Ottawa Senators: 4 takeaways from 2-1 win over San Jose Sharks

The Ottawa Senators continued their recent run of good form, with Saturday’s overtime win in San Jose. We share four takeaways from their performance against the Sharks.

The Ottawa Senators gave their fans something to cheer about on Saturday evening, as they beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in overtime. The win also meant the Senators swept the season series, after defeating the Sharks 5-2 at home back in October.

The victory capped what has been an eventful first week in March for the Senators. Let’s count down our takeaways from the overtime win in San Jose:

4) Chris Tierney comes back to haunt his former team

San Jose will always hold a special place in Chris Tierney‘s heart. After all, he was selected 55th overall in the 2012 draft by the Sharks and saw four seasons of action at the NHL level for them.

In fact, Tierney was more than happy to remain in Northern California, as evidenced by signing a two-year contract extension prior to the 2018-19 season. However, he was then traded to the Senators during training camp as part of the package for Erik Karlsson. The Senators’ former superstar missed Saturday’s game due to a season-ending broken thumb sustained during February.

While Tierney understands the nature of the business, you imagine he wants to show the Sharks what they are missing every time he plays them. And he provided the perfect evidence on Saturday night, scoring the game-winner just 35 seconds into overtime.

The 25-year-old actually had an opportunity to leave his mark earlier in the game. He was in a position to give the Senators the lead on a penalty shot right at the end of the second period but lost control of the puck in front of the goal.

In the end, though, it didn’t matter, as Tierney got the final say against his former team. As reported by Josh Dubow of The Canadian Press via CBC, the Keswick, Ontario native was understandably happy with the outcome:

“It was nice. Whenever you’re playing an old team you have a little extra juice in your legs. After that penalty shot it felt nice to get one.”

For the 2019-20 campaign, Tierney now has 11 goals and 36 overall points. At his current rate, he will finish this season with the second-highest totals of his career in each category. He has already claimed the second-most assists of his career with 26, behind a career-high of 39 just last season.

3) Craig Anderson excels once again

As Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun recently wrote, there is a very good chance this is Craig Anderson‘s final season with the Senators. He’s in the last year of his contract, will be 39 in May, and the team is ready to give Marcus Hogberg and Anders Nilsson their chance to claim the number one role between the pipes.

As Garrioch noted, Anderson is just happy to have the chance to finish the season in Ottawa, after not being moved at the trade deadline. However, he’d had his struggles of late with three consecutive losses and there was a scenario where he could finish the 2019-20 campaign with a whimper; not a good way to go out if this is indeed his last season in Canada’s capital.

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However, the Park Ridge, Illinois native managed to get back on track in his last start, claiming the win and the game’s second star with a tremendous performance against the New York Islanders. And he continued his good form on Saturday night in San Jose.

Anderson was once again excellent in goal for the Senators, as he stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced and brought back memories of his heyday. Afterwards, he was deservedly awarded the game’s first star.

As you’d expect, the goaltender was typically humble about his play, instead preferring to talk about his teammates, including how delighted he was for Tierney to score the game-winner against his former club. As such, as reported by Ken Warren of the National Post, it was up to coach D.J. Smith to sing the praises of Anderson, albeit in an understated way:

“It was pretty wide open. A lot of chances. Both teams were really good. Our goalie, at the end of the day, happened to be a little bit better than their goalie and we win.”

The Senators have just 13 regular-season games remaining, and there is no telling how many of them Anderson will play in. Regardless, Senators fans should make sure they fully appreciate each and every time he does start, as they may not get another chance once the 2019-20 campaign concludes.

2) Senators had already won entering Saturday’s game

The Senators have been on a decent run of form recently, with four wins in their last five games. However, has this run of form been almost too good, especially when it comes to trying to secure a high pick in the draft lottery?

Following Saturday’s win, the Senators still have the third-worst record in the league, but now stand just one point behind the Sharks. However, as noted by Garrioch via the National Post, the Senators were actually in a position entering Saturday night where they really couldn’t lose, regardless of the outcome.

That’s because, as well as having their own first round draft pick, the Senators also hold the Sharks’ own first-round selection. This came about as part of the compensation package in return for the trade which sent Karlsson to San Jose.

As things stand, the Detroit Red Wings still have the best chance of getting the first overall pick in June, as the worst record in the league secures an 18.5 percent chance of winning the draft lottery.

However, if you combine the Senators’ and Sharks’ respective positions in the standings following Saturday’s results, this gives Ottawa a 21 percent chance of securing the first overall selection for the 2020 draft. (Third place is 11.5 percent and fourth place is 9.5 percent.)

As if this doesn’t sound promising enough, consider that the Senators also currently have a third 2020 first-round selection, courtesy of the New York Islanders. Ottawa acquired the Islanders’ pick as part of the trade which sent Jean-Gabriel Pageau to New York.

As per Sportsnet, the only stipulation is that the Islanders’ pick is top-three protected. If the selection falls within this range, it will then become a 2021 first-rounder.

When you consider all this, you have to say objectively that the Senators’ decision to go all-in on a major rebuild appears to be slowly paying off. Add the fact that their AHL affiliate Belleville Senators are currently leading the Eastern Conference, and, believe it or not, the future is starting to look bright in Ottawa.