FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Shhhhhh. Fans and media and players and coaches have all done a spectacular amount of talking the last few days but for a few hours anyway, the Ottawa Senators let their play do the talking. It wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t without some harrowing moments along the way but it was the kind of effort this team desperately needed. The line of Joseph-Stutzle-Giroux combined for 10 points, Joonas Korpisalo made some spectacular saves, Jakob Chychrun and Jake Sanderson were both excellent and thanks to three minutes of third period dominance, the Sens are back in the win column. The start of this season has obviously had some low points but there are some really encouraging signs coming from inside that locker room. This group cares a whole lot and the leadership group is all on the same page.
-Claude Giroux said it best in his post-game remarks but with that win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators can “take a breather”. It’s been an absurdly chaotic couple weeks around these parts but there is nothing quite like a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs to take the edge off a little bit. And when it ends with Leaf fans booing their team off the ice, Ryan Reaves feebly attempting to first catch and then find someone to fight and then Sheldon Keefe completely melting down in the post game press conference, well that’s just perfect.
-There has been a lot of talk about an emphasis on “details” during the last two days of practice and from the moment the puck dropped, it showed. To a man, they seemed to recognize the importance of putting together a solid 60 minute effort and that started with doing the little things right. Battling for loose pucks, defending as five-man units and coming back to your own end of the rink to support the break out. It wasn’t perfect obviously but what last night showed is that there is a pretty direct correlation between structure, focus and effort.
-It probably goes without saying at this point but what a massive mistake it would have been to trade Mathieu Joseph, especially in a situation where the Senators were expected to add an asset to convince somebody to take on his contract. In every way possible, Joseph is just a different player this season and pretty quickly looking like good value on his current contract. Three assist night and now humming along at a point a game pace over the first 11 games of the season. His speed was a difference maker for that top line last night.
-His play was mostly underwhelming in the preseason but full credit to Jacob Bernard-Docker for making the most of this latest opportunity. Just a few weeks after passing through waivers, Bernard-Docker appears to be settling in a little bit at the NHL level and earning the trust of the coaching staff in the process. Injuries on that right side have opened the door obviously but this was a third straight game where Bernard-Docker logged north of 20 minutes and he’s looked solid in the process. JBD played most of the game with Jake Sanderson which meant a lot of tough match-ups and he didn’t look the least bit overwhelmed. Really encouraging progress in his game.
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