FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Who are these guys? For a second straight game, the same Ottawa Senators that have frustrated us so much over the first half of the season suddenly looked like world-beaters. Much like the game against the Sharks on Friday night, it’s not that they dominated the opposition but rather that they were able to find another gear at key points in the hockey game. Performances like this would be impressive against any team but against a rested league-leading Tampa Bat team, it’s truly something this team can build off of going forward. The Senators have dug themselves a pretty deep hole here and while the odds are obviously stacked against them when it comes to making the playoffs, this group clearly still believes it’s possible. And they are finally starting to playing like it.
-If nothing else, it sure is nice to see this team having a little bit of fun out there. Everything post-Sweden has been a complete nightmare for this team and it’s been a situation where everything that can go wrong has for this group. They are nowhere near as bad a hockey team as they have looked at times this year though and that’s finally starting to show. Watching the way they’re are celebrating goals, communicating on the bench and generally carrying themselves throughout the game is so different than it was in the depths of that slump. There’s a confidence and level of engagement there that has been missing for a couple months. And it’s fun to watch.
-In the low points of this season, we have spent a remarkable amount of time talking about the bottom part of the line up. Stressing about the depth guys and worrying about ice time given to the third and fourth line and the bottom two defence pairings. Those concerns are legitimate but like every team, the Ottawa Senators will go as far as their best players take them. And right now, it feels like Ottawa’s best players are waking up. The top six of Dzingel-Brassard-Stone and Hoffman-Duchene-Ryan is clicking and the pairing of Thomas Chabot and Erik Karlsson is driving the play from the back end. With those eight players rolling the way they are right now and Craig Anderson playing better hockey, the Senators suddenly look like a dangerous hockey team again.
-Not that this was in doubt but uhh that Thomas Chabot kid can play. You can see his confidence rising with each game and it’s at the point now where he is pretty clearly the second best defenceman on this hockey team. He’s making plays out there that had become routine in the QMJHL only now he’s doing it against the best players in the world. His patience and creativity with the puck on his stick is clearly his strength but what’s really amazing to see is his ability to defend using a combination of an effective stick and good body positioning. He really doesn’t look physically over-matched against NHL forwards. The Senators have made a conscious decision to be patient with Chabot this season and it seems to be paying off right now.
-Ryan Dzingel always created the scoring chances you would expect from a top six forward only now they are finally starting to go in for him. While it would be easy to call that luck, it really does look like he’s developed that extra bit of patience that comes with experience in the league. He’s taking that split-second to pick his spot or to make an extra move rather than just putting the puck on net and it’s making him an incredibly dangerous player. Dzingel now has 13 on the year and a 25 goal season seems like a legitimate possibility. At just $1.5 million this season, Dzingel is proving to be an absolute steal.
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