ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – There are a few ways to digest the mottled mess of the Ottawa Senators 6-4 pre-season loss to the Vancouver Canucks here late Monday night.
There was plenty of good in the determined mid-game pushback from an early deficit. There was too much bad in allowing four power play goals, running the back-to-back game total to seven.
Ultimately, though, the Senators could never recover from the ugly of the high hit from veteran AHLer Jaden Szwarz, which allowed the Canucks to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage. The Canucks never lost the lead again.
Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson (40) is checked by Ottawa Senators’ Rudolfs Balcers (38) during second period NHL pre-season hockey action in Abbotsford, B.C., on Monday.
Let’s begin with the recognition that the Canucks brought a reasonable facsimile of their opening day lineup to the match-up that was played well down the road from Vancouver, through the steady grind of the heavy traffic leaving the city in late afternoon and early evening.
It was a major test for Senators coach D.J. Smith, who kept the club’s top line of Brady Tkachuk, Colin White and Connor Brown, along with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Ron Hainsey out of the lineup in order to receive another look – in many cases, a final look – at a few players who will be down in Belleville later this week.
Szwarz is one of those guys, but when he crunched the Canucks’ Oscar Fantenberg with a high hit behind the Vancouver net eight minutes in, his night was over – gone with a five-minute major and game misconduct, adding to the first period parade to the penalty box.
The Szwarz penalty also spelled the end of the Senators one and only lead, an early Bobby Ryan goal coming off some solid work by Rudolfs Balcers and Chris Tierney.
The Canucks scored twice on the major penalty. And every time the Senators pushed back to narrow the gap – closing to 3-2 on an Artem Anisimov goal and 4-3 on a Balcers marker – the Canucks power play struck again and again against Senators goaltender Anders Nilsson to thwart the rally.
“That’s an NHL top-end power play,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “They have guys that can really shoot the puck and we had some guys trying out to be on the penalty kill. And you want to see. And it’s perfect. It’s a test against elite players, with (Brock) Boeser and (Elias) Petersson out there. These are elite guys on the flanks and they got us tonight, but it’s all part of learning.”
Ottawa Senators goalie Anders Nilsson, right, allows a goal to Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson, not seen, as J.T. Miller (9) and Ottawa’s Thomas Chabot (72) watch during second-period NHL pre-season hockey action in Abbotsford, B.C., on Monday.
If the pre-season is all about answering questions, the Senators learned that the crew they had on the ice killing penalties Monday isn’t close to good enough.
Come Wednesday, when the clubs meet again at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, more established Senators penalty killers, including Pageau, Hainsey, Connor Brown and Colin White will be in the lineup.
For those who put any measure into pre-season statistics, Petersson finished with two goals and two assists and Boeser had three assists.
In terms of positives, the Senators did receive some solid even-strength play, particularly from a veteran group that included Ryan, Anisimov, Tyler Ennis and Tierney, who completed the Senators scoring in a failed third period comeback attempt.
“In the second period, once the five-on-five started, we played better and we took over the game a little bit,” said Anisimov. “But again, the penalties killed us again.”
The other big blow caused by Szwarz’s departure was that Smith was forced into an early line juggling with only three centres and 11 forwards.
So much for the hope of seeing whether the high-scoring AHL line of Nick Paul, Logan Brown and Drake Batherson could translate their magic into an NHL pre-season contest.
“I don’t think we had one shift together, honestly,” said Brown. “Maybe one in the first.”
Brown, who once again showcased his strengths on the Senators power play (he hit the post on an early second period manpower advantage) said it was difficult to find an early rhythm because the Senators were shorthanded so often so early.
“There wasn’t any flow at all,” he said. “Just a lot of special teams. At the start of the game, you don’t get a shift for the first 10 minutes because you’re not on the (penalty) kill. It’s hard, but I thought we bounced back. I thought we kind of turned around the game and got some chances and some shots.”
In the end, the Senators had 45 shots against Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom, but that wasn’t enough to rally from the early ugliness.
Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren
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September 25, 2019 at 05:06AM
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