The Ottawa Senators kickstarted its four-game homestand with a dominant 5-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night.
Tyler Ennis paced with the Senators with a hat-trick, while Matt Murray recorded the shutout. However, the game was marred by first period injuries to Drake Batherson and Dylan Gambrell, as Three Thoughts details.
Enzo scores a hatty
It had been 29 games since Ennis last scored and for those counting, that dates back to the Sens' season opener on Oct. 14.
But Ennis quickly put that in the past with his second career NHL hat-trick Tuesday night.
"It's been tough for me this year to score so to get three felt pretty good," Ennis said.
The 32-year-old opened his account at 15:53 of the first as he benefited from an incredible dangle by Adam Gaudette, who danced around Robert Hagg, before he centered to Ennis.
He'd have his second of the night at 18:48 as he buried in-close off of Chris Tierney's feed.
Ennis would hit the crossbar with 3:52 to play in the third but he wouldn't be denied the hat-trick as he fired a low wrister past Aaron Dell's blocker with 29.3 seconds to play.
"It was nice of D.J. to keep putting me out and try to get [the hat-trick]," Ennis said. "It felt pretty good to see that third one go in."
A veteran of 674 NHL games, Ennis was a healthy scratch against Pittsburgh and Washington last week. He returned to the lineup Sunday against Columbus, where he had an assist, and drew rave reviews from Smith.
"Sometimes you just need a refresh, a reset, mentally," Smith said. "It's like you're starting the year over. He scored in the first game of the year, and then it starts weighing on you. He sits a couple out, gets away from it a little bit, comes back and here he is."
Ennis for his part, didn't mind sitting.
"Sometimes a little rest is helpful," he said. "It's a long season. We have a lot of games in a short period of time … sometimes it's nice to get a little breather, reset, let the body heal up a little bit and come in fresh."
While there were no fans to rain hats on Ennis after he potted his third, Anton Forsberg made sure he got at least one hat on the ice.
"It would have been nice to have a few more hats out there but it was nice of Forsy to chuck one out there at least for me," Ennis said.
Sens lose Batherson and Gambrell
While the Sens won on the scoreboard, it came at a cost.
Both Batherson and Gambrell left the game in the first period and did not return.
"Gambrell will likely be out a week, a little bit less, maybe," Smith said. "Drake looks like it will be a lot longer."
Gambrell was hurt with 11:04 left in the first as he was hit high by Rasmus Dahlin behind the Buffalo net.
Batherson was injured moments after the Sens scored their third goal of the evening as he was taken out by Sabres goaltender Aaron Dell as he forechecked and fell awkwardly into the end boards.
"It's unfortunate for him," Smith said. "The kid has a chance to go to his first All-Star game. It's a bad play by the goalie … it's ridiculous."
Batherson, who scored the Sens' second goal of the evening, has 34 points (13 goals) in 31 games this season and was named an NHL All-Star for the first time in his career earlier this month.
"It's tough to see him go down," Ennis said. "He's having such a great season. He's a great teammate and it's disappointing as he was going to his first All-Star game … it's unfortunate and unnecessary.
"Drake's been playing so great and a lot of nights he's been our best player."
Murray earns third shutout as a Senator
With a 32 save performance, Murray earned his first shutout of the season Tuesday night.
Of his 32 saves, 10 came on the penalty kill as the Sens went a perfect 5-for-5 while they skated a man short.
"We did a good job," Murray said of the penalty kill. "We simplified it, blocked some shots, had sticks in lanes, [did] all the cliches that gets good penalty killing done.
"We did all of those things extremely well."
Over his past four starts, Murray is 3-0-1 with a .938 save percentage and a 2.00 GAA. Tuesday was his 14th career shutout in the NHL.
"We've been building the last few games and as a team we're really gaining some traction and tonight solidified that," Murray said. "We're going in the right direction … we did a good job of being in the right spots and playing good defence and we got our chances and took care of it."
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