SNAPSHOTS: Coach D.J. Smith shuffles his deck as Senators look for first road win
DJ Smith #DJSmith
TAMPA — The Ottawa Senators will have a new look up front Tuesday night.
Coming off a 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday, coach D.J. Smith changed three of the club’s four line combinations during Sunday’s skate at FLA Live Arena, and he’ll likely go that route Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lighting.
The trio of centre Tim Stutzle along with captain Brady Tkachuk and winger Drake Batherson remained together while pivot Shane Pinto was moved up to play with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux .
Dylan Gambrell will play. He was skating on the fourth-line with Parker Kelly and Austin Watson while Mark Kastelic moved to play with Tyler Motte and Mathieu Joseph. Veteran Derick Brassard , who had been skating between Giroux and DeBrincat, may be scratched.
“Some guys are going to get rewarded and some guys’ minutes are going to go up and some are going to come down,” Smith said. “That’s just part of competition.”
Pinto has had the opportunity to play with DeBrincat and Giroux on the power play so there’s already some chemistry there. Pinto scored his sixth of the season against the Panthers.
“These two are unbelievable players,” Pinto said Sunday. “I’ve just got to put my work boots on, move my feet and do the best I can. But I’m not going to change my game. I’m just going to continue to do what I do. Hopefully, we get some chemistry and get things going.”
The Senators have started the season with straight losses on the road and need to turn that around against the Bolts.
TAKE A BREAK
After tying a franchise record set by Robin Lehner on Nov. 1, 2013 with 53 saves Saturday against the Panthers, Anton Forsberg was the first one on the ice Sunday.
He was also the first one to leave after 15 minutes of work.
Forsberg stated after the game he didn’t like some of the goals he let in against the Panthers and he appeared to be on the ice working on his angles with goalie coach Zac Bierk . Once the formal part of the skate started, Forsberg left immediately.
“He faced way too much action. We re-did all the shots today and I don’t think it was anywhere close to what they said in the building,” said Smith. “In saying that, we gave up six ‘Grade A’ chances. That’s what we go on that’s way too much.
“He’s been a horse for us. He got in a little bit of work early and he’ll be ready.”
Injured goaltender Cam Talbot and backup Magnus Hellberg handled the net during the skate.
Talbot is looking good but he’s not ready to return from a broken rib.
“He’s certainly closer than we thought he was, but he won’t play on this trip,” Smith said on Talbot.
FILLING THE VOID
They were strong at home, for the most part, during the winning streak, but it doesn’t help matters that top defenceman Artem Zub has been taken out of the mix for a week or two with an upper-body ailment suffered in the loss against the Wild. That coupled with the loss of centre Josh Norris to a shoulder injury, and this isn’t the start the Senators wanted to their campaign. Right now, Smith needs the 20 players that dress every night to step it up because there aren’t enough playing with consistency.
“It doesn’t matter who’s out, whoever is filling their spot has to be ready to go, ready to play and ready to play hard,” Smith said. “You’re not going to win every game but it’s unacceptable how we played to start the game.
“After that it was fairly even. They shoot a lot of pucks from the red line so you can’t really look at the shot clock when it comes to that. It’s the chances, it’s our ability to fight to get pucks back and we just didn’t do enough of it.”
THE LAST WORDS
It was a big day for the Tkachuk brothers as Brady and Matthew faced off for the first time since Matthew was dealt to the Panthers in the summer.
The elder Tkachuk had a big day with a goal and two assists. You have to give his teammate Anton Lundell credit for giving him a pass through the seam to set up the empty-netter that put away the game with only 24 seconds left in the third.
As we noted, Tkachuk’s parents were on hand and Matthew always loves the opportunity to take on his younger brother.
“When I was in Calgary the games didn’t mean a whole lot,” Matthew said. “Now that we’re in the same division, there’s more intensity. (Brady) has been playing awesome this year and playing against him is one of the biggest honours for me.
“Seeing him play in the NHL and seeing him have as much success as he’s having, I’m so proud of him. I’m his biggest fan and he’s my biggest fan.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to be two teams fighting for playoff spots against each other for years to come. That part might kind of suck for the family but I think we enjoy it. We’re going to have fun with it and hopefully we can be in the playoffs for lots of years to come.”
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch