Travis Green is getting energy from the bottom of his lineup. He’s also getting buy-in, and lately, he’s been getting scoring.
Lars Eller, Fabian Zetterlund, and Warren Foegele joined forces after Foegele was acquired at the deadline from Los Angeles. The trio clicked almost instantly as a fourth line and has provided forward depth that few teams in the league can match.
On Sunday, that became very apparent. With the Sens trailing San Jose 2-1 in the second period, Foegele took a pass from Michael Amadio fresh off a line change, barrelled towards Sharks goaltender Laurent Brossoit and tied the game at two through an exposed five-hole. It was his second goal as a Sen in his fifth game with his new club.
Later in the frame, with the Sens trailing again and on the power play, Zetterlund wired home a one-time feed from Jordan Spence past Brossoit to tie the game. Just over a minute later, Zetterlund dished a beautiful pass to a cutting Tyler Kleven which the defenceman buried to give them their first lead of the night.
“It’s been going in for us,” said Eller after the Senators practiced on Tuesday morning before departing for Washington, where they will play Wednesday night.
“We’ve had a little bit more puck luck maybe than we had earlier. We’re three good players, and I think when we’re having a strong forecheck and we’re forcing some turnovers, we’re going to get some good quality looks, and we all have the capability to put the puck in the net. So yeah, I like our line.”
When combined with a checking line of Nick Cousins, Shane Pinto, and Michael Amadio, the bottom six is giving Green options — that much is for sure.
“I like the look of our lines right now,” acknowledged Green earlier in the week. “I’ve played that fourth line a little more lately. From a coach’s standpoint, when you put your line out and who you put them out against matters, and I think that line can play in a lot of different roles. It’s not just the scoring, but capable of playing certain times in the game, certain moments against certain lines.
“Lars is a good faceoff guy, he’s very responsible at both ends of the rink. Z, Foegs, can both skate. They can both score. That line should really be able to go on the ice at any time in the game.”
“I think that our depth on our forwards is unreal,” said Kleven, the beneficiary of the aforementioned dish from Zetterlund.
“I think every line’s been playing great, we trust every line,” said Dylan Cozens. “We’ve had lots of guys step up and produce with less ice time, and I think just, everyone on this team’s bought in and knows their role, and it’s leading to success. The biggest thing is just the buy-in from the group and just doing what’s best for the team.”
“Absolutely, I think any time you can roll four lines, it just kind of gives everyone a little more energy,” said Amadio, asked if having all four lines rolling was fuelling their recent 5-1-0 stretch.
“I think last game was a good sign of that, how we just rolled them and didn’t worry about who’s going out there.”
“They’re good players, nothing more, nothing less,” said Travis Green about the team’s forward depth after Sunday’s win.
“They want to win, they understand — especially the guys on the fourth line — that they might not be playing quite as much as they’d like to, we talk to them a lot. But there’s going to be a time when they’re going to need to come up for us, and we have faith in them, and they were big [on Sunday].”
The Senators finish the season with a stretch of five back-to-backs in the span of a month. The first was completed successfully, with wins over Anaheim and San Jose. Green says in addition to added workload from the back-to-backs, the team’s heavy style of play requires contributions from their depth players.
“At this time of the year, it’s not just the back-to-backs, it’s the effort that you have to put out to play,” said Green.
“I don’t think our team plays a slow game, we don’t play a soft game, we want to be a physical team, and that takes energy. In a perfect world, you can have four lines that can play the same amount of minutes. It never ends up like that, but having a four-line team is important.
“Anytime you watch playoff hockey, it’s very rare that you see a team playing just three lines. If you have to hide a fourth line, it’s not very advantageous for your team, and you’re probably going to run a few other lines too hot. Having four lines is important at this time of year.”
After the win over San Jose, Green also admitted that by this point in the season, it was “no secret” that his Senators were a forecheck-heavy team.
“The good thing is, our guys really understand our game, they understand how we have success, and that’s important to get buy-in. I thought we did a good job on our forecheck. Most nights when we like our game, a big part of it is our forecheck,” said Green.
“I think it’s a big part of our game and our identity, is we want to manage pucks and make them go get it,” said Cozens, who leads the team in hits with 183 and is set to smash his career-high of 205, set last season.
“We’ve been part of the forecheck and I think as games go on, we wear down other teams and make it tough on them going back. So just another part of the buy-in for the group, we’re not scared to dump pucks in.”
“I think we’ve been pretty successful at [the forecheck] this year, I think that’s why we’ve been so successful [as a team],” said Amadio, who, with 28 takeaways, is tied with Tim Stützle for the second-most on the team, behind only Jake Sanderson.
“I think when we play behind teams and get pucks in deep it kind of grinds them down. I don’t think a lot of teams, or defencemen, or forwards, whoever, not many teams want to go back and get pucks, they want to make plays with it, so I think that’s been a huge reason of why we’re so successful on the forecheck.”
The Senators’ next back-to-back is their final that will be split between two different cities. They begin in Washington on Wednesday night, fly back after the game, and then play less than 24 hours later at Canadian Tire Centre against the Islanders.
“Just enjoy the challenge that’s in front of us, just have our mind on the game tomorrow in Washington, try to continue the strong play we’ve had recently and keep riding that wave,” said Eller about the approach for those two games.
“Be hungry, be detailed, be excited about the opportunity.”
