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OTTAWA — Monumental collapse by the home team?
Or systematic imposition of will by the visitors?
Take your pick following the Carolina Hurricanes’ 7-2 demolition of the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre. It’s doubtful that even a helpful Irish Leprechaun could have saved the Sens from this St. Patrick’s Day Massacre.
Goaltender Anton Forsberg did his best. Without a few spectacular saves by Forsberg early in the game, and again in the third period, the Hurricanes would have hit double figures in goals.
“We self-destruct,” was interim head coach Jacques Martin’s killer bit of phrasing in a two-minute media conference post-game.
There wasn’t much else to say.
And here’s the funny part, the lead-in to the self-destruction: Ottawa actually played a decent game through the first 39-and-a-half minutes.
To that point, the teams had traded two goals apiece and both had missed chances. After a bit of a rough start, the Senators had a better second period, outshooting Carolina 14-9, but that long-time plague, defensive zone coverage, reared its head. With fewer than 25 seconds remaining in the period, Seth Jarvis drifted in from the point untouched, took a pass from Sebastien Aho and wired a shot past Forsberg for the 3-2 lead.
A tough one to take, for sure. But the Senators had shown an ability to rebound from deficits, including recent road wins against the New York Islanders (Saturday) and Columbus Blue Jackets (Thursday).
Against Carolina, though, the Senators wilted like a fragile flower.
An early third-period goal by defenceman Jalen Chatfield sparked an avalanche of goals. Dmitry Orlov added his second of the game and centre Jake Guentzel, the Hurricanes’ prized trade deadline acquisition, scored his first regulation goal in a Carolina uniform, ripping a shot over Forsberg’s glove. Things got really silly when the annoying, hand-biting (search Brady Tkachuk incident) Brendan Lemieux scored his third of the season, on a tip.
“We played two great periods,” said Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot, who played his first game since getting re-injured on March 6. Chabot scored one of two highlight-reel goals for Ottawa. Tim Stützle had the other.
“Allowing that late one (in the second period) always hurts, but as a team, you’ve got to find a way to come back in the third and get back to playing the same way. You guys saw, we gave them chances and they got in the back of our net.”
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Asked about the endless search for game management and maturity in his young team, Martin was at a loss for words.
“I don’t have the answer,” Martin said. “You talk about it, you show them situations — at some point people have to learn.”
What better team to go to school on than Carolina. Already a contender, they added two skilled forwards at the deadline in Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Check out the depth down the middle that created. Jordan Staal, experienced and playoff-hardened, is now Carolina’s fourth-line centre.
Their defence is outstanding.
Goaltending has been a question mark, but Frederik Andersen, who stopped 30 of 32 Ottawa shots, is 4-0-0 since returning from a blood clot issue that kept him out most of the season.
Overall this year, Andersen is 8-1-0 with a .917 save percentage and 2.17 goals-against average.
In a pinch, Carolina has 18-game winner Pyotr Kochetkov. But if Andersen can stay healthy, the Hurricanes could go a long way this spring.
Sometimes you have to appreciate a quality opponent, at the same time as wondering when the home team will get this good. And deep.
After this men-against-boys beatdown, I asked Chabot what impresses him the most about the Hurricanes.
“I think it’s just the way they support each other everywhere,” Chabot said. “There’s no time that, when a guy makes a mistake, that another one of their players isn’t there to back him up, whether it’s in the neutral zone — one guy being flatfooted and the other guy coming with speed; or in their zone. They play a really solid game. You have to give them credit, there’s a reason they’re winning most nights.”
He’s not wrong there. With eight wins in their past 10 outings, including a crazy comeback victory in Toronto Saturday night, the Hurricanes are breathing down the necks of the also scalding-hot New York Rangers in the battle for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
There is little margin for error against Carolina. Ask the Maple Leafs, who had a two-goal lead on the Hurricanes with two minutes to go on Saturday. Aho scored twice to force overtime and the visitors won in a shootout.
Ottawa dreams of getting to be as consistent and deep as this Hurricanes group.
“It’s on us, maturing and being better with the puck at certain times,” Chabot said. “We had some chances to put it behind them and forecheck, which has worked for us.
“When you play a team like them that has a chance to win the Stanley Cup (and make those mistakes) it’s going to come back and haunt you. That’s what happened in the third there.”
From the cauldron to the open fire — the Senators travelled to Boston on Monday to prepare for a Tuesday game against the Atlantic Division-leading Bruins.
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