FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Taking care of business. Despite playing without their starting goalie and their number one centre, the Ottawa Senators found a way on Monday night. And unlike previous years when “find a way” often meant leaning on out-of-this-world goaltending or relying on standout performances from one or two players, the Senators found a way by just outworking and outplaying a quality Dallas Stars team. Ottawa started a little slow on Monday, struggling for the first ten minutes of the game and falling behind by a goal. Not their night, you may have muttered to yourself in the early going. But like previous wins over the Bruins, Capitals and Coyotes, the Senators battled out of that brief lull and basically took it to the previously undefeated Dallas Stars. A fourth straight win and a chance to sweep this five-game homestand on Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild.
-Shane Pinto is officially ridiculous. And despite what the Twitter scouts said at the time, it appears that he may not be a terrible pick after all. Pinto scored for a fifth straight game and in the process, set the Sens record for goals in consecutive games by a rookie, passing Mark Stone, Daniel Alfredsson and Alexei Yashin. There was a lot of talk about “rewarding” Shane Pinto, given the injury to Josh Norris but it’s clear that Pinto is going to find ways to produce regardless of where he sits in the lineup. When you can get to those open spots and shoot the puck like he can, production is never going to be an issue.
-The Senators were certainly the better team over the course of the sixty minutes but in those moments when the visitors pushed back, Magnus Hellberg stood tall. Like really, really tall. The Senators stumbled out of the gates and if not for some solid goaltending from Hellberg, the Senators likely find themselves down a few goals after the first. Same thing in the third period, as Hellberg turned aside all 9 of 10 shots including a couple big stops early in the frame and again late when the Stars made a desperate push. Hellberg was a bit of a surprise starter in this one but he looked locked in all night. In the process, Hellberg became the first goalie in NHL history to earn his first three wins with different teams. Looking like a pretty crafty waiver wire pick up by Pierre Dorion.
-It only took 1705 days but Derick Brassard finally registered another goal as a member of the Ottawa Senators. Brassard made his season debut on Monday night and looked more than capable of temporarily filling that void at the centre ice position. While he may have lost a step, he’s still a smart two-way player and he seemed fairly comfortable on a line with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux. While both Pinto and Stützle took turns there over the course of the night, it was Brassard that did the bulk of the heavy lifting. He finished the game with more than 16 minutes of ice time including close to two minutes on both the power play and penalty kill. Brassard came into camp on a PTO and had to battle his way onto the roster but now, he’s going to be leaned on heavily by a team with playoff aspirations. Another crafty move by the Sens GM.
-The team wasn’t saying a whole lot yesterday but you would have to think there’s some pretty bad news coming on Josh Norris. Right now, the plan is to give it a couple weeks before attempting an MRI, which would then apparently give them a better sense of the extent of the injury. Nobody was saying it but that sounds a lot like waiting to see if there’s a way they can avoid surgery on a shoulder that has already been operated on before. There’s really no sugar-coating it- this is a devastating turn of event for the Ottawa Senators and more importantly, for Josh Norris. With a long-term extension in place, this had all the makings of another career year for a player that has taken steady steps forward throughout his pro-hockey career. Here’s hoping there’s some surprise good news a couple weeks from now.
Loading …
