It seems like we’re all in agreement that while it was nice to come away with the two points in the regular season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s a lot of work to do.
The defensive zone coverage was bad. I’m talking like as bad as it was at any point last season. The breakouts were dreadful. On many occasions players seemed to be skating in the same lane as a teammate. It led to a ton of turnovers at their own blueline and in the neutral zone and made it almost impossible for the Senators to create offence off the rush. It’s wasn’t pretty.
All part of the process, according to new Head Coach Guy Boucher.
Boucher met with the media yesterday and provided a really interesting glimpse into what his expectations are in the early part of the season and what we can expect from the team over the next six weeks. And while the local media tried to push him a little bit to talk about the importance of results early in the season, Boucher stuck to his guns and made it clear- it’s all about the process.
As fans, we see the defensive struggles on opening night and think “Here we go again!”. The last few years of bleeding shots have done permanent damage and we are all sort of conditioned to expect the worst at this point.
Boucher saw it too though. From the moment the puck was dropped, Boucher said it was clear to him and the rest of the Coaching staff that a lot of the things they had worked on throughout training camp just weren’t happening the way they were supposed to. The difference between strategy and execution.
But what is somewhat reassuring (at least for me anyway), is that it wasn’t really all that surprising for Boucher. Or if it was, he’s certainly not letting it show. His calm and measured approach to the early part of this season is oddly comforting. Learning a new system takes time and in Boucher’s mind, games like the one we saw against Toronto are inevitable. One step at a time, as he says.
The full Boucher availability from yesterday can be seen below. If you’re feeling a little bit stressed about Ottawa’s defensive struggles on opening night, have a listen. I promise you’ll feel at least a little bit better afterwards.
-So uhh, not a bad start to the season for Sens first round pick Logan Brown. He scored three times last night (in less than 11 minutes) and currently sits second in OHL scoring with 17 points in 7 games. He’s not the only Sens prospect to burst out of the gate either as Filip Chlapik leads the QMJHL in scoring with 15 points (8 goals) in his first seven games.
-The Senators were on the ice this morning and Boucher revealed after that they’ll go with the same line up tomorrow against Montreal. The plan is to get Thomas Chabot, Matt Puempel and Andrew Hammond each into a game during the back to back next week. Ottawa is in Detroit on Monday and then home to Arizona on Tuesday.
