Anton Forsberg Becomes Mayor of SLC in Inaugural Visit (Also Ottawa Senators Win 4-0)

I should probably start by emphasizing the extent to which I refuse to accept the legitimacy of this Utah team. I still haven't accepted Vegas or Seattle as canonical so for all intents and purposes this amounts to an exhibition game for me. For real though, the Coyotes had probably my favourite nickname and jersey combo in the NHL so yeah–I have some lingering bitterness here. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Oh right, the game that the Ottawa Senators just played! I felt really disappointed when Joey Daccord didn't get the start for the Kraken and then I realized I had two teams mixed up there. So anyway Connor Ingram started for the not-Coyotes. Anton Forsberg started for Ottawa and had to provide some stability early on as Ottawa struggled to keep pace with their young opponents who took a 5-0 shot advantage in the first five minutes. I can say without any hesitation that the Senators of yesteryear would have easily dug a multi-goal grave for themselves and this game would have ended in the first ten minutes. This year, miraculously, Forsberg made the saves.

After some patented Ridley Greig shenanigans, some reprieve from five-on-five hockey gave Ottawa the opportunity they needed and Nick Jensen (??) set up some vintage Josh Norris to Drake Batherson magic giving Ottawa a 1-0 lead they may or may not have deserved.

And if you needed any further proof that we have very well entered our Nick Jensen era, the under-the-radar defender managed to sneak past the opposition on two ensuing plays and ultimately set up Claude Giroux for a nifty top shelf number in tight.

Ottawa survived another flurry from Utah's young guns and Forsberg continued to hold down the fort long enough for Tim Stützle to draw a penalty. Greig continued to make up for lost time as he promptly padded Ottawa's lead with a powerplay conversion.

And if you need any further evidence in the case of the people versus Go Sens Go:

Karel Vejmelka took over the crease for the second period, and while Ottawa got their feet under them a bit sooner in this frame, Forsberg continued his campaign for player of the game. Just like the first period, Forsberg weathered an early flurry and bought the Sens enough time to get into their rhythm and start cycling a bit at the other end of the ice. It just looks so drastically different to see this team able to make risky plays knowing they can recover defensively and/or bank on a timely save.

At the midway point of the game, Greig gave the Utah Utahs their first powerplay. The Utahs threw the kitchen sink at Forsberg who continued to play the game of his life. Can you imagine getting goalied by the Senators? With under seven minutes left in the second, Forsberg made arguably his best save of the night on Josh Doan who had a clean, uncontested breakaway opportunity.

The not-Coyotes foolishly gave Ottawa another chance at four-on-four that the Senators efficiently used to tilt the ice back in their favour. You could argue that Ottawa got too fancy with the ensuing offensive zone time but a 4-0 lead affords you the luxury of playing with your food at the table. Ottawa spent the better part of five minutes in the offensive zone while only registering a couple of actual shots.

Utah got another powerplay opportunity with about 13 minutes left in the game as Thomas Chabot took a cross-checking minor. Forsberg again came up big on the penalty kill and in fairness, Ottawa's skaters rewarded their netminder with a healthy amount of offensive zone time once play got back to five-on-five. It took the Sens almost 60 minutes to finally crack twenty shots on goal and maybe that makes the final score that much funnier.

Game Notes:

• You probably didn't even need to maintain any superstition about now saying "shutout" aloud during the broadcast because Forsberg had this thing sewn up from the start. Even when every Senator would scramble between the dots, Forsberg looked poised and his opponents seemed visibly shook about it.
• I feel hard-pressed to detract from what a storybook game Forsberg had and yet I also really need to highlight how hard it rocks to see Josh Norris doing Josh Norris things again. Those two have already made such an immense contribution in the young season.
• Ottawa's powerplay remains absurdly efficient, scoring one goal in 15 seconds (240 goals per 60 minutes for those playing at home).
• Credit to Ottawa's defence for keeping Logan Cooley shotless and also effectively neutralizing Clayton Keller and Dylan Guenther.
• Ottawa's "best players were their best players" as I would argue that all of the core forwards other than Shane Pinto contributed offensively (Pinto did however draw a fortuitous penalty and had perfectly good on-ice results). Pinto probably also suffered the most from Travis Green's recent line shuffling that has otherwise paid early dividends.
• This win really showcased the splendour of the Sens' 2020 draft class as Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven had sound defensive performances to complement Greig and Stützle's offensive contributions. The NoDak Sens also got good representation with Jacob Bernard-Docker having about as sound of a defensive game as I've seen to date alongside Kleven and Sanderson with Pinto's contributions noted.
• On a personal note, and I know Nate has written at length about writing for years about a losing team and feeling motivated by the potential to finally cover some wins, tonight's victory felt extremely vindicating after countless wasted nights spent covering losses on Western conference road trips. GO SENS GO.

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