SENATORS GET PENALTY BOX LESSON
Pre-season matchup with Canucks gives young special teams a learning experience
The sun finally emerged from behind the clouds here Tuesday, allowing the Ottawa Senators to move outside to learn more about each other away from the ice.
The Senators are hoping for the best from the National Hockey League season to come, of course, but they’re not kidding themselves. They know there will be plenty of long nights as the full pool of prospects isn’t quite ready to take hold of the franchise.
If they can all laugh a bit now — that was one of the goals of team-building exercises on the University of British Columbia campus — they might just have something to fall back on when the stresses of the regular season start next week.
In their ideal confidence-building world, they would skate out of Rogers Arena late Wednesday with a victory, allowing them to split two pre-season games against the Vancouver Canucks.
Victory or not, a determined effort from veterans and those pushing for the final available roster spots is what general manager Pierre Dorion and head coach D.J. Smith want to see. With cuts expected Thursday, they don’t want those decisions to be easy.
In Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Canucks in Abbotsford, a less than complete Senators roster — Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Connor Brown, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Ron Hainsey sat out — couldn’t overcome a parade to the penalty box that led to four Canucks power-play goals. The most damaging blow was a five-minute major and game misconduct to Jordan Szwarz eight minutes into the game, quickly turning a 1-0 Senators lead into a 2-1 deficit.
“That’s an NHL top-end power play,” Smith said of the Canucks. “They have guys that can really shoot the puck and we had some guys trying out to be on the penalty kill. And you want to see. And it’s perfect. It’s a test against elite players, with (Brock) Boeser and (Elias) Petersson out there … These are elite guys on the flanks. They got us (Monday), but it’s all part of learning.”
Presumably, the return of more experienced penalty killers such as Pageau, Hainsey, White and Brown will give the Senators sharper play in that regard in Wednesday’s rematch. If the Senators have any chance of staying competitive when the games matter, they can’t bury themselves with weak special teams. In the past two games, including the listless 4-0 defeat against the Montreal Canadiens at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday, they’ve yielded seven power-play goals.
“The penalties killed us,” said veteran centre Artem Anisimov, who has quietly had a decent pre-season.
When the Senators weren’t trying to kill penalties, they carried the play against the Canucks for extended stretches. They finished with 45 shots against Vancouver goaltender Jacob Markstrom.
“Overall, five on five, we did some good things,” Senators winger Tyler Ennis said. “Every night, we’re going to have to outwork the other team. Our identity is just going to be work ethic.”
As for prospects pushing to stay on the NHL roster, Rudolfs Balcers raised his game a notch on Monday. He moved in from the perimeters more often and was rewarded for being around the net, collecting a goal and an assist.
“It was only my second game, but I’ve been feeling better and better every day at (training) camp, and for sure I felt at my best (Monday),” he said.
The experience of being around the NHL for half of the 2018-19 season — he registered five goals and nine assists in 36 games — has helped Balcers settle in this fall.
“I know every guy now and it’s just the feel, I kind of know what to expect in the games,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m (definitely) on the team or anything like that. There are guys fighting for spots, so I’m just trying to show the coach I can play here.”
While Balcers and fellow forwards Logan Brown and Nick Paul have picked up their games at times, the Senators would like to see more from Drake Batherson.
The roster for Wednesday’s game won’t be officially announced until after the morning skate, but it’s expected that Craig Anderson will play the full game in goal. kwarren@postmedia.com Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren