Oilers bulldoze Senators in 7-1 blowout

It was an ugly one tonight. Very ugly. The Ottawa Senators were thoroughly outplayed in a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, which featured a hat-trick (+ two assists) for Leon Draisaitl. The final shot count of 36-22 for the Oilers flattered the Sens, in the 12 of those 22 shots came in the third period with the game already out of hand at 6-0. To make matters worse, both Colin White and Ryan Dzingel had to be helped off the ice at different points with injuries that prevented them from returning. It was hard to find a silver lining in this game.

That first period set the tone for the whole game. It felt like one of those inevitable losses that came during the frustrating start to the season. The Oilers outscored Ottawa 4-0, in large part due to outshooting them 16-4. The usual suspects were running rampant: Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, Connor McDavid had a goal. Possibly the most comical moment was on the 2-0 goal, on which Devin Shore fooled everyone into thinking he was shooting, before passing to Jujhar Khaira for a tap-in on the 2-on-0. The funny part is it was during a line change, so the Sens managed to give up a 2-on-0 while having six players on the ice:

Here come the Ottawa Senators. Getting scored on with.. count them. 6 players on the ice. 😂 pic.twitter.com/quFDEdyfIt

— Matthew McKenna (@MattMcK2419) March 11, 2021

The second period wasn’t much better. The Sens did manage to only allow two goals, but that was primarily thanks to some goaltending heroics by Matt Murray as the Sens took three consecutive penalties to start the period. I don’t know what else to tell you, other than to say the Sens were pretty thoroughly outplayed. The team did get a couple good looks on a late powerplay, but Mike Smith was in his prime showboating form, gloving the puck out of the air with supreme confidence.

The third period saw Draisaitl and McDavid get a bit more rest, giving the Sens a chance to even up the shot clock a bit. They even got on the board, with Evgeni Dadonov tucking in a tic-tac-toe goal to break the shutout bid, but it really didn’t matter. I was kind of worried things might get ugly, with the Sens trying to send a message before Friday’s game, but instead it just kind of fizzled out.

Some thoughts:

• I think Murray was only to blame on the sixth goal. Other than that, he was left high and dry. You need your goalie to bail you out sometimes, but even league-average goaltending would be better than the Sens have had for the past few years.
• Losing White really hurts the Sens, as I’d argue he’s been the team’s best centre this year. We won’t get updates on how he or Dzingel are doing until the morning.
• Thomas Chabot keeps looking eager to join the rush, which I hope is a sign of him rounding into form, when he looked a little out of it when he first returned from injury
• 7-1. Yuck./