You can hardly blame any Ottawa Senators fan if they shut off their televisions after the first period on Tuesday night.
Fresh off the heels of a flat performance in Seattle on Monday, the Senators quickly found themselves in a 2-0 hole after 20 minutes in Vancouver.
So for those Ottawa fans living in the Eastern time zone, it was difficult to find motivation to stay up late into the night to witness another poor showing.
But for the fans who did stick around, they were treated to an exciting, back-and-forth contest with playoff implications. And they would have witnessed the Senators putting a dagger into Vancouver’s playoff chances, with a 4-3 shootout win.
“We matched their desperation. We treated it like a playoff game and it was a playoff environment,” said Adam Gaudette. “We’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t been in the playoffs before, so it was good to get that taste a little bit.”
That was essentially the final meaningful game the Senators will play this season. Of their remaining five games, four of them are against non-playoff teams (Columbus, Montreal, New Jersey, and Philadelphia). The other game is against the Florida Panthers, who have already sewed up the Atlantic Division, so they will likely be resting many of their stars in that game.
Still, there is a measure of redemption for the Senators winning that game on Tuesday evening. Not only did they torpedo the Canucks playoff chances, but they were also able to atone for a disastrous showing in western Canada last season.
During the 2020-21 campaign, the Senators would routinely head out west and get pummelled by their Canadian counterparts.
In one three-game trip to Vancouver last January, the Senators were outscored 16-3.
They gave up 28 goals in losing five games in Edmonton.
It was a completely different story out west, as the Senators swept their Canadian counterparts on the road:
And the Senators saved their sweetest bit of redemption for Edmonton and Vancouver, who routinely destroyed them a year ago.
This season, the Senators have only managed to come back and win two games when trailing after two periods. (Their record in that situation is 2-32-1).
But those two comeback wins just happened to come in Edmonton and Vancouver.
Speaking of Edmonton, Petr Klima is probably best known for scoring a triple-overtime goal in the Stanley Cup Final for the Oilers in 1990 after he was benched for long stretches in Game 1.
Gaudette reprised that role for the Senators on Tuesday night, scoring the shootout winner for Ottawa after he was essentially stapled to the bench for most of the night. Gaudette only played six shifts on Tuesday for a total of 4:29 of ice time. His final shift of the game came midway through the second period, meaning he basically sat for the entire back half of the game.
But the Senators put Gaudette out there as his fifth shooter in the shootout — even going ahead of Alex Formenton, who scored two goals that night. There were probably some raised eyebrows when Gaudette was selected as the shooter, but the winger had some inside information on Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko because they used to be teammates with the Canucks.
After the game, Smith gave all the credit for that move to his assistant coach.
“Davis Payne made that call. He said he’s got a great move and he obviously knows the goalie,” said Smith.
Gaudette says that Vancouver goalie coach Ian Clark actually worked with him on developing that shootout move when he was with the Canucks, which he often tried out against Demko in practice.
“I thought he was going to be cheating a little more, to be honest,” Gaudette said of Demko’s reaction to his move in the shootout. “I had a move in mind and I just stuck with it. I’ve been working on that move a lot over the past couple of years and I’m getting comfortable. I know I have that opportunity to go just under the glove there and place it perfectly.”
THE FORMER #CANUCK ADAM GAUDETTE ENDS THIS ONE IN A SHOOTOUT!!! What a crazy game. The #Sens shouldn't have been in this one after that first period. That's what I call a sens'ing. 4-3 SO win ✅#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/zXTbZyzQmI— Pesky Sickos (@PeskySickos) April 20, 2022
THE FORMER #CANUCK ADAM GAUDETTE ENDS THIS ONE IN A SHOOTOUT!!! What a crazy game. The #Sens shouldn't have been in this one after that first period. That's what I call a sens'ing. 4-3 SO win ✅#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/zXTbZyzQmI
Gaudette’s surprise appearance in the shootout spoiled an opportunity for Sens fans to see Artem Zub in the shootout, as Smith admitted the defenceman “was on deck” when Payne called the audible to use Gaudette in that spot.
