Game-day Review #6: Ottawa Senators @ Vancouver Canucks

Ottawa drops their 5th consecutive game at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks

Another disappointing effort from the team as a whole, it seemed after the Senators conceded a quick goal to trail 3-1 that the wind completely came out of their sails and they looked totally lost.

The Good

Nick Paul

Praised by coach D.J. Smith as the team’s “most consistent forward”, Paul once again was super effective throughout the game and somehow managed to maintain a +1 rating despite the large deficit.

Paul played 15:13 and registered 3 shots on goal and had a 61.54 CF% which finished fourth on the team. Throughout the start of the season Paul has looked like a completely different player, he’s been super strong at taking pucks away and creating chances offensively, a bright spot in a season with very few so far.

Austin Watson

Watson saw the least amount of ice time for the Senators last night, but he found multiple ways to impact the game. Scoring the lone goal for the Senators off of a nice re-direct on a Thomas Chabot point shot:

That wasn’t the only way Watson got on the score sheet, he registered 2 fights in the game, first versus Zack MacEwen and later on in the game versus Antoine Roussel.

The Bad

D.J. Smith

Heavily criticized throughout the start of the season for his line deployment and surprising healthy scratches, D.J. Smith has faced plenty of criticism and rightfully so, and after this performance last night it isn’t coming to an end.

His benching of Tim Stützle was questionable, while the rookie was struggling, he wasn’t put in the best position to succeed and him and Christian Wolanin were taken off the powerplay after both trying to create down a few goals when the puck ended up in the back of the net. Smith’s affinity for giving veterans a ton of leash and giving young players who need to grow from mistakes limited margin for error is not a smart recipe for a rebuilding team.

The Ugly

Matt Murray

Murray has been yet to find his footing with Ottawa, and tonight didn’t help the cause when he turned in his worst performance of the season, allowing 8 goals on 35 shots. While not all of this falls on Murray, he hasn’t been able to come up with that “big save” which can keep the team in the game and has been beaten for multiple soft goals (Brandon Sutter’s first two goals).

So far this season Murray has a 1-3-1 record alongside a 0.862 SV% and a 4.47 GAA, definitely not the way he wanted to start the season but there’s still plenty of hockey left for him to improve upon that mark.