Ottawa Senators Postgame: Red Wings Top Sens in OT

With that overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Ottawa Senators have finally finished their nine game road trip. The Senators battled through injuries, a flu bug, and some offensive struggles during the trip, but managed to finish with a respectable 4-4-1 record. The trip started better than it finished, with the Sens winning their first three before losing five out of the last six. At least they earned a point in tonight’s loss. Let’s dive into the details of the Ottawa Senators hard fought OT loss to the Red Wings.

READ MORE: It’s Now or Never for Anton Forsberg

Solid Start from Forsberg

You can’t ask for much more out of Forsberg than how he played tonight. He managed to save 30 of the 33 shots he faced. That’s his most saves in a start since October, and his first game with a save percentage over .900 in his last seven starts. There were legitimate reasons to be concerned about Forsberg becoming the Senators number one goalie with news of Linus Ullmark’s injury. At least for a night, Forsberg pushed aside those concerns. He made two great saves in overtime, and an even better one partway through the third, robbing Marco Kaspar with a stretched out glove.

Penalty Killing Issues

The issues while shorthanded actually happened for both teams. Let’s start with the Senators. Brady Tkachuk took a strange penalty when he took off the opponents helmet. Let’s not act like the refs are consistent with that call. Anyway, the Red Wings took advantage, making it look way too easy with a Dylan Larkin goal from the slot. The Patrick Kane game winner, after a Jake Sanderson penalty, was also on the power play, with Kane scoring right off the faceoff. There have been some good signs with the Senators penalty kill in more recent games, but this is another set back in that regard. They seem far too passive and give up way too many quality chances down low.

On the other side of things, the Red Wings penalty kill wasn’t much better. The Senators power play has struggled lately, so it was nice to see them move the puck with confidence tonight. The Red Wings penalty kill looks way too passive to me, but what do I know. Chabot’s goal wasn’t technically on the power play, but it happened right as the power play ended. The next goal by Tkachuk, though, was indeed with the extra man on a nice drop pass by Sanderson and a great screen by Batherson. Tkachuk has really become the go-to shooter on the power play. He’s now up to nine power play goals and 39 power play shots. Both those totals lead the team. By comparison, Stutzle has 13 power play shots while Norris has just 11.

Additional Notes

Welcome back Jan Jenik! I thought he made a legitimate push to make the Senators roster with his preseason play. He ended up down in the AHL where he quickly was injured. Now he has his chance to try to earn more NHL games. Tonight, though, he was mainly quiet. Speaking of depth forwards, the Senators have two going in opposite directions. Nick Cousins continues to play solid hockey. Tonight he had an assist, drew a penalty, and played over 17 minutes. Adam Gaudette, on the other hand, has now gone 12 straight games without a goal. As for when the Ottawa Senators finally get a home game? That’ll be Thursday at 7, against the Buffalo Sabres.