FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Hockey is so strange. It’s just so odd how different the same collection of players can look on a night to night basis. Period to period even. Watching last night’s game, you would swear it was the Colorado Avalanche that were the last place team and the Ottawa Senators that were pushing for a playoff spot. The Senators looked quicker, they battled harder and they just looked like the better team. And by a fair margin. But that’s sort of how it works in the NHL. Anybody can win on any given night and the differences often come down to consistency, effort level, talent and maybe a little bit of luck. Tapping into it on a more regular basis remains a challenge for this group but it’s nice to have the those reminders that group is still capable of playing good hockey. When Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Thomas Chabot are all clicking, this team looks pretty okay.
-If there were any worries about Thomas Chabot’s health heading into this game, they were completely alleviated during a 30 second span in the second period. At one end of the rink, Chabot showed off his effortless stride, gliding back to break up what looked like a clear cut breakaway for. Instead of patting himself on the back for a job well done, he jumped into the play at the other end and made a ridiculous pass to a wide-open Ryan Dzingel. Yea, it looks like he’s just fine. Sens hockey is infinitely more entertaining with Thomas Chabot in the line up.
thomas chabot breaks up a breakaway and then sets up dzingel for a tap in pic.twitter.com/3z3nupSPzi
— dylan (@DylanFremlin) January 17, 2019
-When it comes to a rookie, you can only use the “at least he’s getting chances” line for so long. Young players go through highs and lows over the course of a season and while Brady Tkachuk was still doing his job out there, you could tell the 12 game scoring slump was getting to him. Not that he was playing any different but that infectious personality just isn’t quite the same when puck hasn’t gone into the net in weeks. That’s why it was so nice to see Tkachuk finally get one, his 11th of the year, on a play similar to ones he has been robbed on for the last month or so. As long as he continues to park himself in front of the net, the goals will come. And we’ll get to see this a little more often.
lmao pic.twitter.com/DcYhoSUvFZ
— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) January 17, 2019
-Guy Boucher is known for chasing match-ups throughout the game. Whether it’s a more defensive-minded forward line or a big tough D-pairing, it’s no secret that Boucher prefers to have certain guys out there against the other team’s top guys. That mentality is even more pronounced in games against one-line teams like the Colorado Avalanche. For the most part, it hasn’t really worked for the Senators this year. Partly because they’ve been playing without their best defensive forward for most of the season. Last night, it worked. The line of Smith-Pageau-Paajarvi was handed the unenviable task of shutting down that high-powered first line of the Avalanche and they did a hell of a job. Same thing goes for the pairing of Christian Jaros and Mark Borowiecki. Full credit to those five for coming out on the right end of a tough match-up.
-The NHL Trade Deadline is still a little over a month away but scout watch is already well underway. It’s that time of year when fans and media look for clues in who is scouting who and then try to come up with trade scenarios based on the teams involved. In all honesty, it’s sort of a silly exercise but so is devoting an entire day of TV coverage to deadline coverage but that doesn’t stop us from skipping out of work to tune in. Anyway, an interesting note from last night involving the Senators and Flyers. Ottawa had two scouts at the Flyers/Bruins game and then another guy watching the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League. On the surface, the Senators and Flyers seem like odd trade partners but there are scouts there so start drawing up those proposals folks.
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