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Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist in his first game as Ottawa captain as the Senators beat Toronto 3-2, but No. 1 defenceman Jake Sanderson left with a lower-body injury.
Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist in his first game as Ottawa captain as the Senators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night.
Ottawa watched every other team raise the curtain on the NHL season before finally taking the ice in Toronto. The wait ended with a grinding road win. It is fun to be back home and watch some hockey at 7 p.m. on TV, but you want to be the team out there, said Chabot, the defenceman now wearing the C in the nation's capital after Brady Tkachuk was shipped to the Florida Panthers in June after demanding a trade.
The week was long, but I thought we put in some good work. Pretty boring, added Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, who made 27 saves. Camp was short and we will see if there is a little blessing in disguise. The victory was tainted by the loss of No. 1 blueliner Jake Sanderson in the first period when he re-aggravated a lower-body injury.
Sanderson Injury Update And Team Status
Head coach Travis Green said the team will know more in the next few days. Sandy was smart enough to pull himself early enough that he did not re-aggravate it too badly, Green said. He just felt that it was coming and took himself out. It sucks.
You feel for a guy. Unfortunately, I have been on that side of things quite a lot over my career. Ottawa is also minus shutdown defenceman Artem Zub, leaving the club short on the back end. Toronto pushed in the second period with Ottawa down to five defencemen before the visitors steadied themselves to even the score 2-2.
The Senators were rewarded midway through a spotless third when Stephen Halliday swatted home a loose puck just as a power play expired. The Maple Leafs attack featuring Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Kirill Marchenko looked primed for a late onslaught, but Ottawa kept its structure and did not allow Toronto to get goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky out of the net for an extra attacker in the final minutes. That is our guys playing their game, Green said.
Ottawa Defence And Key Saves In Third
We want to be aggressive when we can. When you have got the lead, it is important that you stay aggressive, but also play smart. Ullmark made a couple of huge stops along the way, including one he called 90 per cent luck on Nylander in the second, to go along with some friendly bounces off posts and crossbars. Hips are not moving the way they should be in the beginning of the season, he said.
When push comes to shove, I was able to sort it all out. If you are going to wait a week and you had to pick a spot you want to play, it would probably be here if it was not at home, Green said. Any time you play the Leafs in this building, there seems to be a little bit of more emotion.
Alfredsson Addresses Former Team
Maple Leafs associate coach Daniel Alfredsson, who suited up for 17 of his 18 NHL seasons with the Senators before spending the last three in the nation's capital as an assistant, held a media availability ahead of facing his former team for the first time. It is different, no question, being on the other side, Alfredsson said. We wish them the best and wish us a little bit better.
Toronto rookie Gavin McKenna had a unique rookie lap in Tuesday's season-opening game when Bobrovsky stepped on the ice first. First-year players normally get a couple of twirls at the start of warm-ups alone ahead of their first game before being joined by the rest of the team. Completely forgot, Bobrovsky told reporters Friday after practice. I came to McKenna and I also told him and so I pretended that it was my first game, too.
But no, I did not mean to do that. Green was asked following the morning skate how he has changed since first stepping into the coaching limelight. Like anything in life, the more you do it, the more comfortable you feel, the more things you learn, he said. A lot different coach today than I was 500 games ago.
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CTVToronto:Senators open post-Tkachuk era with a win over Leafs; Sanderson leaves with injuryThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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