Sens defeat Leafs 4–2, extend win streak to six

The Sens have now won six in a row, and are 7-0-1 in their last eight. Tonight was a pretty thorough team effort, stymying ​what should be a good Leafs team. Sanderson, Perron, Giroux, and Amadio had the Sens goals. In fact, nine Sens players had 1 point and none of them had 2. Linus Ullmark made 20 saves for the win.

The first period flew by, with few whistles. The Leafs seemed to get more offensive zone pressure, but the Sens took more shots on goal, 10–5. Overall, Travis Green's priority seemed to be getting the matchups he wanted, sending out mash-up lines then making changes on the fly. The Sens also seemed content to just dump the puck out, even ice it, which felt like a different coaching choice from other games. Maybe the goal was to frustrate the Leafs. Whatever the thought process, there was no scoring in the first.

The second period seemed to jar the Sens a bit, with the long change making the chip out plays tougher, and they gave up a few odd-man rushes. After a Tavares miss and Laughton sitting on Ullmark, the Leafs opened the scoring by William Nylander doing it all. (Remember when all Leafs fans wanted to trade him?) Ottawa answered just after though, with Jake Sanderson getting all day to pick his spot to snipe.

Auston Matthews got gifted a goal then, when Linus Ullmark mishandled a puck that went straight to him with the Sens goalie in no-man's-land. Max Domi clipped Ullmark's leg, but the Sens decided not to challenge. The answer came a little later, with David Perron putting one through Anthony Stolarz.

Then Oliver Ekman-Larsson thought he had a veteran exemption from interference penalties, so Ottawa got the first powerplay of thr game, and Chris Tanev made a beauty tip past his own goalie to give Claude Giroux the go-ahead goal.

The next big event was Ridly Greig and Scott Laughton with a long fight, presumably from the goalie crash earlier in the period. The Sens seemed to be playing more of their game in the second, and though their were nervous moments, they entered the third with the lead.

The third period returned to fairly tight-checking hockey, which generally benefits the team with the lead. The Leafs did turn up the pressure after the 10-min mark, and even got their first powerplay from a Zub puck-over-glass moment. Giroux got a breakaway chance, which was the best chance on the powerplay, but there was no goal. The Leafs then got several good chances with the goalie pulled with 3 minutes left, and Ridly Greig messed up on two chances, first somehow missing the empty net from inside the blue line, and then being offside. He scored, but the Leafs challenged and were successful, and the fans celebrated like they'd won the Cup. I guess cheer what you can. Greig got a third chance that was blocked, Ullmark made another couple saves, and Michael Amadio finally sealed on an empty-netter (that he should've slapshotted). Sens win their sixth in a row, with their next game against Montreal on Tuesday.

Game Thoughts:

• What Ottawa did really well tonight was pressure the Leafs in their own zone. I lost track of how many times they forced a turnover or at least forced Toronto to retreat by not giving them space to break out.
• Zetterlund's tenacity was key to Giroux's powerplay goal, allowing the Sens to regain the puck instead of giving Toronto a clear. Cozens continues to be physical and engaged, but he wasn't as smooth with the puck tonight as through his first few games. Still, he's adjusting to a new system and the last thing I'd suggest anyone should do is worry.
• Drake Batherson has turned into a guy that gets under other people's skin. That's a great evolution that Cozens has brought about in his game.
• Linus Ullmark is really good from halfway through the second period every game. If the Sens spot him a lead, he maintains it.
• Holding the high-offence Leafs to <25 shots is a huge deal. The Sens did a great job of frustrating the Leafs all night.
• Nylander is the Leafs' best forward these days. Matthews does look a little off.
• I'm not sure if Stolarz and that D-corps are the answer for Toronto. Tanev and Ekman-Larsson are definitely past their primes, and I'm not sure Stolarz can handle a starters workload.

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