Thomas Chabot and the Senators watched every other team raise the curtain on the NHL season.
The wait turned out to be well worth it.
Chabot had a goal and an assist in his first game as captain in Ottawa’s grinding 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
“It’s 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 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.”
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Thomas Chabot named Ottawa Senators captain
“Pretty boring” added Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, who made 27 saves. “Camp was short … we’ll see if there’s a little blessing in disguise.”
The victory, however, was tainted by the loss of No. 1 blueliner Jake Sanderson in the first period when he re-aggravated a lower-body injury.
“We’ll know more in the next few days,” said Senators head coach Travis Green, who is also minus shutdown option Artem Zub. “Sandy was smart enough to pull himself early enough that he didn’t re-aggravate it too badly. He just felt that it was coming and took himself out.
“A smart thing to do.”
Chabot said Sanderson was “devastated” on the bench after getting hurt.
“It sucks” he said. “You feel for a guy. Unfortunately, I’ve been on that side of things quite a lot over my career.”
Toronto pushed in the second period with Ottawa down to five defencemen before the visitors steadied themselves to even the score 2-2, and were then rewarded midway through a spotless third when Stephen Halliday swatted home a loose puck just as a power play expired.
The Maple Leafs’ high-flying attack featuring Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Kirill Marchenko looked primed for a late onslaught, but the Senators kept their structure and didn’t allow Toronto to get goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky out of the net for an extra attacker in the final minutes.
“That’s our guys playing their game,” Green said. “We want to be aggressive when we can. When you’ve got the lead, it’s 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 aren’t 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.”
After a long runway, so was the rest of the roster on a Saturday night in Toronto.
“If you’re going to wait a week and you had to pick a spot you want to play, it’d probably be here if it wasn’t at home,” Green said. “Any time you play the Leafs in this building, there seems to be a little bit of more emotion.
“It’s probably good that we played here.”
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’s different, no question, being on the other side,” Alfredsson said. “We wish them the best and wish us a little bit better.”
Green was behind the bench for his 500th NHL game.
The former NHL forward was asked following the morning skate how he’s 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,” Green said.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” he added.
