It’s only been two games of rookie tournament hockey but one player is already standing out about the rest for the Ottawa Senators.
And somewhat surprisingly, that player is Chris Driedger.
The Senators only brought two goalies to this year’s three game round-robin, intending to split the time between Matt O’Connor and Driedger. When O’Connor left with an injury early in the opener, the door opened for Driedger. And he has taken full advantage of his opportunity.
In just over 5 periods, Driedger has stopped 62 of 63 shots including a 43 save shutout against the Pittsburgh Penguins’ rookies yesterday afternoon.
Heading into this season, the plan is to let these two fight it out for playing time with the Binghamton Senators. O’Connor may have been slightly ahead of Driedger on the depth chart heading into training camp but it’s clear that Driedger is going to push for that starting job.
Driedger was a third round pick in the 2012 Entry Draft and has been brought along slowly by the organization. Like O’Connor, he struggled in Binghamton most of last season but seemed to be hitting his stride towards the end of last season.
In a short tournament like this one, it’s pretty tough to draw conclusions from the performance of any individual players. Players like Thomas Chabot and Nick Paul were expected to dominate but through two games, no skater has really stood out for the Sens. They’ve scored just twice in 120 minutes, with both goals credited to undrafted forward Stephen Harper.
The Senators will play the final game of this year’s tournament against the rookies from the Montreal Canadiens.
Puck drop is scheduled for 1:00 PM.
