OTTAWA — The story of the Ottawa Senators‘ season has been good process, mixed results.
“Played a real good hockey game,” said coach Travis Green, assessing the Senators’ performance in their 5-4 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Senators left the rink with just one point despite throwing 79 shot attempts at the Flyers’ net compared to only 38 against while outshooting the Flyers 37 to 19.
Throughout the evening, the Senators were humming, generating zone time and creating chances, but Ivan Fedotov was outrageous in net for the Flyers, facing 11 high-danger chances compared with just three at the other end and allowing only one to beat him.
“We dominated the whole game, as simple as that. There’s no other way to say it,” said Thomas Chabot.
It was the third consecutive game where the Senators were the better team from start to finish, outshooting their opponents in the last three games 112 to 62.
“I think the more we play that way every night, the more we’re going to end up on (with) the better result here,” said Chabot.
It hasn’t been just a blip. It’s a trend.
Their underlying numbers throughout the season have been phenomenal.
Corsi: 54.03 per cent (third)
xGF: 52.55 per cent (eighth)
Scoring Chances%: 51.82 (ninth)
According to Natural Stat Trick
Those numbers make the Senators look like they should be in the top third of the league. The Senators have outshot and out-chanced their opponents but have often fallen short. After the Flyers game, they are 19th in the league with an 8-7-1 record.
One may ask why?
On Thursday there was a clear reason: their goaltender wasn’t good enough. The Senators are back to 23rd in team save percentage, which won’t do the trick for the Senators if their aspirations are making the playoffs.
In the first period, Linus Ullmark allowed a seeing-eye shot that went straight through him to give Philadelphia the opening goal. Later in the third period after the Senators took a commanding 4-2 lead with the game’s result seemingly in the rearview mirror, Ullmark lost positioning pushing off his post and was beaten by an Anthony Richard snapshot which cut the lead to 4-3. Just two minutes later, Ullmark gave up a juicy rebound which hit Bobby Brink and suddenly it was 4-4. Four goals on 13 shots. Woof.
It hardly needed saying, but Green assessed his netminder’s performance as “not his best.” Ullmark would be given an ironic cheer by fans in the third period on a couple of simple saves. The old whispers from Ottawa’s goalie graveyard grew louder and stronger through the night.
Ullmark’s stumbles in the third period are part of a wider issue this season for the Senators. (Sometimes you are allowed to reuse your own stats.)
As good as a team plays, allowing goals in bunches — whether it is due to poor goaltending or at times porous defensive breakdowns — is difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, Green dismissed the concern about giving up goals in bunches.
“That’s not an issue for me at all,” said Green. “It’s happened but it’s not like we just let down and stopped playing.”
In overtime, Shane Pinto had a wide-open net but an outstanding Fedotov save crushed the Senators’ chance of victory. Moments later, Ullmark gave up his shakiest goal of the game, on a goal-line shot from Matvei Michkov that went straight through the goalie’s body to end the game.
“I was just as shocked as everyone else in the building that it actually went in,” said Ullmark.
The real shocker was how poor Ullmark was, given his shutout in the Battle of Ontario in his previous start.
Post-game, Ullmark had a long discussion with Senators goaltender coach Justin Peters. Ullmark evoked a mindset that fictional coach Ted Lasso would preach.
“Mind of a goldfish,” said Ullmark about how he will recover from the loss mentally. “It’s a new day tomorrow. Onwards to the next one, and then try to replicate the good things that we did, because we did a lot of good things.”
“I go home, enjoy my family a little bit,” he added. “Wake up with the kids and then get some energy, get some laughs out of them and onwards we go.”
A goldfish memory is what Ullmark and his teammates will need, for opposite reasons. Ullmark needs to improve while the Senators as a whole need to continue their process.
“Making the right decisions and playing the right way. And I felt that we’ve done that lately,” said Ullmark.
The Senators are starting to show consistency by outshooting teams routinely which in theory should translate into wins. To borrow a phrase from Chabot, “simple as that.”
However, a .890 save percentage on the season and five goals on 19 shots will not do for Ullmark. As good as your process is, your goaltender needs to match it.
Green’s shuffling of lines has worked
Some coaches ride and die with lines, but not Travis Green. He has used a blender more than most nutritionists.
“I think a lot gets made out of line juggling,” Green said. “I believe that sometimes just changing something sparks a guy or playing with new linemates gives a guy a little bit of a boost.”
The proverbial smoothie shakeup came out late in their game against the New York Islanders last Thursday in a third-period push after the Senators’ top lines had been wallowing. Green discarded his top two lines for new ones and they’ve been excellent ever since.
Old Lines
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Greig
Giroux-Norris-Batherson
New Lines
Tkachuk-Norris-Greig
Giroux-Stutzle-Batherson
The Senators have downright dominated teams at five-on-five since the change. The line of Tkachuk-Norris-Greig has a combined six points in three games with shot attempts 43 to 14 in their favour at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. Meanwhile, the line of Giroux-Stutzle-Batherson has also combined for six points in three games and shot attempts have been 60 to 16 in their favour.
If it ain’t broke, keep what’s blended.
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