Ottawa Senators Postgame: Tkachuk Leads the Way in OT Win

What a win! As the Ottawa Senators headed to overtime, I reminded myself that anything can happen during three on three. Even if Boston was to score, I couldn’t let that take away from what was a fantastic effort on the road, where the Senators held the Bruins without a shot for the entire third period! They had a tough couple of shifts partway through the second, and the Bruins took advantage, scoring two goals in 15 seconds. Outside of that, the Senators played one of their better defensive games of the season. After Norris was stopped on a good chance in overtime, Boston looked to spoil Ottawa’s effort, but Linus Ullmark made a phenomenal save, leading to Brady Tkachuk heading the other way for the game winner! Let’s dive into the details!

READ MORE: What to Make of Travis Green

Brady Tkachuk Leads the Way

What a monstrous effort from the captain. Tkachuk’s had some ridiculous stat-lines over the years, but tonight is one of the best I’ve ever seen from him: game winning goal, an assist, 12 shots on goal and 8 hits! This was Tkachuk saying, I’m going into Boston and doing everything I possibly can to end this two game losing streak, who’s with me? Well, luckily, plenty of other Ottawa Senators joined in on the fun.

Norris’ Solid Effort

This is the type of game that makes me believe in Norris as the two-way centre that Travis Green is trying to help him become. He played over 20 minutes, including power play and penalty kill duties, and scored a big goal at the end of the first. It’s interesting to see what’s become of Norris on the power play. Coming into tonight’s game, Norris had just three shots on the power play in 13 games. A few seasons ago, he was one of the best power play goal scorers in all of hockey. His 16 power play goals in 2021-22 tied for the third most in the NHL that season. He did that in only 66 games, too. That season, he took 68 shots on the power play.

A big difference is going from Chabot on that top unit a few seasons ago, to Sanderson now. Chabot was much more inclined to pass, registering just 15 shots on the power play in 59 games in Norris’ big season. Sanderson, meanwhile, already has 11 power play shots through 14 games. What’s so interesting is that the power play has been great, even without Norris shooting much. They have five threats to score on that top unit, and they keep their legs moving, making it so hard for the penalty killers to know who’s liable to beat them on any given power play. If Norris remains a secondary option, it just shows how lethal their top unit is.

Amadio Scores!

Talk about a much needed goal. After signing with the Senators in the offseason, expectations for Amadio were quite high. The details of Amadio’s game have been solid. You don’t notice him make many glaring mistakes. Still, he’d be the first to tell you that he needs to chip in offensively as well. It wasn’t a great goal for Swayman to give up, but who cares. If this is the goal that gets Amadio going offensively, perfect.

Additional Notes

The two goals against in 15 seconds is a great example of what is wrong with this team. They are fragile; when faced with adversity, they often crumble. In this case, they gave up a tying goal, so the next shift was obviously important. Well, Zub failed to clear the puck, then made a weak effort defensively, and just like that, the Sens are losing. Their play in their own zone needs to be better. In that spot, Zub needs to at least go off the glass with the puck. The positive in all of this was seeing how they rebounded after this brutal 15 second stretch was great. Hopefully, there’s more of that going forward.

I’m sure Washington is happy with Jakob Chychrun, who scored his third goal of the season tonight for the red hot Washington Capitals. There’s no doubt, though, that Jensen is such a better fit for the Ottawa Senators. With Chabot and Sanderson here as puck moving, left-shot d-men, Chychrun was a bit redundant. Jensen, meanwhile, has been everything the Senators could’ve hoped for in the early going. He’s better offensively than I realized, he’s physical, he’s a work ethic type of player, and he’s been a great partner for Chabot.

For Ostapchuk to have such a maturity to his game at just 21 years old is impressive. He hasn’t been asked to play much, averaging around 10:30 per game through six games, but he can always be counted on to work as hard in the defensive zone as he does in the offensive zone. It’s not just working hard, though, he’s intelligent, consistently knowing where he needs to be positionally. The best comparison I could make for what he could be in the future is Nick Paul.

Next up for the Ottawa Senators? Heading to Toronto, to take on the hated Maple Leafs on Tuesday at 7pm.