Carolina's relentless forecheck and physicality stifled Ottawa in Game 1.
Facing the Eastern Conference’s number one seed, the Ottawa Senators knew they were in for a fight.
Three seconds into the game, the two organizations’ captains engaged in a fight of their own. For the third time in the last 30 days, Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff taking on the Carolina Hurricanes’ Jordan Staal.
“I just wanted to show that it’s going to be a long series,” Tkachuk stated, describing what led to another early tilt. “(Staal) wanted to do the same thing. The building loved it and got the energy going. It got the playoffs started for the whole league.”
In what was projected to be a tightly contested series between two structurally sound defensive teams, many pundits believed the Senators could exploit Carolina with their physicality as a bigger, more imposing team.
Unfortunately for the Sens, that did not happen in Game 1.
The Hurricanes imposed themselves often and early with their forecheck, with one of the night’s biggest being laid by Jordan Martinook, driving Dennis Gilbert’s left shoulder into the end boards glass 3:47 into the first period.
The Hurricanes would finish the night with 57 hits to the Senators’ 39. Under normal circumstances, that disparity would signify that the Hurricanes spent much of the night chasing the puck and defending, but that was not the case.
At five-on-five, the Hurricanes generated 60.00 percent of the shots (CF%), 60.61 percent of the shots on goal (SF%), and 70.68 percent of the expected goals (xGF%) per Natural Stat Trick. The Hurricanes dominated those metrics during the regular season, and the NHL’s Edge data indicated that the Hurricanes led the league in offensive zone time, and that prowess was on full display in game one.
The biggest issue for the Senators was that they struggled to deal with the Hurricanes’ forecheck. Some of Ottawa’s problems could be explained by a lack of execution, too many bouncing passes or pucks in feet, or simply flip passes to evade the pressure. But Carolina deserves a lot of credit for systematically hindering the Senators’ breakouts.
The forced and unforced errors led to disjointed play. For a team that likes to play with pace and speed, the Senators never really found their footing.
“They're just always on top,” Tkachuk said, explaining how it is difficult to break down Carolina’s structure. “They're always in the right spots. They blocked a lot of shots there, especially at the end. All game, they're sacrificing their bodies. They don't give you much.
“They frustrate. They frustrate the whole league with the way they play. So for us, I thought we did a good job limiting their chances, too, and maybe frustrating them a little bit. It's just going to be like this all series. It's going to be a long series, and it's going to be a battle.”
Puck movement was the obvious issue for the Senators in game one, but the loss of Artem Zub to injury was another significant blow. Zub left the game early in the second after delivering a massive hit to Seth Jarvis near the Carolina blue line.
Having used 12 defencemen this season, the Senators have grown accustomed to losing defencemen to injury. If Zub, however, is forced to miss more games because of injury, the Senators simply do not have another right-shot defenceman who can replace his minutes.
As the team’s best defensive defenceman, Zub’s absence would force the team to elevate Nik Matinpalo into top-four minutes. While the large Finnish blue liner can skate and defend, he has a tendency to struggle moving the puck. For example, when the third pairing of Gilbert and Matinpalo was on the ice, the Senators were outshot eight to zero (0 SF%).
If there are any signs of optimism for the Senators, it starts with the play of Linus Ullmark.
After finishing the season strong following an extended leave of absence in January, it was important for the goaltender to carry his strong play down the stretch into the postseason. And, he did just that. Ullmark had 2.82 goals saved above expected (GSAx) according to Money Puck and gave his team a chance to win, with his best save being a remarkable glove save on Shayne Gostisbehere in the second period.
It is hard to fault Ullmark on either Carolina goal. A Jordan Spence flip pass landed carelessly in the defensive zone, leading to Logan Stankoven streaking down the middle and putting a shot below Ullmark’s left pad.
On the second Carolina goal, Thomas Chabot failed to retrieve the puck cleanly, leading to the Canes’ possession. Ullmark made the initial stop on Alexander Nikishin’s shot from distance, but the puck flipped up and landed on his right pad. Jackson Blake smartly knocked the puck off where Stankoven and Taylor Hall had chances to bat it into the open cage.
The Senators’ penalty kill continued its strong recent stretch, successfully killing off all five of the Hurricanes’ power plays, including two extended five-on-threes.
After a sleepy start where the Senators failed to record more than a lonely shot on its first three power plays, the team did a better job of creating and distributing on the power play in the third period. The Senators struggled early with the Hurricanes’ pressure high.
“I'm going to look at it here tonight and tomorrow and see what we can do better,” Jake Sanderson said while describing how Carolina’s penalty kill operated. “They pressure really well. Honestly, it’s nothing we're not used to. We know they have a very aggressive penalty kill, and we played them plenty of times, and we've had success before. Even tonight, I thought we had a goal and a few other grade-A looks. We just need to keep sticking with it.”
Sanderson was not wrong, the Senators directed six shots on goal with their power play in the third period, including a Drake Batherson shot that was called a goal on the ice but was overturned following a review that concluded that the puck never completely crossed the goal line.
If Ottawa can continue to rely on Ullmark and their special teams, they should theoretically be in good shape because, as we’ve seen throughout the season, the Senators have a tendency to make adjustments and bounce back from games in which their five-on-five performance has lagged.
It will have to start with more puck support and improved play by their defencemen with retrievals and breakouts. If that can happen, they have the opportunity to make this a long series.
By Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News
This article was first published at The Hockey News Ottawa. Check out more great Sens features from The Hockey News at the links below:
First Blood: Senators Fall To Carolina 2-0 In Stanley Cup Playoff Opener
The Farm System Everyone Doubted Helped Save The Senators Season
Rick Bowness Clarifies That Only Some Of His Players "Don't Care"
Rod Brind'Amour Describes Senators As 'A Huge Challenge' In Round One
Through All The Noise, The Playoff-Bound Senators Held Their Ground
Brady Tkachuk Describes Brief Vision Loss During Game As 'Weird And Scary'