Ottawa Senators Finally Able To Put Thomas Chabot Back In Position To Succeed

Every team has a whipping boy. From Stanley Cup contenders to bottom-feeders, there is always a player on the roster who draws the ire of the fans, convinced that “this guy” is who stands between their team and success. 

Names like Nikita Zaitsev, Jared Cowen, Cody Ceci, Brian Lee and even Erik Karlsson immediately come to mind. But Thomas Chabot has also been one of those players, at least in the eyes of some fans.

However, sometimes the forest gets missed for the trees when a quality player isn’t given leeway due to factors like salary, linemates, or overall team success.

Consider the example of Wade Redden. Redden was renowned for having one of the best first passes in the league, silky smooth skating, and strong power-play quarterbacking. He could always be counted on for point totals in the 35-45 range, along with a positive plus-minus rating in the double digits.

As an assistant captain with a big contract, he played a calm, sound defensive game with smooth skating, and he was tasked with leading breakouts from the defensive zone to the offensive zone.

Sound familiar?

But every so often, Redden would make a bad giveaway and out came the pitchforks. Redden’s presence as the last man back on the ice for Jeff Friesen’s 2003 dagger goal in the closing minutes of the Eastern Conference Final did not go unnoticed. 

Today, Redden is a beloved member of the team’s Ring of Honour.

A funny thing can happen when you put a player in a better position to succeed. For much of his career, Chabot was thrown into the fire with ill-suited defence partners. He was tasked with playing 30 minutes a night on defensively inept teams with bottom-of-the-league goaltending. He became the poster boy for the team’s defensive struggles, with far less attention given to the team's other defenders.

As injuries mounted, Chabot could never approach the 55 points he posted as a 22-year-old NHL all-star in 2018-19. With Dylan DeMelo, that was the last time, until this season, that Chabot had chemistry with a reliable partner.

Every defenceman in the NHL, from Cale Makar on down, will commit giveaways. And the more the player is on the ice with the puck on his stick, the more often it will happen.

Consider the following: Makar, for example, is 14th in the league in giveaways with 93 in 68 games—an average of 1.36 per game. Chabot has 80 giveaways in 65 games, averaging 1.2 per game. Chabot’s expected goals against per 60 minutes is 3.24, according to Moneypuck.com, is in the same range as Makar’s 2.96. Chabot has also blocked 110 shots, compared to Makar’s 100 in three more games played.

Naturally, no one should be confusing Chabot with Makar. Makar has 78 points compared to Chabot’s 33.

But hockey is a fast game and mistakes are part of it.  A quality defenceman will make dozens of quiet, quality plays per game that go unnoticed, which helps mitigate the errors that end up on highlight reels. Both Makar and Chabot share that in common.

It’s interesting how the Senators’ fortunes turned around when they put Chabot in a position to succeed. They got him a nearly perfect veteran partner in Nick Jensen, and the two now rank 1st and 2nd in the team’s plus-minus rankings. Chabot has helped bring out surprising offence from Jensen, while Jensen has provided the defensive presence that Chabot can trust.

Entering Tuesday night's game in Montreal, it’s likely no coincidence that Chabot’s only minus rating in his previous five games (-2 against the Leafs on March 15) came with Jensen out of the lineup and fellow whipping boy Travis Hamonic on his right side. To make matters worse, there was also a highlight-reel giveaway from Linus Ullmark with Chabot on the ice.

It also can’t be a coincidence that, with the emergence of Jake Sanderson and reduced ice time, Chabot has remained healthy and is on pace for 81 games, which would shatter his career high.

A beloved leader in the room, deployed to his strengths, and finally paired with a well-suited defence partner, Chabot’s results speak for themselves. He's emerged as one of the best second-pair defencemen in the NHL this season. Despite his $8 million annual salary, he is probably where he should have been all along.

So maybe the team can win with this guy after all.

By Andrew Sztein
The Hockey News Ottawa

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