The Ottawa Senators didn’t just beat the San Jose Sharks on Saturday afternoon - they controlled the game from the start and walked out of SAP Center with a 5-1 win that erased the memory of their 6-2 loss to San Jose less than two weeks ago.
Even with injuries hanging over them, the Senators looked sharp, organized and relentless. The biggest reason was the new-look top line, where Dylan Cozens slid to the wing alongside Tim Stutzle and Fabian Zetterlund.
On paper, the fit made sense. On the ice, it looked even better.
That trio drove the game at five-on-five, piling up 16 shot attempts, 10 shots on goal, 10 scoring chances and six high-danger chances. They also controlled possession in a big way, finishing with 72.73% of shot attempts, 76.92% of shots on goal, 78.93% of expected goals, 76.92% of scoring chances and 85.71% of high-danger chances while they were out there together. Cozens and Stutzle were at the center of it all, combining for two goals and four points.
Afterward, Cozens said, “It was fun,” when asked about playing with the 24-year-old German. Head coach Travis Green also liked what he saw from the reshuffled lineup, saying he liked how all of his lines played on Saturday night.
Whether Green keeps that trio together will be one of the more interesting questions heading into Sunday night’s second half of the back-to-back in Anaheim.
But this wasn’t only about one line. It was a full-team shutdown job.
The Senators set the tone with their forecheck, hounding San Jose defensemen and taking away time and space right from the opening puck drop. The Sharks didn’t get a puck on net until eight minutes had passed, and that first shot came from centre ice. It took nine minutes before San Jose managed a shot from inside the offensive zone.
Ottawa’s defensemen also played aggressively at the blue line, pinching along the boards while forwards dropped back to cover. The result was a suffocating night for the Sharks, who were held to just 27 shot attempts at five-on-five - the fewest the Senators have allowed in a game this season.
Green called it a “strong game. I thought from the drop of the puck to the end of the game, we were on top of our game.
They have a real good offensive team, and I thought we did a great job of playing behind their D and making them play in their zone.” He also said he had talked to his team about being an “every shift team” and added, “I thought to a man, we were that tonight.”
The one area that still refused to cooperate was the power play. Ottawa had three chances with the man advantage, though one sequence turned into a five-on-three after two penalties were called at once. Even with that edge, the Senators managed only five shots on nine attempts and finished 0-for-3.
That keeps their power-play percentage at 12.99%, a bottom-five mark in the NHL. It’s a sharp drop from the 24.7% they’ve posted over the last two seasons, which ranks seventh in the league over that span.
The encouraging part is that the underlying numbers are not nearly as bleak. Ottawa has been above league average in shots, scoring chances and high-danger chances per 60 on the power play. The problem is finishing: the Senators have the fourth-worst shooting percentage and the second-worst PDO on the man advantage.
At some point, that has to turn. This group looks overdue for a hot streak.
The Senators will try to keep the momentum going Sunday night against the Anaheim Ducks, who come in having lost seven of their last eight. After that, Ottawa heads to Buffalo to finish a five-game road trip on Wednesday night against the Sabres.
For now, though, this was the kind of win the Senators can build on - a road game that showed what they can look like when they are locked in from start to finish.
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