Senators return home to get rested and ready for Penguins
STOCKHOLM — The Ottawa Senators headed home Sunday from a pretty Swede trip across the ocean.
They’d better get some rest, though, they’re going to need it after this trek.
After collecting all four points available in back-to-back wins Friday and Saturday over the Colorado Avalanche at the Ericsson Globe, a big challenge awaits the Senators at home as they prepare to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
While it took nearly three days to get over the jet lag when they flew overseas last Monday, they’re not exactly sure what to expect coming home. The club’s charter was scheduled to land at MacDonaldCartier Airport Sunday around 3 p.m. and the challenge for the players was to stay up late to try to get back on Eastern time.
This was a terrific effort for the Senators under somewhat difficult circumstances because of the six hour time change but now it’s back to reality.
The Senators will have plenty of time to get rested and relaxed before facing the Penguins. After spending eight hours on the plane Sunday, they’ll have Monday and Tuesday off before skating Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
The Senators do think the adjustment may be difficult.
“It’ll be tough. The opponent is going to have an advantage in terms of rest and sleep,” said coach Guy Boucher following the club’s 4-3 win over the Avs Saturday night. “But, you know what, we’ve had other challenges before and we’ve risen up to them and this is against Pittsburgh so I don’t think we’ll need any motivation.”
Winger Mark Stone said it should be easier returning to Ottawa because the club had five days to prepare for this set with the Avalanche and the players will be in the comfort of their own homes.
“We’re going to have to try to stay up as late as we can and then try to get back on the time zone,” said Stone. “We’re used to travelling six or seven hours at a time through (North America) so for us it’s more than time zone we have to get used to.
“(Sunday) is an important day to really get adjusted to it.”
Yes, the last time the Senators saw the Penguins was May 25th when Chris Kunitz beat Craig Anderson for the winner in double-OT in Game 7 of the East final. A lot has changed since then but the Senators are on a mission this season to show their trip deep into the playoffs last spring was no accident.
While they’ve had a solid start, they’ve struggled with consistency defensively and they’ve had a difficult time holding leads. The Senators did a solid job Saturday by coming back on the strength of Johnny Oduya’s second goal of this season — this one in his hometown — to tie it up and Mike Hoffman’s winner with 6:37 left.
Stone, one of the club’s best players with 12 goals in 16 games this season, said the players need to bring the same kind of effort they had in Stockholm back to North America, especially the way the club had Saturday.
Ottawa outshot the Avs 40-18 and Anderson faced only eight shots in 29:24 of action after taking over from Mike Condon.
“As a whole our offensive game is there,” said Stone. “We’re not losing games because of our offence, we’re losing games because of our defence.
“You look at the last two games (in Sweden) and I think we limited (Colorado) to 20 shots a game which is where we want to be. I think if we can continue to do that as a team we’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”
The key now is to have some consistency. The Senators don’t have an easy stretch ahead of them. After a two-game homestand ends Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes, the Senators will play only one of their next 11 games at home.
The next three weeks will be pivotal in determining this club’s season. The key is they have plenty of confidence and are buoyed by the general manager Pierre Dorion’s massive deal for centre Matt Duchene from the Avalanche only hours before they left for Sweden.
Really, the Senators have no complaints about this trip and why should they?
As they made their way back to Ottawa Sunday the picture looked pretty good.