Sens grateful for American players as they recognize Turkey Day in U.S.
COLUMBUS The Ottawa Senators took time to talk turkey on Thursday.
With five Americans on the roster — goaltenders Craig Anderson and Mike Condon, wingers Bobby Ryan and Ryan Dzingel and centre Nate Thompson — the Senators took a step away from the business at hand to recognize Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.
If you’ve never been south of the border for the holiday, it’s a big deal.
“It’s a huge day, I’ve lived in the U.S. and I know how big a day it is,” said Senators coach Guy Boucher. “It might even be bigger than Christmas, so we wanted to recognize that. We’re definitely thankful to have those Americans on our team and we’re showing them some respect.” ICE TIME BOOST: Boucher is optimistic that Chris DiDomenico will be back with the Senators again — provided he clears waivers — and goes to Belleville of the AHL.
DiDomenico scored three goals and three assists in his first eight games with the Senators, but has been blanked in his past four outings.
“It’s very, very common,” said Boucher. “A guy comes up from the AHL and plays on adrenalin and all his strengths showed right away — his smarts, vision, hockey sense, skill — but when the adrenalin went down, his play diminished a little bit.”
The coach says DiDomenico needs increased playing time with Belleville to get his confidence back. SMITH CLOSE TO RETURN: The Senators could have forward Zack Smith back from his broken thumb in time for Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders. BLOODY BRASSARD: Derick Brassard is wearing an ugly gash just above his lip, courtesy of the uncalled high stick of Brett Connolly in the second period on Wednesday. At the time, he gave an earful to the officials for somehow missing the call. VEZINA WATCH: We present the following statistics for Philadelphia Flyers fans asking how it’s possible that organization didn’t keep Sergei Bobrovsky: In his past five games, the Blue Jackets’ goaltender has posted a 5-0-0 record, 0.78 goals-against average, .978 save percentage and two shutouts.
The latest shutout came Wednesday when Columbus defeated Calgary 1-0 in overtime. For the season, Bobrovsky is either first or second in every major goaltending category, including wins (13), GAA (1.91) and save percentage (. 936).
“He has won the Vezina twice, so he’s definitely the elite,” said Sens goalie Craig Anderson. “In order to score on the best goalies, you’ve got to create traffic and make it hard on him, just like other teams are scoring on us.” STICKING BY NUMBER ONE: There was a time when Jakub Vrana’s second goal on Wednesday — a shortside shot that stuck in the roof of the net — might have resulted in Anderson being pulled from the game.
“Right now, because it’s a tough patch for us, and my thinking was that we’re going to fight through this together, and that’s our No. 1 goalie,” said Boucher. “I didn’t want to have a scapegoat, by changing the goalie. We put ourselves in this hole and we’re going to fight back together out of that hole.
“(Anderson) is at the forefront of that. He played very well the previous games. It’s more of a together thing and we’re going to get out of this together.”’ IN THE NICK OF TIME: Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno picked up an assist on Josh Anderson’s game-winning goal in overtime on Wednesday, giving Columbus a 1-0 victory. The point ended a 12-game pointless drought for Foligno. … As bad as the Senators’ power play is, the Blue Jackets would take their 16.7 success percentage right now. Columbus has gone 6-for-60 on the power play this season. You don’t need to be a math major to figure out that’s a 10 per cent success rate, worst in the NHL.