FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-The Ottawa Senators have had more than their fair share of ups and downs through the first half of the season but it’s fair to say that they saved their best for game number 50. And there is reason to believe that the best is yet to come for the Sens as they enter a well-deserved All Star break. If that home ice loss against the Jets a couple Saturdays ago was rock bottom well then last night’s win in Montreal has to be considered the high point for this young and talented group. It’s not that they played a perfect hockey game and obviously it wasn’t against an actual opponent but it’s the way they won their fourth straight game that should have fans buzzing this morning. The resiliency, the find a way mentality and the dare I say it, swagger they played with in a game they had to have. Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk decided the Senators were going to win last night and there wasn’t a damn thing Montreal could do about it.
-If you listen closely to comments from various players during this most recent four-game winning streak, it’s sort of jarring how often you hear reference to “holding onto the puck more”. DeBrincat, Giroux, Tkachuk, Stutzle and Chabot. They’ve all mentioned it. It’s also interesting how that aligns with that much-talked whiteboard session between Claude Giroux, Alex DeBrincat and DJ Smith. Now it’s not that the Senators have undergone a complete make-over in how they play and it’s not like DJ Smith has ever held his group back in terms of taking chances on offence and making plays with the puck but it’s pretty clear that something changed following that meeting. From my perspective anyway, the shift is in how they approach puck possession in the neutral zone and approaching the other team’s blueline. In those moments when they would chip it in, you’re seeing more player stop up, hang on to the puck and look for that second wave of puck support to maintain possession. It’s a little thing and it’s not all the time but there’s something there for sure.
-Tim Stützle is 21 years old now. He has 178 games of NHL experience under his belt. There’s still a ton of growth left in his game and it’s quite likely that his best years are still a couple seasons away. And that should be absolutely terrifying for the rest of the NHL because he’s already a superstar. Development is such a funny thing for a pro hockey player. In some cases, it happens over a few seasons. In the case of Stützle, there are those moments when you can see it happening in real time. Smart plays at key moments, important faceoffs, penalty kill shifts and protecting leads late in games. He’s really just scratching the surface of his NHL career and he’s already one of those players you can trust in every situation. Combine all that with a dazzling offensive skillset and elite hockey sense and you really have something special. A career-high four-point night and a real “drag the team to victory” performance.
-Have yet to trace the origins of this “Trade DeBrincat” nonsense but can quite confidently place it in the category of “gotta talk about something”. DeBrincat’s RFA status combined with his $9 million dollar qualifying offer has led to some pre-deadline speculation but it certainly isn’t based on any actual discussions the team is having about the 25-year old sniper. The Ottawa Senators are going to have to make some tough decisions over the next couple seasons when it comes to managing the salary cap but things would have to be pretty dire both in terms of contract demands and hand-tying deals on the books before the Senators would even entertain such a thing. And to this point, neither of those things has entered the equation. A prediction- Alex DeBrincat is going to be an Ottawa Senator for a long time.
-And now we play the waiting game. As the calendar rolls over to February, the Ottawa Senators enter what is their longest break of the NHL season. We’re not quite in “find a new hobby” territory but it’s close. Ten days is just too damn long, in my opinion. The good news is it’s a rare opportunity for the team to get some legitimate rest within the busy schedule and it means they should be able to enter the second half of the season at something close to 100%. Good thing too. Three back-to-backs in February. Fifteen games in 31 days in March. Rest up, Sens. Well except for Ridly Grieg and Mark Kastelic, who were both assigned to Belleville following last night’s game. But seriously though, 10 days is far too long.
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-Ah- I forgot all about the Faces Awards! We have ten days without the Sens and this strikes me as the perfect time to vote and vote often for SensChirp in whatever the hell the Ottawa Awards are. We’re nominated in the Blog, Twitter Account and Sports Podcast categories. You can vote once a day from every email address. If each one of you has let’s say five email addresses and there are I assume, 2 million of you that read SensChirp on a daily basis, that’s like 10 million votes. That just might get it done. Vote! (please and thank you)
