Senators’ Chabot ready to tackle Bruins in Boston
The good news for the Ottawa Senators is that defenceman Thomas Chabot has recovered from the neck issues that bothered him earlier in the week.
He is, after all, going to need to twist his head left and right over and over again Saturday at TD Garden, to keep track of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and the rest of the league-leading Boston Bruins.
“I got some treatments and (Friday) I skated for the full practice and everything feels normal,” Chabot said before boarding the club’s afternoon charter flight to Boston. “The neck feels good, so we’re all good to go.”
Chabot, who leads the NHL with an average ice time of 26:34 per game, had set off some alarm bells Thursday when he left practice early. He says there was some stiffness stemming from a hit he received from Barclay Goodrow in the final minute of last Sunday’s 5-2 win over the
San Jose Sharks and he wasn’t taking any chances.
The injury scare over, Chabot and his teammates are now skating into the challenge of facing the 9-1-2 Bruins. Boston leads the NHL in fewest goals allowed (24) and with a sparkling power play (30.9 per cent). Before Friday’s games, Pastrnak and Marchand ranked second and fifth in the NHL scoring race.
“They are a tough line to stop, when you look at the last couple of years,” Chabot continued.
“Not only with their numbers, but in the way they (lead) the team every year and have success year after year.”
Just in case the Senators needed any reminders of how dominant the Bruins can be on both sides of the puck, coach
D.J. Smith offered a reminder as practice wrapped up Friday.
“They play the right way,” Smith said. “They have a deadly power play, really good penalty-killing, good goaltending. The guys who do it the right way are their best players, so I think it’s a team you want to look at and be like going forward. They’ve had a good run for a long time. When your best players drive it every day, everyone else falls in line.”
Although the Senators haven’t played since Sunday, they are in good spirits after having delivered their best effort of the season against the Sharks.
Smith is sticking with the winning lineup, meaning that forwards Filip Chlapik and J.C. Beaudin, recalled from Belleville on Thursday, will play. Veteran wingers Bobby Ryan and Mikkel Boedker remain out as healthy scratches. Craig Anderson will start in goal.
TKACHUK PRAISES TKACHUK: Brady Tkachuk was watching on his phone as big brother Matthew scored his remarkable between-the-legs overtime goal against Nashville on Thursday. “It was pretty sick. I was pretty pumped when I saw it,” said Brady. “He tries through the legs pretty much all summer, so to see it from the top of the circles ... not a lot of people can do that, so it was pretty impressive.”
Will we ever see that from Brady? “I’m more meat and potatoes. He’s more flashy. I don’t know. We’ll see, I guess.”
Smith, a former second- round pick who played eight years of pro hockey, marvels at the development in the past generation.
“You could give me an hour out there by myself today and I don’t know if I could pick the puck up,” he said.
NEW POWER PLAY LOOK: While Logan Brown continues to showcase himself on the first unit of the struggling power play, both Nick Paul and Dylan DeMelo are being given a shot on the second unit. Paul’s role is similar to what Tkachuk does on the top unit. “Hopefully, we can get some chemistry going, tip some pucks, screen the goalie, use my big body in front of the net, win the battles to recover pucks and hopefully go from there,” he said ... Scott Sabourin was told to get his own place earlier this week, but rookie defenceman Erik Brannstrom is still living in a hotel as he tries to cement himself in the NHL.