Brady Tkachuk's hat trick goal in overtime polished off Ottawa's third straight victory.
Brady Tkachuk showed on Saturday afternoon why he is one of the best leaders in the NHL. Tkachuk hit the 30-goal mark and led the charge for the Senators with a hat-trick to cap off a gutsy 4-3 overtime win over the New York Islanders.
Here are my three takeaways from the game.
1. Tkachuk's Second Hat Trick in a Month
Brady Tkachuk was dominant all day for the Ottawa Senators. Tkachuk disrupted plays, drove hard to the net, and was a pest in the Islanders' crease. Oh, and he scored a hat-trick, winning the game for the Senators in overtime.
Tkachuk's best weapon – outside of his size and being a general annoyance – is his shot. His quick-release wrist and snap shots were on full display on Saturday.
Tkachuk is so smart at finding open spaces on the ice. His first goal, he smartly timed his entrance into the Islanders' zone and found himself all alone with Semyon Varlamov, beating him with a beautiful wrist shot.
On his second goal, Tkachuk found a quiet area in the high slot on the power play and snapped home a goal.
Lastly, to complete the hat-trick in overtime, he laid low to anticipate Shane Pinto’s rush into the zone allowing for a 2-on-1. Tkachuk made himself an easy passing target for Pinto and the captain rifled a shot past Varlamov’s glove side, capping off a fantastic game.
It was Tkachuk’s third hat-trick of his career and he reached the 30-goal mark for the 3rd consecutive season. In the misery of the Senators season, Tkachuk’s scoring prowess and leadership has never wavered. The captain is an elite goal scorer in the NHL, showing off all of his talents on Saturday.
2. Surviving Subpar Goaltending
One of the major storylines of the Senators season has been their inability to get a timely save when they need one. On Saturday afternoon, the story continued as once again they went down 1-0 early in the first period.
An almost impressive statistic that demonstrates the Senators goaltending issues is that Senators have given up a goal on their first or second shot 17 times this season.
Once again, the Islanders scored on their second shot of the game as Joonas Korpisalo slid too far out of his net to allow for an easy Matt Martin wrap-around goal.
Moving to the second, the Senators played one of their best periods of the season, dominating the Islanders and tying up the game. Déjà vu all over again, as against the run of play, Kyle Palmieri’s bad angle shot soehow squeaked through Joonas Korpisalo to give the Islanders the lead.
Even as the Senators were able to claim the lead late in the third period and needed another save to close the game out, Korpisalo let in the tying goal with 37 seconds left.
Nevertheless, his team was able to pick him up and find a way to win. As bad as the Senators have been in front of their goaltenders this year, the Senators second-worst team save percentage of .884 might be the biggest reason for their failure this season.
3. Overtime/Shootout: Grinding Out Points
Early in the season, the Senators had trouble getting games to overtime or shootouts. They didn't play an overtime game in North America until December 23rd, as both their games in Sweden in November went to OT.
Meanwhile, their first overtime loss came only two months ago on January 20th. The Senators problem for the past couple seasons has been grinding their way into earning points and getting themselves to overtime.
In the last three games, the Senators have found ways to get the game to overtime and then win it – from Drake Batherson's bad angle one-timer against Pittsburgh, to Claude Giroux’s slapshot shootout winner against Columbus, to Brady Tkachuk capping off a hat-trick with the overtime winner against the Islanders
The Senators are showing the resiliency required to earn points in the league while proving this week they can thrive in the pressure of the overtime/shootout.