Ottawa Senators special teams improve from 2021-22 to 2022-23
By Michael Czar
"Heading into the 2022-23 season, one of the statements that head coach D.J. Smith made about the Ottawa Senators special teams was a goal. Not only did he want to improve both the power play and penalty kill percentage, he wanted the total to be somewhere around or over 108."
When looking at the Ottawa Senators of the 2021-22 season and prior, one or both of these special teams weren’t working. This goal was significant because of their history, and was a testament to how much the team was looking to improve over the 2022-23 season. So, let’s look over the last two seasons and compare the special teams and see exactly how this team improved and almost got into the playoffs.
Want your voice heard? Join the SenShot team!
Power play gets a big upgrade thanks to off-season pickups
To start, let’s look at the most entertaining thing your team can do other than play 3-on-3, and that is the power play. In the 2021-22 season, the Ottawa Senators had a 19.34% power play. For comparison, the league average for that season was 20.61%. Their leading power play goalscorer was Josh Norris, with 16 of his 35 goals for the season on the man advantage, while Tim Stützle racked up 26 total power play point to lead the team.
For the 2022-23 season, the Ottawa Senators had a 23.53% power play. The league average for this recent season was 21.31%. Their leading goalscorer on the power play was Drake Batherson with 14 of his 22 goals on the power play. As for total points, newcomer Alex DeBrincat led the team with 30 power play points.
Despite a horrid stretch towards the end of the season, the Senators power play was at the top of the league over the course of the season. This was primarily thanks to two key reasons: a better top six forward group and a better team effort to draw penalties. First off, adding talented players like Claude Giroux, Alex DeBrincat, and seeing improvements from players like Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk helped that power play tear teams apart, especially before 2022 ended.
However, an underrated aspect of this season was power plays drawn. Despite missing the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators led the league in power plays drawn, at 306. No other team had even reached the 300 mark, with the second place team Pittsburgh Penguins at 290. The Senators had only 243 power plays drawn the previous year, so the Sens got a lot better at that aspect of the game.
Penalty kill remains about the same
Coming into the 2022-23 season, one of the bright sides of the previous season was their above-average penalty kill. In the 2021-22 season, their penalty kill percentage was 80.32%. The league average at the time was 79.39%.
For the 2022-23 season, the Ottawa Senators had an 80.07% penalty kill. League average was 78.69%. Much how the league’s average penalty kills got slightly worse, so did the Sens. Despite the consistent injuries and inconsistent goaltending, the Senators managed to keep their penalty kill above 80%, giving them the 14th best PK in the league. Players like Austin Watson and Travis Hamonic were penalty kill mainstays, blocking a lot of shots and clearing a lot of pucks.
Related Story. Who’s Next to Ring Honor. light
The special team total, much like the season, fell short
Looking back at what D.J. Smith said about wanting to hit 108, the team was on course to do just that midway through the season. However, as the stretch led to some tough losses and bad games for both special teams, the percentages got knocked down.
Still, it’s hard to deny the improvement considering the turmoil the Sens faced. They lost their best PP goalscorer to injury and had a stretch where they had their AHL goalies as their NHL goalies, facing off against some of the best power play talent in the league.
Their special team total number from 2021-22 was 99.66. For 2022-23, it increased to 103.60. D.J. Smith got just under halfway to that 108 mark, but was still closer to his previous year’s performance than his goal. Close, but no cigar.
With how the Ottawa Senators performed in 2022-23, the team’s expectations to make the playoffs hinge on a lot of factors, but special teams are one of them. If the team can hit that desired 108 total, you’ll probably find them in a playoff spot.