Saturday. But allowing two goals in 15 seconds nearly set the table for the game to get away from them. Both goals could have been avoided if the Senators had cleared the puck from their zone. Zack MacEwen was late on a puck swipe at the blue line, which led to the Bruins sustaining their offensive zone pressure and Pavel Zacha getting the better of Nick Jensen before beating Ullmark.
Seconds later, the Bruins capitalized on a poor shift from the Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub pairing. Zub, only playing his second game back after injury, failed to clear the zone after sending the puck off the wall. Sanderson tried his best to maintain positioning when the Bruins carried the puck along the goal line but was ultimately spun around and failed to catch Brad Marchand who was parked at the side of the net.
Another bad sequence for the Sanderson/Zub pairing leads to Boston taking the lead. These guys need to step up. pic.twitter.com/my6qlEc9ef
— Everyday Sens (@EverydaySens) November 10, 2024
Mistakes happen, but it does feel as if the Sens’ defence has had these mental errors a bit more than they should.
Should the Senators make a move for Dante Fabbro?
The Nashville Predators placed the 26-year-old defenceman on waivers Saturday afternoon. Through six games this season, he has no points. Fabbro was a consistent presence alongside Roman Josi on defence. But it now appears he could use a change of scenery after playing parts of seven seasons with the Preds.
In theory, the Senators expressing any interest in the pending unrestricted free agent makes some sense when you consider the team needs as much depth as they can get on defence. Fabbro being a right-shot is also a plus in his resume. Fabbro can be used as a penalty killer, too. But he’s shown limited offensive upside throughout his career, even while playing alongside Josi. Fabbro’s cap hit is also cause for concern as his $2.5 million salary currently wouldn’t fit in the Sens’ cap structure. (PuckPedia has Ottawa at $389,616 in cap space). The salary cap hit alone would make me question if the Sens would even think making a move for Fabbro would be worth it. It certainly couldn’t happen without the Sens being creative in some way.
The #smashville put 26 y/o RD Dante Fabbro on waivers.
Year 1/2 $2.5M cap hit then UFA. https://t.co/ermxKbxyLR
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) November 9, 2024
(Top photo of Brady Tkachuk, Michael Amadio and Travis Hamonic: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
