Jacques Martin getting Ottawa Senators to play better defensively

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Better late than never for the Ottawa Senators.

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Not only do the Senators have points in five straight games, the club has gone 4-1-2 in its past seven.

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Yes, Ottawa is sitting in last place in the East with only 38 points from 44 games, but the Senators have shown in this stretch that if they play well at both ends of the ice, they can achieve success.

Coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, the Senators three-game home stand at the Canadian Tire Centre will continue with a visit from the New York Rangers on Saturday night before it wraps up with the Nashville Predators in town Monday.

Sure, it’s too late for moral victories, but as Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, noted during an availability with the media Thursday, interim coach Jacques Martin and his staff are charged with putting a foundation in place to prepare for next season.

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“I think this is exactly where I expected this group to get to from a level of compete, discipline and details in our game,” Staios said before facing the Bruins. “I think it’s been pretty evident with our play, contributions from everybody in the lineup. It’s starting to really come together.”

When Martin took over with former captain Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant, both knew it wasn’t going to be easy task to get the club playing the right way at both ends of the ice. A busy schedule and limited practice time haven’t helped matters, but we’re starting to see the fruits of the labour.

The Senators held the Bruins to a stretch of more than 17 minutes without a shot on goaltender Joonas Korpisalo. We’re talking about one of the most talented teams in the league and the Senators went head-to-head with them for nearly 65 minutes before Brad Marchand scored the winner.

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Some will dismiss the way the Senators are playing right now as “fools gold” because the chances of making the playoffs are slim-to-none. Last year, the Vancouver Canucks brought in Rick Tocchet during the second half to get the club ready for next year and that’s happening here with the Senators.

The work being done won’t pay dividends until 2024-25, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

Before facing the Bruins, Martin talked about the improvements he has seen in the club’s recent stretch.

“Probably over the last four games, I’d say that the biggest difference is getting the players to commit to play with the same intensity and same commitment without the puck as they have with the puck,” Martin said.

“The second part, they’ve made progress in their ability to manage a game better. The one thing that they had, and I always encouraged and pushed them to continue, is they played with a lot of emotion. That’s really important, but it’s got to be controlled emotion.”

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The NHL season is a rollercoaster ride.

There are going to be highs and lows, but it’s important for a team to stay on an even keel. Alternate captain Claude Giroux has learned that over the course of his career, but you can’t blame the young players if they think they have it solved after a couple of wins.

“What got us in trouble in the past was that we didn’t handle the highs and lows within a game very well,” Martin said. “I can remember the first game that I coached (in Arizona last month), we had an outstanding first period, I’d never seen this club control the puck in the offensive zone as well as they did.

“But at the start of the second, I could feel on the bench the guys getting tight and then the third was a debacle and we were skating in sand.”

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Trailing 2-0 against the Bruins and struggling on the power play, the Senators dug themselves out of the hole with goals from Thomas Chabot and Vladimir Tarasenko to send it to OT. Both came with the man advantage and that’s an area that needs to show improvement.

The Senators made adjustments against the Bruins and they’re hoping those will pay dividends long-term.

“We’re just trying to adjust as we move along,” Martin said. “The tough part is we’re getting very little practice time. There’s so many games and sometimes with specialty teams you need to have touches that you can work on daily.”

The Senators can take small victories from seeing perseverance pay off with point or two in the standings. At 2-0 against the top team in the league, it would have been easy for the Senators to throw in the towel.

Instead, they kept pushing the pace, especially in the third, and found a way to get it to OT.

“That’s one of the best teams in the league and they’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember,” Chabot said.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We just hung in there. Yes, the power play was frustrating for all of us, but we stuck with it and we ended up tying the game with two power-play goals.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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