That shootout marker can hopefully be a nice little confidence builder for Gaudette, who has now gone 28 consecutive games without scoring a goal. Considering the Senators were playing for a second straight night, it’s probably an indication of how the coach feels about Gaudette’s game right now that he only saw 4:29 of ice time. Zack Senyshyn, incidentally, logged less ice time (4:15) than Gaudette on Tuesday evening.
Gaudette hasn’t scored in more than two months, dating back to Feb. 13 against Washington. At that point, Gaudette was having a sneaky-good impact with the Senators in limited ice time.
In that span from Dec. 1 (when he joined the team) to Feb. 13, Gaudette was producing 2.89 points/60. That put him in line with Drake Batherson (2.90) and Brady Tkachuk (2.32) in that metric. Gaudette was only seeing 9:46 of ice time per game, but he certainly seemed to be making the most of it.
The last couple of months, however, have been a completely different story.
Gaudette hasn’t scored in his past 28 games and has only collected three assists in that window. His points/60 has plummeted to 0.62, which puts him squarely between Nick Holden (0.68) and Nikita Zaitsev (0.61). His ice time has hovered around the same mark during this stretch at 10:27 per game, although it’s been dialed back to less than 10 minutes in five of his past six games.
The 25-year-old Gaudette is a restricted free agent this summer and the Senators will have to make a decision about where he fits into their equation. He’s hoping that shootout winner can springboard him to confidence over the final five games of the regular season.
“It felt good for sure. To be able to contribute in some way. It was a good ending to a good game,” said Gaudette. “I can put the puck in the net. That’s been something I’ve always been able to do throughout my career. It’s something I haven’t been able to do lately, but one-on-one, I like my chances there.”
While Gaudette is still mired in an extended goal-scoring slump, Alex Formenton broke out of his on Tuesday night.
The winger scored a pair of goals to snap an 11-game drought, which dated back to March 26. Formenton fired a career-high seven shots on goal against Vancouver on Tuesday evening. After the game, Smith characterized Formenton’s performance as “outstanding”.
During his 11-game drought, Formenton only managed to register 18 shots on goal — so this was a breakout game for the winger.
“It was really nice to get the two (goals) and it was even better for us to pull off that win,” said Formenton.
Rather quietly, Formenton reached 17 goals, so he has an outside chance to hit the 20-plateau in the final five games of the regular season. He’s endured some stretches of inconsistency, with goal-scoring droughts of six, eight, nine, and 11 games sprinkled throughout the regular season.
But as Smith noted on Tuesday, Formenton and Connor Brown have provided a dangerous one-two threat while killing penalties. The Senators duo are at the top of the heap when it comes to shorthanded chances this season.
The only drawback to having the Brown and Formenton duo killing penalties at the same time is that neither one is a natural centre. And that came back to bite them in the first period on Tuesday, as Brown cleanly lost a defensive zone faceoff to J.T. Miller. And six seconds later, the puck was in the back of the Ottawa net.
Miller makes it 3️⃣0️⃣ on the season ? pic.twitter.com/mJJ0cXUTOt— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) April 20, 2022
Miller makes it 3️⃣0️⃣ on the season ? pic.twitter.com/mJJ0cXUTOt
But the Senators are in the top half of the league in penalty killing (13th overall) with a success rate of 80.4 percent. If they can maintain that number over the final five games of the regular season, it will mark the first time since the 2014-15 season that Ottawa finishes a campaign with a penalty kill success rate over 80 percent.
And Formenton and Brown are a major reason for their success in this department.
Since we’re touching on a number of extended droughts, it had to feel good for Filip Gustavsson to post a victory on Tuesday in Vancouver.
Gustavsson entered the contest riding an eight-game losing streak, having not recorded a victory since Nov. 13 against Pittsburgh. (For a little context, that was the night Shane Pinto re-injured his shoulder).
The most encouraging stat from Gustavsson on Tuesday was the fact he stopped 29 of 31 shots at even-strength, for a .939 save percentage.
During his eight-game winless streak, Gustavsson allowed 25 goals on 154 shots at even strength for a .860 save percentage.
At one point in the second period, the Canucks had sustained waves of pressure in the Ottawa zone, but Gustavsson turned aside all 16 shots that he faced to keep the Senators in the game.
