The Ottawa Senators had their first back-to-back situation of the season this weekend, beginning at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers and wrapping up Saturday night against the visiting San Jose Sharks.
Being a combined 0-2 against both teams this season, Ottawa was looking for any kind of spark to get themselves back in the win column.
And boy did they ever find one.
Brady Tkachuk led things off against the Rangers, where he stepped up and fought Rangers captain Jacob Trouba at centre ice. It was a heavyweight fight and Tkachuk probably took the lions share of the hits, but it was what happened after that mattered most.
When he stood up, instead of going to the penalty box, Tkachuk stared down the Senators’ bench. If the fight wasn’t a clear enough message, the captain wanted to give his team some life, and his glare certainly did that.
Tied 1-1 at the time, the Senators were once again in the midst of a game where they were the better team, but they didn’t have the goals to show for it. This fight sent the team a message: let’s get this done.
“I’m never going to forget that fight,” rookie defenseman Jake Sanderson said with a smile after the game. “Centre ice at MSG and then he stares down our bench. That got us all pretty fired up for sure.”
But the fight was just the start of Tkachuk’s big night. With just under a minute to go, the Sens’ net was empty as they pushed for a tying goal to send the game to overtime. Ottawa had yet to score a 6-on-5 goal this season despite pulling their goalie 10 times prior to Friday’s game.
Tkachuk changed that after tipping home Thomas Chabot’s point shot. The goal reminded me of Tkachuk’s late-game heroics in Winnipeg nearly 2 years ago, in a win that signalled the Senators finally turning things around after a terrible start to the 2021 season:
(Fun fact about this game for the Senators: They were 18-15-4 from this point on, which would have been good enough for 3rd in the Canadian division, which would have seen them make the playoffs.)
However, the captain wasn’t done there. Another late goal, this one in OT, was the icing on the cake in the best game of Brady Tkachuk’s career:
TSN’s Gord Miller had a phenomenal call on the play, calling this a statement game from the Senators’ captain. The vibes were off the charts after that performance from Tkachuk and the team had to carry that momentum into Saturday night’s game.
It’s fair to say they did just that.
Claude Giroux led the way this time, posting two goals and an assist to give the Senators their 4th win in 5 games. While the New York game was a more impressive effort against a much better opponent than the San Jose Sharks, Saturday night’s win had many other factors that made it equally as impactful.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the Senators had lost 7 of their last 8 games on home ice. For a franchise that’s working to repair its relationship in the local market, losing games at home is a recipe for disaster.
Saturday’s crowd was a near sellout, something that’s becoming a theme in Ottawa. The Senators laid an egg two weeks ago when the New Jersey Devils came to town in front of another near capacity crowd. So a performance like the one against the Sharks was much needed, purely from a business perspective.
The return of former captain Erik Karlsson obviously draws people to the Canadian Tire Centre, but it was the new era of young Senators players who got the job done.
Tkachuk, Tim Stützle and Thomas Chabot each scored a powerplay goal, an impressive feat considering the Sharks came into the game with the NHL’s best penalty kill, clicking at a 91.5% rate.
Oddly enough, the powerplay dominance wasn’t the headline after that. In fact, it wasn’t even the best special teams’ story of the night. With about 6 minutes left in the 3rd period, the Sharks were awarded a 4-on-3 powerplay.
What happened here can only be defined as “The Sequence.” Here is the full video:
One more time to start your Sunday off right pic.twitter.com/88VeAHQn2m
— Jack Richardson (@jackrichrdson) December 4, 2022
There’s just so much to love about this sequence. Anton Forsberg making about 8 point-blank saves. Travis Hamonic playing the whole shift without a stick. Jake Sanderson saved a goal right on the goal line. Tyler Motte eating shots. The crowd gets louder after every save up to when Alex DeBrincat and Chabot re-join the play to make it 5-on-5.
Then it’s all capped off by Giroux walking in alone and tickling the twine with a slapshot, on a breakaway, sending the CTC into pandemonium. He somehow remains calm during his celebration, pointing down to Anton Forsberg, giving him credit for a miraculous penalty kill.
It might not be an overstatement to say the CTC hasn’t been that loud in about 5 years.
Giroux’s goal capped off an unbelievable 24 hours of hockey for the Ottawa Senators. Momentum doesn’t tend to carry over game-to-game, but it’s hard to deny that Tkachuk’s gutsy effort in New York fuelled the Senators in the second half of a back-to-back situation.
The script seems to be flipping in Ottawa. A team that couldn’t catch a break has all of a sudden won 4 of their last 5 games and appears to be finding their groove. The powerplay is electric, goaltending has been excellent, and the new additions from the summer seem to be getting more comfortable.
Time will tell if their bad start is going to affect any potential playoff hopes, but it’s officially fun to watch this team again.
-Jack Richardson
Twitter: @Jackrichrdson