After a pair of tough losses, the Senators' resilience will be put to the test once again as they had home for Games 3 and 4 later this week.
At the conclusion of the Senators' morning skate yesterday, head coach Travis Green blew his whistle, signalling the end of practice before letting his team know they need to “F***ing bring it tonight.”
They started the game slowly, but no one can accuse the Senators of not bringing it in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Ottawa Senators would ultimately lose in double overtime 3-2, but it was an incredibly resilient effort highlighted by the performance of goaltender Linus Ullmark.
“I thought in the first half of the game, there had been a lot of talk about creating more offence,” Green explained after the game. “I thought we took a couple of chances that we don't usually take. Our forwards were diving down. They don't usually dive down, and we gave up more chances than we normally do. Linus kept us in it there, especially making some big saves in the second period.”
It is ironic that the goaltender, who was one of the worst statistical goaltenders in the league in the first half of the season, and whose play almost sank the Senators’ playoff chances, is the principal reason the Senators have been competitive in their first two games.
Last night may have been Ullmark’s best game as an Ottawa Senator. He has been the Senators’ best player, and without him, this series would be ugly.
“He's been amazing in his last two games,” Brady Tkachuk emphasized after the game. “He kept us in it just to give us a chance.”
Through the first two games of the series, Ullmark has a 5.85 goals saved above expected per Evolving-Hockey. It felt like it should have been higher than that in game two alone, but Ullmark stopped 43 of 46 shots on goal in game two, including several ten-bell saves that not only kept the Senators in the game but also afforded them a chance to come back and win. And then he made a clutch save on a Jordan Martinook penalty shot in overtime to extend the game.
The Martinook penalty shot was the result of a rare and bizarre play in which Jordan Staal received a pass in the neutral zone by the Senators’ blue line, brought the puck across the line and fired a pass to Martinook, who broke in alone on Ullmark. Nik Matinpalo disrupted the chance, leading to a delayed penalty. The Hurricanes eventually worked the puck around with the extra skater and scored, but the play went to a lengthy review where Staal’s zone entry was ruled to be offside. Despite the play being deemed offside, the Hurricanes were awarded a penalty shot for Matinpalo’s actions on Martinook.
The official explanation of this matter in the NHL Rule Book is in Rule 38.7:
Results of a Successful Coach’s Challenge - In cases where a Challenge has been initiated for an “Off-Side Play Leading to a Goal” or a “Missed Game Stoppage Event in the Offensive Zone Leading to a Goal” (either by the team or by the NHL Situation Room), and a determination is made that the GOAL call on the ice should be overturned, the goal will be disallowed and the clock will be reset to the time at which the play should have been stopped for the missed infraction. In such cases, a face-off will ensue in the ice location where it would have otherwise occurred had the on-ice infraction been called properly. If one or more penalties (minor or major) are assessed between the time of the missed infraction and the video review that disallows the apparently goal, the offending team(s) (and responsible Player(s)) will still be required to serve the penalty(ies) identified and assessed, and the time of the penalty(ies) will be recorded as the time at which the play should have been stopped for the missed infraction.
Unfortunately, Lady Luck was not on the Senators’ side early on.
It felt like they couldn't buy a goal, missing several chances of their own. Claude Giroux fed Tim Stutzle a backdoor pass that the centre tried to play off his skate to his stick. The bounce wasn’t perfect, and the opportunity to bury one into the empty net was missed.
For a second consecutive game, Tkachuk was left alone in the slot. Tkachuk put his Game 1 chance underneath a fallen Frederik Andersen, but this time, he rang one off the post. On a separate occasion, a Shane Pinto shot squeezed through Andersen and was destined to cross the goal line before Logan Stankoven heroically pulled the puck off the goal line to safety.
The Game 1 hero continued his penchant for being in the right place at the right time, and that continued on the Hurricanes’ first power play when Stankoven found himself alone in the slot and buried a Taylor Hall pass from behind the goal line to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.
Injuries to the blue line have exacerbated this team’s depth, and the absence of Artem Zub and Tyler Kleven was certainly felt on the penalty kill. That said, the way the defensive corps played tonight in their absence was impressive.
“It's not just (the top four),” Green explained while describing how impressive the play of the blue line. “I expect it. Those guys, they've been great for us all year. But, missing the (defencemen) that we are, I don't know how many minutes (Nik Matinpalo) played, but 30-something minutes for a guy that wasn't in the lineup not too long ago, playing in the top pair. You can throw Lassi (Thomson) in and (Dennis Gilbert). They all hung tough.”
The encouraging part for the Senators is that they have been resilient and have hung around in games. The games have been close enough to win, but with better puck luck and finish around the net, it could be a different series.
“Obviously, it sucks, but we’ve got a really important game in front of our fans that are going to be fired up and can give us a lot of momentum," Tkachuk said. "We can't let (the result) sit in too long. Of course, we’re going to be pretty unhappy about it, but now we're gonna move on eventually and get ready for game three.”
Tkachuk is not wrong. The Senators have played two strong road games in a tough building against the Eastern Conference’s top seed. And they had a chance to win both with a depleted lineup on the back end.
There is an expectation that Kleven and Zub will return in this series, but for the Senators to win, they have to do a better job of capitalizing on their chances. Carolina does not allow many grade-A chances, so when they do materialize, there has to be some measure of finish.
The combination of four hit posts or crossbars could be nightmare fuel for the forwards, but Drake Batherson finally burst the dam, getting the Senators on the board with their first goal 90 minutes and 47 seconds into the series.
Batherson’s goal capped a strong shift in which he chipped the puck deep past a Carolina defender. He then used his size and physicality on the forecheck to force a turnover. The puck eventually made its way back to Batherson. His centring pass fortuitously bounced off a Carolina defender back to him, and Batherson shelved it past an out-of-position Frederik Andersen.
On the Senators’ second goal, Dylan Cozens demonstrated that sometimes it helps just to throw pucks at the net.
Andersen finished the regular season with an .874 save percentage, and he looked pedestrian and unready for an innocuous Cozens’ shot that evened the game at two.
Although they ultimately lost two difficult games, there were a few encouraging developments. Even with a depleted lineup, the Senators know they can hang with the Eastern Conference’s top team.
“We can be frustrated for tonight, but we wake up tomorrow, it's a new day,” Dylan Cozens stated. “We're going back home to play in our building, in front of our fans, and we know we can beat this team.”
After a physical game one in which both teams combined for 96 hits, Carolina’s physicality dropped off markedly for two. Their total hits were halved from 57 in game one to 28 through three periods in Game 2. The level of physicality was not sustainable, and it showed in game two. Similarly, Carolina’s game has tapered off in the first two games of the series. The third period of game one was Ottawa’s best, and in game two, the Senators did a much better job of controlling the play and creating chances.
If that trend continues and the Hurricanes' play fades, they could be in trouble if the Senators can win a game or two and push this to a longer series.
Conversely, the Senators’ power play remains an issue. After recording just one shot through their first three opportunities in Game 1, the Senators recorded just one shot on three opportunities in Game 2. Puck management has been an issue, but when the puck is worked to the half-wall or up high, the Hurricanes panic, leading to poor touches and turnovers.
There is no question that Tim Stutzle also needs to be better. Although it looked like he was starting to find his legs and confidence as the game wore on, his puck management has not been particularly strong. His offensive zone turnover in the first period led to Carolina’s second goal. He had a chance to bury three or four Grade-A chances, including a partial break in overtime that he put off the post.
Stutzle is the Senators' most dynamic offensive player, and they need him to be better. If he can find another gear, it will go a long way to helping the Senators resolve their offensive woes.
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:
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'