“Unhappy with the effort in Windy City, Smith thought it was necessary to put new faces in the lineup to send a message that the way the club played on Monday was not acceptable.”
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DJ Smith decided to make changes Tuesday night.
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After a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks less than 24 hours earlier at the United Center, the Ottawa Senators coach made a couple of changes by inserting winger Austin Watson and defender Michael Del Zotto into the lineup as he club closed its game. Three-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild.
Dissatisfied with the effort in Windy City, Smith thought it was necessary to put new faces in the lineup to send a message that the way the club played Monday was not acceptable.
As Watson returned from an ankle injury that kept him out of the first month, Del Zotto had been a healthy scratch in four straight games. As a result of the changes, newly acquired center Dylan Gambrell was eliminated along with veteran defender Nick Holden.
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With Watson returning from ailment, general manager Pierre Dorion also had to make a move on the roster by putting Scott Sabourin on waivers Monday. He passed on Tuesday to allow Watson to be placed in the lineup and the expectation is that Sabourin will be dispatched to the club’s AHL affiliate in Belleville on Wednesday.
Sabourin is expected to prepare on the road Wednesday against the Rochester Americans.
Watson skated with center Logan Shaw and winger Zach Sanford against the Wild.
“He gives us a guy who checks, works and checks,” Smith told reporters in St. Paul of Watson’s return. “You always find on training ground that the third and fourth row guys don’t look that exciting. You want them to do a little more with the puck, to create more offense.
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“When you go into games, you realize how important guys like Nick Paul and Austin Watson are to pulling pucks late in the game, tracking, blocking shots, and this is why these guys are in the league. I was talking to Austin and every year his job has been on the line at camp for the last eight years and he hasn’t let anyone take it. There’s a reason for that “.
Getting Watson back is important to this team. He’s a veteran NHL player, brings different elements to the table, and isn’t afraid to make opponents pay the price. The Wild were coming off a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on the road on Saturday and were determined to bounce back.
The Vegas Golden Knights ‘visit to Ottawa on Thursday will be the Senators’ fourth straight game against a Western Conference opponent, and it’s a different style because the teams are bigger, stronger and tougher. Given the way the club played in Chicago, the senators were ready to welcome Watson with open arms.
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“He sure is a big part of our team,” said backup captain Thomas Chabot. “When you get guys like that back, there are so many guys who are like him. He shows up every night, works as hard as he can, and is ready to block any shot.
“It is an important part to have back. Every time you see a teammate get injured, that’s never something you want to see, so when you hear that a guy is coming back it’s always exciting. “
Of course, the decision to seat 34-year-old Holden was a bit of a surprise. Acquired from the Knights in the deal that sent winger Evgenii Dadonov to Las Vegas in the summer, Holden was minus-2 against the Hawks on Monday. No, it wasn’t all his fault, but some kind of change had to be made after that loss.
Most nights, Holden has been one of the club’s most consistent blueliners, while Chabot and his partner Artem Zub have been the club’s best couple. Look, a lot of people would have been behind eliminating veteran Nikita Zaitsev because he entered the game against the Wild with minus-7s in the club’s first eight games.
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Seating Zaitsev would be counterproductive at this juncture. He’s 30 years old and he’s fighting on both ends of the ice, so the coaching staff is trying to give him a chance to fight him. Holden is a professional, has been around for many years and would understand Smith’s decision.
“It’s back to back and we want to have new players there,” Smith said. “The guys are attacked, we have a lot of games in a lot of days, so there will be guys going in and out of the lineup.”
As they got ready to face the Wild, Smith just wanted to watch his team play 60 minutes because that didn’t happen against the Hawks and we saw the result on the scoreboard.
“We could have two or three (goals) in the first one, we didn’t and that’s part of the learning process and you have to keep it up,” Smith said. “At some point, you will be in a playoff series where you will dominate a team for a period of time and the goalkeeper will keep them, and you have to keep playing.
“You can’t start cheating in the game, and when you do, it goes wrong and that’s essentially what happened (in Chicago).”
Twitter: @sungarrioh
Reference-ottawasun.com