Ottawa Senators want defencemen to shoot puck toward net more often

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Put the puck toward the net.

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It seems odd this is something we’re talking about 64 games into the NHL regular season, but the Ottawa Senators are instructing their defencemen to pass less and shoot more often in the offensive zone.

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Simple, right?

But even reinforcing the most basic of concepts can pay dividends.

In a 2-1 overtime home-ice win over Pittsburgh Tuesday, Senators defencemen had a whopping 15 shots on net. Remember a bit more than two weeks ago when the Senators, collectively, had zero shots on goal in the third period of a 4-1 loss to Nashville? Hard to forget. So when your defence gets 15 shots in a game, it’s pretty significant.

“As coaches, we’re preaching (for the defencemen) to get pucks to the net,” said Senators head coach Jacques Martin. “Sometimes, it’s not shooting to score. It’s really just deliver the puck on the net. You’ve got people there. You look around the league, the goals that are being scored, it’s tip-ins, rebounds and so on. It’s an area the guys, especially the skill guys, need to understand.

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“The analytics tell you how teams do when they have to retrieve the puck. It’s a lot more difficult to defend after a shot than let’s say on the (offensive zone) entry where you know where the puck is. When you’re delivering a puck at the net, you don’t know where it’s going to go. The defenders have to adjust to wherever the puck goes. A lot of the time, it opens up seams, then you can take advantage offensively.

“When you get to this time of the season, if you get into the playoffs, sometimes you need to adjust your game because you don’t have time and you don’t have space. Teams check so well. Sometimes simplicity is the best.”

“It’s something we’ve kind of under-utilized, especially with the D-men we have on this team,” said Jakob Chychrun, who had four of the 15 shots. “We’re starting to become a little more conscious in getting up in the play and trying to beat our forechecker up the ice. It opens up a lot more options for our forwards.”

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It was back to business Thursday night in Columbus, with the Senators facing the Blue Jackets.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WINS: It’s not like Martin is preaching boring hockey to his players, but if he had his way there’d be a lot more low-scoring games. Sort of like the win over the Penguins.

The shots on goal — 39-35 for Ottawa — don’t really reflect the tone of the game. Most of the shots were from distance. Well, until the overtime when the teams raced back and forth with Drake Batherson scoring the winner 3:13 into the five-minute period.

“Both goalies made some great saves, the game could have been 4-3,” said Martin. “It wasn’t a high-scoring game, but it was exciting. I thought the fans saw a great game.”

The Senators were good in their own end of the ice; playing effectively away from the puck has been something Martin has been drilling into his mostly young players.

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“It’s the new NHL,” said Martin. “When players come into the league, they’re highly skilled. A lot of them have skill coaches so they work a lot on their skills. Maybe they’ve lost one part — how to defend, how to play away from the puck.”

THE EXTRA PERIOD: Parker Kelly returned Thursday for the Senators after serving a two-game suspension for a hit to the head of Los Angeles Kings’ Andreas Englund last week. Said Kelly to TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson after the morning skate: “I pride myself on playing on that edge. There are going to be times when you go over. I learned a lesson. I don’t think I’m a dirty player by any means. I’m always going to play hard and finish checks. Stuff like that will happen from time to time.” … Asked about what the players are feeling in a 3-on-3 overtime period, defenceman Jake Sanderson said: “Back and forth, 2-on-1s, breakaways, you don’t love to see it going down toward your goaltender. At the other end, it’s exciting, it fires up the fans. When it’s loud, (Canadian Tire Centre) is pretty cool.” … Asked if his team was just focusing on practising concepts they’d already learned with 18 games remaining, Martin said: “Mostly, it’s getting better at what we have, but we still work on some concepts. There are areas we need to be better at and part of the process to get better is introducing new ideas or new strategy. But at the same time, (we just need) better execution at times.” … Sidney Crosby is among the NHL players Batherson trains with back home in Nova Scotia each summer. Asked about playing against Crosby and the Penguins, Batherson said: “I was out there (in overtime) against Sid, (it’s like I do) every summer. (With 3-0n-3 hockey), it’s man on man, if he beats you, then he’s probably got a breakaway or 2-on-1. (The Penguins) were my favourite team growing up so I get pretty excited when we play them.”

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