Three Thoughts: Thomson makes NHL debut as team scoring streak ends
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But as Three Thoughts examines, spirits are still high in the Sens camp after an impressive performance under the circumstances while another player made his NHL debut.
Lassi shines in NHL debut
An hour before warmups were scheduled to start Thursday, Lassi Thomson was a scratch. And then he wasn't.
After Nikita Zaitsev was added to the NHL's Covid-19 protocol shortly before warmups, Thomson was suddenly about to make his NHL debut with zero preparation.
"To get my first game that way, I didn't expect it," Thomson said. "I think that's the best way to get your first one."
The Finnish blueliner played 22:29 and registered one hit. His ice-time was higher than initially planned as the Sens lost Artem Zub in the first period but Thomson more than rose to the occasion with a debut to remember.
"Lassi was phenomenal," Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. "It looked like he had played in the league for a long time. He made plays, he defended."
Thomson was the 19th overall pick in 2019 and joins Shane Pinto as members of that class to play in the NHL. The 21-year-old played 26 minutes Wednesday night for Belleville in Rochester before his recall to Ottawa.
"I literally didn't sleep last night as I was so nervous for my first NHL practice," Thomson said. "I knew a little bit of what was going on [after playing in preseason]. But of course, everything is different than the preseason."
Thomson's time on ice only trailed Thomas Chabot on the Senators' blue line and the latter certainly took notice of his exceptional debut.
"He looked like this is where he belonged and that it wasn't his first game," Chabot said. "He played well and made some great plays the whole night. He used his tools to his advantage."
Scoring streak ends
With the Senators being shutout last night, it ended the NHL's longest active goalscoring streak by a team at 77 games.
The streak started Feb. 24 2020 during the 2019-20 season when Connor Brown scored in the first period in a 4-3 overtime loss to Columbus. The Sens were the only team to score in every game during the shortened 56-game 2020-21 season while Zach Sanford's first period goal in Boston Tuesday ensured the streak got to 77 games.
It is the third longest goalscoring streak in franchise history: from Dec. 28, 2013 - Oct. 14 2015, the Senators scored in 128 straight games. They also had an 80-game streak from Jan 4. 2016 - Jan. 1 2017.
The Senators' streak of scoring in 77 straight games is the 24th longest in the NHL since 2000 and the 14th longest over the last decade.
Sens without 13 players Thursday
The Sens are 0-5-1 in their last six but to Smith, talking about the team's current losing streak isn't fair with the rising number of absentees.
Ottawa was without 13 players last night, nine of which were on the NHL's Covid-19 protocol.
"We're losing guys day-by-day and right now we're just trying to piece together a win and get guys healthy," Smith said. "We played hard, we did a lot of good things but it just didn't go in for us.
"There were a lot of really good efforts. There's not a guy I can say that didn't give everything he had."
Of the team's 18 skaters Thursday, half of them have yet to play 100 NHL games. The lineup featured two players who made their NHL debuts this week in Thomson and Egor Sokolov while d-man Dillon Heatherington played his first NHL game in more than three years.
"Everyone played with everybody tonight," Chabot said. "Everybody played together and everybody played a great game.
"But it is what it is. It's the situation we're going through right now. We don't want to use it as an excuse. We want to show up every night and play as hard as we can and a night like tonight was one of those nights."
