Shane Pinto’s Resurgence

The Senators fans that managed to stay up into the early morning were rewarded with a 5-4 overtime victory. Jake Sanderson scored the winner on a nice feed from Tim Stützle. Shane Pinto had another great game, scoring two goals and three points. Leevi Merilainen earned the first win of his career as well. That makes six straight wins for the Senators. The last three were all road victories, making for the perfect start to the Senators nine game road trip.

The biggest reason for their run of success has to be Linus Ullmark. Last week he was named the NHL’s third star of the week. He is 8-0-1 with a .954 SV% over his last nine starts. Maybe he’ll get his own article later. For now, there’s another Senator that has also been playing his best hockey lately. After a rough couple of months, Shane Pinto is back to his goal scoring ways. It goes beyond just the goals, though. Let’s dive into the details on Shane Pinto’s resurgence!

READ MORE: Senators Owner Michael Andlauer is Fed Up

Shane Pinto By the Numbers

Here Pinto’s stats, before and after getting hot:

First 20 Games: one goal, three points

Last Five Games: five goals, six points

So, in a quarter of the games, Pinto has scored five times as many goals, and double the points. Let’s face it, he wasn’t going to be a 3% shooter all season. It was also evident that he was starting to play with more confidence, even before the puck started to go in for him. He went from battling injuries, to playing a quiet game, to finally looking like his normal self but not seeing the results. The natural next step was exactly what we’ve seen lately.

Shane Pinto Centering the Shut Down Line

About a month ago, I wrote about Pinto needing to step his game up. Within that article I mentioned that his most common linemates at even strength last season were Tkachuk, Batherson and Tarasenko. This season, he’s played mainly with Amadio, Cousins and Perron. That’s quite a drop-off in offensive talent on his wing. Somewhere along the way, though, Pinto not only accepted this role, he ran with it.

The line of Pinto, Amadio and Cousins has been phenomenal over these last five games. Cousins and Amadio both have four points in that time, tying them for second among Senators forwards in scoring during that stretch. Pinto’s six points lead the way. This line has stepped up at the perfect time- the Senators have gone goalless on the power play during that five game stretch. Stützle, Tkachuk and Batherson have just seven points combined in those five games.

To make this stretch even more impressive, the line of Pinto, Amadio and Cousins has been asked to take on the tough defensive assignments. In these five games, they’ve been given offensive zone starts around 20% of the time. That’s a whole lot of trust from Travis Green, having them take on the defensive faceoffs quite often. Pinto has taken 47 defensive faceoffs over the last five games. Josh Norris is second with 36 and Giroux is third with just 18. During that time, this line has been on for just one goal against.

That type of role takes an unselfish mindset. You’re likely going up against the other team’s top players. You’ll likely see more shots against than shots for when you’re on the ice.  All three guys on this line are showing themselves to be such great team players. They’re committed to their own zone first and foremost. They likely won’t have a ton of stretches like this where they lead the team offensively, but when it does happen, it’s a nice bonus for the Senators. Now let’s see if they can keep it going tonight, as they try to slow down McDavid, Draisaitl and the high scoring Edmonton Oilers.