The Ottawa Senators needed a win in the worst way.
And they got one the best possible way, by not allowing any goals.
Saturday’s 2-0 shutout of the Seattle Kraken helped make up for a distressing 4-2 loss the night before in Columbus. Ottawa had skated out to a 2-0 lead against the lowly Blue Jackets only to give up four unanswered goals, suffering the indignity of hearing that deafening Nationwide Arena cannon sound four times.
Big picture, the Senators are still in a world of hurt. They are 9-10-0 after 19 games and trail everyone in the Atlantic Division, albeit with games in hand on all.
But at least for a night, they stopped the bleeding.
And Anton Forsberg stopped 39 shots to record the Senators’ first shutout of the season.
“We fought for each other and there were a lot of blocks,” Forsberg said.
Twenty-two blocked shots by Ottawa position players, in fact.
The Senators benefited from two egregious giveaways by Seattle in the first period, resulting in goals by Mathieu Joseph and Drake Batherson. Joseph has been Ottawa’s most consistent forward this season and Batherson is showing signs of rounding into form after a slow start.
Tim Stützle led the Sens with six shots on goal and set up the Batherson goal. That assist was Stützle’s 200th career point.
Stützle called the win “big for our group,” given the mood around Ottawa during the three losses that followed the victorious Swedish trip.
“We played for 60 minutes and we could have scored more goals,” Stützle said.
This was a rare occasion when a former Senators goalie returned to Ottawa and didn’t beat up on his old team. Joey Daccord, a popular goalie prospect here and in Belleville during the pandemic years, gave up both Ottawa goals while facing 28 Senators shots.
Head coach D.J. Smith, who sits on the hottest seat in the NHL, was pleased with his team’s defensive effort that was not apparent during the three-game losing streak that just ground to a halt.
“We were responsible in a lot of ways,” Smith said. “Showed a lot of growing up in the third period. We were sharing pucks rather than giving them away. We laid down when we had to and we made plays when we had to as well. That’s a really good team, as fast a team as we’ve played.
“And it was good just to get one at home.”
With the win, Ottawa improved to 7-7 on home ice, although two of those ‘home’ wins came in Sweden.
Nobody has symbolized the roller coaster ride of this first quarter of the schedule more than Forsberg.
Prior to the Sweden trip, he had given up five or more goals in three straight outings. In Stockholm, he was brilliant in a 2-1 shootout victory over Minnesota, then returned home to get shelled 5-3 by the New York Islanders.
“When he’s on, he’s on,” Smith said. “The guys love playing for him. No one works as hard as he does. He’s as good a guy as we have in that room. You know right from the get-go when Forsy is on, he was seeing pucks. Give our D credit, we did a good job of boxing out and letting him see a little more tonight… you need that in this league for sure.”
Among those 39 saves were a couple of important ones, including a save on Oliver Bjorkstrand from the slot in the first period.
Forsberg improved his record to 4-4-0 with a 3.03 goals-against and .882 save percentage. Certain nights have bruised that save percentage, such as the five goals yielded to Vancouver on 16 shots just before the trip to Sweden.
The Senators will need Forsberg and his running mate Joonas Korpisalo to be sharp this week.
And chances are the Sens won’t get away with allowing 39 or more shots on goal when they face the New York Rangers here on Tuesday night and the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
On Saturday, the Sens are in Detroit to face a surging Red Wings team that has a goal differential of plus 18, second best in the Atlantic Division to the Boston Bruins’ 20. Ottawa is plus 1.
Though the Senators sit eighth and last in the Atlantic, they are not the only team struggling to get traction.
Sitting four points ahead of Ottawa are the Buffalo Sabres at 10-12-2. The Senators have five games in hand on Buffalo. The Sabres are 3-6-1 in their last 10.
The Sens also have five in hand on Montreal, one point ahead of Buffalo with 23 points. The Canadiens are 10-11-3 on the season and also 3-6-1 in their last 10.
Even the Tampa Bay Lightning are in some early trouble at 10-10-5.
At the moment, the Leafs and Islanders hold down the two wild card spots in the east and Tampa Bay is among the teams on the outside looking in.
After two of three at home this week, the Senators have one more home game, Dec. 12 versus Carolina, before heading out on the road for a five-game trip starting in St. Louis on Dec. 14.
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