It’s not perfection, but Ottawa Senators need to build off positivity

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Perfection, it’s something National Hockey League teams chase, getting as close as they can to doing everything right.

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Perfection happens for baseball pitchers, though not often. There have been just 24 no-hit, no-walk, no base-runner outings over the more than 100 years of Major League Baseball.

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But, hockey?

You could say a goalie is perfect if he gets a shutout. But team perfection isn’t possible. Over the course of 60 (or more) minutes, in such a fast-paced game, there will be breakdowns, mistakes. With split-second decisions to be made, players and teams focus on buttoning down their assignments, learning to make decisions on the fly. Improvisation is important.

“You search (for perfection), but it’s difficult to get,” said Senators coach Jacques Martin. “The opposition is a big factor. It’s how you manage your game. You’re going to have a stretch where you’re not as good executing, but you’re able to stay the course and retake momentum in a game.”

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Since taking over as the Senators’ head coach a month ago, Martin has been looking to plug the leaks, get his team to play a game more based on fundamentals and X’s and O’s.

Having a good hockey team isn’t always about who has the most talent; the Senators have plenty of very good players. Sometimes, it’s about the guys who are willing work the hardest and pay attention to what the coach is trying to get them to buy into.

“The Guelph Platers in the OHL, we won the Memorial Cup (in 1986),” said Martin. “I don’t think we were the better team, but we played well as a team.

“My third year in Pittsburgh (2015-16), we won the (Stanley) Cup. There was a change in coaching just before Christmas. Mike Sullivan took over for Mike Johnston (and Martin was shifted from senior advisor of hockey operations to assistant coach). It really was a team that surprised people. We played with good speed. We didn’t have much toughness but we played hard, we were tough as a team.”

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So far this season, the Senators have been far from perfect, too many nights they’ve played poorly. With 16 wins in 40 games, they remain the worst team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, fourth-worst in the league.

Success, if it’s going to happen, has to start somewhere.

While the Senators’ satisfying 6-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre provided lots of hope for the organization, its players and fan base, it’s just one game, one win. Before we start the parade, there’s another home game — Saturday afternoon against the very-good Winnipeg Jets.

But, for now, the Senators can take the positives out of Thursday’s win, push ahead and seek more efforts like it. Even if they can’t get perfection, they can achieve big things if they’re all pulling in the same direction, doing some of the things Martin has been preaching.

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“I like the amount of time we’re spending in the offensive zone, that’s a good sign,” said Martin. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

There are so many intangibles that dictate wins or losses. For the Senators, the focus has been on puck management, cutting down the number of turnovers, reading the situation when dumping the puck into the offensive zone, limiting the shots against the goalie and being able to clear the puck out of the defensive zone, especially when players are at the end of a shift and tired. Too often, shaky goaltending has also let them down.

Much of that was better Thursday. But there’s still room to take it further.

Martin talked about developing confidence, building a swagger in his players. When you’re losing hockey games, that’s difficult.

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“It’s tough when you’re in a slump, it’s tough to get out of it,” said centre Tim Stutzle, who was plus-3 with a goal and two assists against the Canadiens. “The only way you do it is if you work together where everybody has each other’s back. You saw that (Thursday), everybody jumped in for each other. That’s how we have to play every night.”

“We played as a group,” said winger Mathieu Joseph, who had a goal and was plus-2. “We weren’t hesitating shooting the puck. We were talking in the D-zone. We have some stuff to improve. But, in general, our execution was much better. We were better without the puck, there were a lot of blocked shots and saves by the goalie. That’s what you have to do for to win games in this league. It’s group effort, but at the same time, we were much better on details.”

“We’re looking to play fast, pressure type of hockey, where we’re skating forward, not sitting back,” said Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. “It’s just more fundamentals, create a base and go from there.”

Maybe not perfect, but, at this point, Senators fans would be happy with a few more wins, no matter how they happen.

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