SENATORS FACE BIG WEEKEND TEST
Team needs to crank up game a notch as formidable Blue Jackets, Bruins loom
Senators captain Erik Karlsson wasn’t complaining about his team’s effort in Thursday’s 2-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
Any win is a big win in the tight standings — the Senators gained a point on the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers and two on the Boston Bruins — regardless of where the opponent sits in the standings.
Just the same, if you read between Karlsson’s lines following the Alex Burrows-inspired triumph, he recognizes the Senators need to crank up their game a notch on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets and yet again on Monday versus Boston.
“They’re two tough games and they should be different games,” said Karlsson, who was as dynamic as ever against Colorado despite coming up empty on the scoresheet. “They’re big points for us to pick up. Hopefully, we can feel as good as we did (on Thursday) and come back with a little more structure.
“We have done a good job at finding ways to win games.” Indeed. The Senators have scored only seven goals in their past five games, but have managed to win three of them — all by 2-1 counts — to maintain second spot in the Atlantic Division.
Against Colorado, the addition of pre-trade deadline pickups Burrows (two goals in 13:58 of ice time) and Viktor Stalberg (11:52) added a much-needed spark of energy as the Senators returned from a four-game road trip.
“I don’t think we played a perfect game,” said Karlsson. “But I felt like we had high intensity and had our legs, so we got away with a lot of things. Our defensive game, in our own zone, was really solid.”
Karlsson and Dion Phaneuf each had six blocked shots, leading the way for a team that finished the night with 25 blocks.
The impetus for acquiring Burrows and Stalberg was to find additional players for coach Guy Boucher to trust, taking pressure off high-end forwards including Kyle Turris, Mark Stone and Derick Brassard.
So far, so good. Thursday was a four-line game. Every one of the Senators’ 12 forwards topped the 10-minute mark. Stone led the way at 17:31.
Turris, who played a whopping 24:07 and 26:02 in consecutive games two weeks ago when injuries hit the Senators hard, was down to 15:22 against Colorado.
“Our third and fourth lines gave us a lot of energy,” said Boucher. “The speed made a big difference in wearing down the opponent. When you have four lines running with pace, it gives you a chance to spread out the ice time and make sure everybody’s got enough juice to maintain the pace.”
It sure appears like the days of playing fourth-liners four or five minutes per game or only dressing 11 forwards are history.
Again, though, nobody should get too carried away with Thursday’s triumph.
Colorado has been the NHL’s worst and most disappointing team. Columbus has been one of the NHL’s best and the league’s most surprising squad.
The Blue Jackets come to Ottawa on a 5-1-1 roll and have passed Pittsburgh to move into second overall in the Eastern Conference, trailing only Washington.
They have received outstanding goaltending from Vézina Trophy candidate Sergei Bobrovsky, while Cam Atkinson has 29 goals, leading a balanced offensive attack.
For the Senators, it’s not necessarily a case of practice makes perfect.
Boucher told his players to stay away from the rink, hoping that yet another day off — the club has practised on non-game days only twice in the past three weeks — would give them renewed jump against one of the league’s top teams.
Fatigue is a factor. The game against Colorado was the Senators’ 10th in a 17-day stretch.
“We know it’s tough emotionally, mentally, physically, after those road trips, and we’ve got some guys that are tired,” he said. “I think the players gave everything they (had).”