Game Preview #1: Ottawa Senators @ Buffalo Sabres

Senators Hockey is Back! With Plenty of New Faces

With easily one of the biggest offseasons in franchise history, the Ottawa Senators enter the 2022-23 season with plenty of optimism and suddenly big expectations.

To kick off the season, the Senators travel to Buffalo, New York to take on a team with a bunch of optimism surrounding them too, the Buffalo Sabres. Senators 5th Overall Pick from the 2020 NHL Draft Jake Sanderson is slated to play in his first NHL game after a solid preseason.

Lineup Notes

The Senators will be icing as good a lineup as the team has seen in years, the combinations figure to be:

Addition by Subtraction on Defence

One of the biggest revelations that took place during training camp was the play of Nikita Zaitsev, after struggling immensely last season, the veteran defenceman seems to be the odd man out for the first time in his career as a Senator. A move that is needed for this team to reach their goals this season, and with the play of Erik Brannstrom during training camp this decision seemed like an obvious no-brainer, which it ended up being.

Now each pairing has a great puck mover, as Chabot, Sanderson and Brannstrom are all great at maintaining puck possession, something that will be a focus of the team this year.

Talent Explosion at Forward

Anytime you add a perennial 40-goal scorer and a player with 900+ points at the NHL level, you’re obviously going to improve significantly from a talent perspective, and now boast one of the better forward groups in the NHL. The Senators’ top-6 is loaded with firepower and is still one of the younger units in the league, with only one player over the age of 24. Newcomers Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat showed instant chemistry in the preseason, and look to be a perfect fit with their play styles. The two connected on an overtime winner during exhibition games and there’s certain to be more of the same throughout the season:

With these valuable moves by Senators GM Pierre Dorion, the Senators in turn have the luxury of pushing talent down the lineup, something they didn’t have the ability to do over the “rebuilding years”. Players like Mathieu Joseph and Tyler Motte bring the perfect blend of speed and competitiveness to fit perfectly onto a third-line checking role. Shane Pinto will start in the middle of both Joseph and Motte, the young pivot has shown intriguing signs with every game he’s played, producing 7 points in just 4 preseason games. There are people saying Pinto could be a Calder finalist, and with everything he’s done until this point, it’s hard to disagree.

Team Leaders

Goals: OTT – Norris (35), BUF – Thompson (38)

Assists: OTT – Tkachuk (37), BUF – Dahlin (40)

Points: OTT – Tkachuk (67), BUF – Thompson (68)

+/-: OTT – Joseph (+8), BUF – Tuch (-3)

Shots: OTT – Tkachuk (288), BUF – Skinner (262)

Hits: OTT – Tkachuk (270), BUF – Dahlin (121)

Starting Goalies

Anton Forsberg – OTT

2021-22 Season Stats: 46 GP, 22-17-4, 0.917 SV%, 2.82 GAA, 1 SO

Forsberg enjoyed a breakout season last year and Senators fans shouldn’t worry about the veteran netminder’s ability between the pipes. Even with the addition of Cam Talbot into the crease, Forsberg always figured to be the starter, every advanced stat and analysis proves that he deserves the job again this season.

Forsberg ranked 11th out of all goaltenders last season with a 14.48 GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average), while Talbot posted a mark of 6.37, good for 22nd place. However, this isn’t a slight on the injured Talbot, it’s more of an endorsement of how great Forsberg was last season, and with a better team in front of him, he should only get better.

Want your voice heard? Join the SenShot team!

Write for us!

Craig Anderson – BUF

2021-22 Season Stats: 31 GP, 17-12-2, 0.897 SV%, 3.12 GAA

What better way to kick off the season than by playing against the greatest goaltender in Senators’ history? The now 41-year-old Anderson had a career resurgence in Buffalo and has really fit into the team culture. Due to his age and play style, it’s unlikely Anderson will maintain the starting role throughout the entire season, a platoon with offseason acquisition Eric Comrie seems like the most realistic scenario.