The Senators rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Nashville Predators 4-3 in overtime at Canadian Tire Centre.
The Ottawa Senators played in the only game in the hockey universe on Monday night, so the hockey world got to witness all aspects of the Senators experience – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Senators came back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime against the Nashville Predators. After the poor start, the Sens were able to calm down and play inspired hockey with grit and tenacity. With the win, the Senators have now picked up at least one point in six of their last seven games.
The Senators' start felt eerily similar to many of their games this season. The early pace was a little slow, as if both teams’ minds were already in all-star break vacation mode, turning pucks over in their end, with very little energy to start the game.
The scoring began with a goal that summarized the Senators' luck this season. Nashville's Roman Josi dumped the puck in and it took a crazy ricochet off the boards right into the slot. Michael McCarron was right there to one-time the puck past Mads Sogaard, who was taken by surprise.
The unlucky goal led to the Senators reverting to old habits, looking discombobulated and fragile.
The Predators took full advantage when Philip Tomasino blew past Thomas Chabot and roofed a shot over the 6-foot-7 Sogaard, beating him cleanly to make it 2-0. Yakov Trenin made it 3-0, deflecting a point shot past Sogaard, who had slid all the way out of his net.
The Senators had no choice but to replace Sogaard with Joonas Korpisalo, who received mock cheers when he made his first easy save in the second period.
“I didn't want to wait because I thought that we needed a bit of a shock in order to wake up the rest of the guys,” interim head coach Jacques Martin said.
The Senators roared into the second period as a new team.
Drake Batherson scored to cut the lead to 3-1 early in the second period. He received a quick pass from behind the goal line and outwaited Juuse Saros with a beautiful forehand move.
Korpisalo would keep the Sens in the game when he robbed Jeremy Lauzon in the slot with a marvelous glove save.
The Senators continued to chip away, and were able to cut the lead to 3-2 midway through the second period. Mathieu Joseph stole the puck from Josi, then patiently waited and passed to a trailing Tim Stutzle, who went top shelf over Saros.
The new “old” line from 2021-22, Batherson, Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris kept the pressure on the Predators.
Off a faceoff, Tkachuk stole the puck, quickly spun around and snapped a quick snap shot past Saros. That tied the game at 3 and completed the three-goal comeback, all within the second period.
The third period was rife with chances for both teams on the power play but neither was able to create many chances.
It was left to overtime.
After possession from both teams back and forth, it led to a break for Tim Stutzle who fed Giroux at the left circle. The veteran one-timed a beautiful shot to win the game for the Senators.
Stutzle said that Giroux told him later that he should have taken the shot himself instead of passing.
“He told me he wanted me to shoot it,” Stutzle said. “There were two Ds in the shooting lane, and I kind of tried faking it and giving it right back. He had a one-T, so great play by him to hit me there on the rush, and an unreal shot.”
Giroux explained why he wanted Stutzle to shoot instead of pass on the overtime winner.
“I didn't think I had a good angle. So I was hoping he'd shoot it,” Giroux said. “But at the same time, I knew he was gonna pass it. So it definitely felt pretty good.”
Martin was very pleased with the group effort in coming back.
“I think that handling adversity, we’ve been better (lately) and also in executing,” Martin said. “I thought it was a great team effort.”
Brady Tkachuk agreed with the coach's assessment.
“As a group, I think we showed the maturity that we expect to show every single night," Tkachuk said. "It doesn't matter what the score is, and where the game is at.
"It’s great to see how we responded. We didn't change our game; we didn't try to do too much.”
With the win, the Senators improve to 19-25-2 on the season. They return to action on Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings at 7 pm in Detroit.