Sens coach explores new line combinations to spark some offence
D.J. Smith tried a new look with the Ottawa Senators on Thursday morning.
Perhaps, it’s a changing of the guard.
Trying to ignite the offence as the Senators head out for a fivegame road trip that starts on Friday against the Minnesota Wild with a rare afternoon start at the Xcel Energy Center as part of U.S. Thanksgiving, Ottawa’s coach changed the line combinations after the club has scored only two goals in its last two games.
Yes, a big part of the reason Smith decided to make the moves coming off a 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night at home is the fact the Senators don’t have the last line change on the road, but it can’t hurt to at least try something different because Ottawa lost two consecutive games for the first time in a month.
The only line that stayed intact was rookie Logan Brown with wingers Anthony Duclair and Brady Tkachuk, while the rest of the combinations changed. Winger Tyler Ennis didn’t skate, but is expected to play against the Wild, which means he’ll likely play with Chris Tierney as the fourth-line centre and winger Filip Chlapik.
While winger Connor Brown has been a constant on the right side of Jean- Gabriel Pageau and Nick Paul for nearly a month, it was centre Colin White in that spot on Thursday at the Bell Sensplex.
Brown skated with centre Artem Anisimov (lower body) and winger Vladislav Namestnikov (tailbone), both of whom expected to return from their injuries.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to get that match all the time on the road pulling guys on and off the ice, so I thought I’d kind of switch it around a little bit,” Smith said.
“That (Connor) Brown line was good when (Anisimov) was playing there last time, and I think Connor is a bit of spark for each line, he does a lot of the dirty work.”
If the Senators are going to have a big trip, they’re going to have to score some goals. That’s a big challenge with the likes of Tierney, Paul, White and Connor Brown all in scoring slumps and they all need goals to get their confidence back. Make no mistake, the Senators have been getting chances, they just haven’t cashed in.
They’ve had players miss on breakaways, hit posts or watched as the opposing goalie made an outstanding stop. The Senators completely outplayed the high-powered Bruins for 40 minutes on Wednesday, but couldn’t beat Tuukka Rask when it mattered.
The Senators are hopeful the floodgates will open at some point.
“When it’s going in, it goes in. You’ve seen that with Pageau. Everything he touched went in. And then sometimes you go through spells where it doesn’t,” Smith said.
“The last two losses, we’ve outchanced both teams, it just hasn’t gone in the net. The good thing is that we’re working hard, we’re not giving much up, we’re giving ourselves a chance in the game and eventually they’ll go in.”
Brown said they can’t start taking risks to score goals. If they keep playing the right way, then eventually the puck will start going in the net for them.
“We were working on some things to create a little offence and get that spark going again,” said Brown.
“We’re a team that we know is dependent on the way we play defensively. Our offensive chances will sometimes be there. Sometimes they’ll go in for us and sometimes they won’t.”
He added the fact players aren’t cheating to score goals is an important part of the approach.
“It speaks to the type of characters we have in the room,” Brown said. “We’ve got really good guys who are committed to playing the right way, and that’s a sure sign of guys who want to win, because we’ve got guys doing it the right way.”
The Senators are hoping playing the right way will pay off at both ends of the ice.