Josh Norris once again scored on the road while Tim Stützle spent extensive time at centre, as Three Thoughts examines.
Norris scores again on road
Make it six road goals in seven games for Josh Norris.
The Sens forward scored again away from Canadian Tire Centre Wednesday in the Sens' loss to San Jose.
"I like playing on the road," Norris said earlier in the week. "It's a bit of a different scene and feel from being at home and it's not the same routines. It's nice to switch it up. I like going to different cities. I'm more comfortable, I guess you could say that."
Four of those six goals have come on the power play, tied for the third most road man advantage goals in the NHL this season.
More than half of Norris' NHL goals (13 of 25) have come on the road despite averaging 36 seconds less of ice time a game. Of the 10 power play goals Norris has in his career, eight of them have come away from home.
Stützle plays centre
Stützle got an extended look at centre Wednesday night and Senators head coach D.J. Smith certainly liked what he saw.
"He was really good," Smith said. "He had great speed, breakout, he was a big difference for us. If he can give us that, that's going to be a big help for us going forward."
The German played 18:47 and while he didn't register a shot, he did have an assist on Connor Brown's second period goal. Stützle went 1-for-4 in the faceoff dot and had three hits, tied for the second most on the Sens.
"He was fast, played with pace tonight," Brady Tkachuk said. "It kind of fits his game. He was able to keep his speed, make plays through the middle. It created more depth for us and I liked the way he played."
D-men contributing offensively
Lassi Thomson is officially on a point-streak.
The Finnish rookie had an assist again Wednesday night, two days after tallying a helper Monday night in Colorado too.
But Thomson isn't the only d-man collecting points. After scoring his first goal of the season Monday, Artem Zub added an assist last night.
Furthermore, Thomas Chabot tallied two assists Wednesday and has four points in his last four games after he had a multi-assist effort Nov. 13 too.
Chabot has eight assists this year, the most among all Sens d-men and tied for the second most on the team. Zub's six assists are tied for the sixth most on the club this year.