“It could have broken wide open, but Gus made the saves,” Smith said of the second-period dominance from Vancouver.
Heading into this week, the head coach pointed out the importance for Gustavsson to play well after a subpar regular season at the NHL level.
“Gus needs to have some good games up here,” Smith said on Saturday. “These are big games for him, as much as they are nothing in the standings. He’s got to give us the games that he gave us down the stretch last year and build some confidence for himself in the off-season.”
Smith indicated that Gustavsson would likely get one of the games in all of the back-to-backs that are remaining on the schedule. An educated guess would suggest we might see Gustavsson in Columbus on Friday and then again in the regular season finale at Philadelphia next week. If Gustavsson can put together two more solid starts like he did on Tuesday in Vancouver, it would certainly give fans some optimism around the state of his game heading into the off-season.
Greenberg family states public interest in purchasing the Senators — if they are ever for sale
There was a rather significant development on Tuesday, as we saw the first instance of a prominent business person publicly expressing an interest in purchasing the Senators.
During a television interview with CTV Ottawa’s Graham Richardson, Roger Greenberg — who is the executive chairman of Minto Group and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group — said his family would certainly be interested if the Senators franchise goes on the market.
It should be noted that Greenberg provided a significant caveat, stating the decision rests solely in the hands of the Melnyk family.
“First things have to come first, and that’s a decision by the family that they’re going to sell the team. Because until that happens, nothing can really happen,” Greenberg told CTV Ottawa. “So let’s get that decision first and then we’ll see where things go from there.”
Greenberg noted that “we’re heavily involved in sports at Lansdowne”. The OSEG group owns and operates the Ottawa 67s and Redblacks, so adding an NHL franchise to the portfolio seems like something of interest to this group.
“So yes, we’d likely participate, if that’s something that’s feasible when the time comes,” Greenberg said.
There have been whispers about potential ownership groups for several months, so Greenberg’s comments are not overly surprising. I’ve stated on several occasions that multiple groups are essentially on standby, waiting to see if there is a green light to put offers in on the hockey club. But Greenberg stating his intentions in a public manner is certainly a departure from what we’ve seen around this topic in recent months.
As Darren Dreger noted in his pre-game interview with TSN 1200 on Tuesday evening, there will be no shortage of investors waiting to bid on the Senators if they eventually hit the market.
“If the Melnyk family gets to a place where they consider this, the list of potential suitors will be long,” Dreger told the radio station. “Commissioner Bettman would have a long list of individuals interested in buying the Ottawa Senators, a percentage of the Ottawa Senators, whatever it is and whatever the family is comfortable with. And keeping the Senators in Ottawa.”
There is no rush for this process to play itself out, so my guess is we’re talking months — not weeks — for this to reach a conclusion. I would imagine there would be some degree of clarity by the time the league’s board of governors convenes again, which will most likely take place in September.
But as I’ve tried to emphasize all along, Senators fans should take a deep breath and relax. Your team isn’t going anywhere.
In closing, I wanted to thank everybody for the feedback on our Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show podcast. Hailey Salvian and I thought it would be a good idea for us to spend some time talking about the media coverage around the Ottawa Senators, in light of our reporting around Eugene Melnyk and the hockey club last week.
I’m a firm believer in transparency and I hope that conversation was enlightening for our listeners, as we tackled the subject of obstacles we have faced in this market as media members. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to that episode, you can do it here on our Athletic app — or find it on your favourite podcast platform. We start the conversation about Ottawa about three minutes into the podcast and have a healthy 20-minute chat on the subject.
And if for some reason you feel like you have more questions for me — about this topic or anything related to the Senators — I’m going to be hosting an Audio Live Room on Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern. If you haven’t participated in one of these before, they’re really fun and engaging. It’s essentially a live Q & A with me, where you can ask any question you want in a live format — just like a call-in radio show.
Make sure you turn your notifications on for The Athletic app and your phone should buzz to let you know that our live room has started on Thursday night. And if you miss the live recording, we’ll have it posted as a standalone podcast by Friday.
(Photo by Derek Cain / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)