Brannstrom growing in confidence

It's pretty straight forward: Erik Brannstrom is feeling and looking confident.

Perhaps it was most evident Thursday night against Pittsburgh. After Josh Norris won an offensive faceoff in the third period, Brannstrom brilliantly danced around Sidney Crosby at the blue line. After being tripped by Crosby, Brannstrom jumped back into the play where he took a Brady Tkachuk pass from the boards and delicately fed a backhand pass through Mike Matheson to Norris who had his stick on the ice to bury the goal.
"I feel pretty good out there," Brannstrom said. "I feel more confident and am making more plays. I get up in the rush which I like so it's been a good couple of games."

Thursday night, Brannstrom played a season high 23:28. It was also the second highest time on ice of his career.
Since his return from injury on Jan. 1, the 22-year-old has been deployed in all situations.
During 5-on-5, Brannstrom has been paired alongside Josh Brown. He's become a steady part of the Senators' much improved penalty kill and runs the team's second power play unit.
"It feels good to get that trust and I'm starting to feel better," Brannstrom said. "The last couple of games have been good for me and I need to keep going and take my game to the next level."
Furthermore, he's also seeing time with Thomas Chabot in select offensive situations. When the Senators have an offensive draw after an icing, Sens head coach D.J. Smith has deployed his best two puck-moving defencemen together.
"When you get a tired team, you put your two best offensive defencemen out there, especially with our top line," Smith said. "It's created a lot of offence for us … your two best offensive defencemen playing with your top line on any kind of icing or when you need a goal, is the key.
"It's what we think, at that time, are the five best offensive options for us and he's done a really nice job."
Through seven games this year, Brannstrom has one assist and has seen 18:22 a night, a career high. His season suffered a setback on Jan. 11 when he broke his hand against the Kings and missed Ottawa's next 15 games. He also played nine games with Belleville earlier in the season where he has one goal and two assists.
But it's with Ottawa now that the left shot D has really started to make strides. With 70 NHL games to his name, Brannstrom has clearly begun to take the next step in his development.
"He continues to get better," Smith said. "He's moving pucks [and] he looks so much more confident.
"It takes time in this league [but] it looks like he's arrived."