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\n The Ottawa Senators achieved a historic defensive performance Monday night, limiting the New York Rangers to just nine shots on goal in a 2-1 victory. The feat marks the fewest shots allowed by any NHL team since 2003, accomplished despite playing with only four defensemen for most of the game due to injuries.\n <\/p>\n
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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Ottawa Senators goaltender James Reimer spent Monday night waiting for the New York Rangers\u2019 offensive attack to materialize at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
It never came.<\/p>\n
When the final buzzer sounded on the Senators\u2019 2-1 victory, the Rangers had managed a mere nine shots on goal \u2014 setting multiple records in the process. The performance represented Ottawa\u2019s franchise-best defensive showing, New York\u2019s weakest offensive output since 1955, and marked the first time any NHL team had been held under 10 shots since 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys played great,\u201d Reimer commented after the victory.<\/p>\n
The defensive achievement became even more remarkable considering Ottawa lost two defensemen to injuries during the contest, forcing them to play most of the game with only four blue-liners. Thomas Chabot departed in the closing moments of the opening period after Rangers captain J.T. Miller struck his right arm with a stick, while Lassi Thomson suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury in the second period during his first NHL appearance since November 25, 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you get down to four D-men and you find a way to win, it\u2019s a gutsy effort,\u201d stated Warren Foegele, who netted his fifth goal in nine contests since arriving from Los Angeles in a trade deadline deal. \u201cThe whole group stepped up when those guys went down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Travis Green indicated both Chabot and Thomson will \u201cboth be out for a while,\u201d with the team planning to summon two replacement players Tuesday before facing Detroit in a crucial Eastern Conference playoff race matchup.<\/p>\n
The Senators were already missing two key defensemen, with Jake Sanderson potentially sidelined for another week and Nick Jensen rehabilitating from knee surgery.<\/p>\n
With the depleted roster, Jordan Spence logged a personal-best 26 minutes and 44 seconds of ice time. Tyler Kleven contributed 24:30, Artem Zub played 23:44, and Nikolas Matinpalo skated 18:19.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith two defensemen going down, guys have to step up, play a lot more minutes than they\u2019re used to,\u201d Green explained. \u201cGive them all credit. They played a hell of a game back there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spence remained unaware of his extensive playing time, focusing instead on Chabot\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cChabby just doing how well he was doing and seeing that, it\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Spence reflected. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to win a game, so we kind of had to forget about that and try and do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottawa became the first franchise since the salary-cap implementation in 2005-06 to restrict an opponent to single-digit shots. The last occurrence happened when New Jersey limited Washington to nine shots on December 4, 2003.<\/p>\n
Shot totals weren\u2019t officially recorded by the league until the 1959-60 season. New York\u2019s record books show their previous low of nine shots in a Detroit loss on December 11, 1955.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were better than us,\u201d Miller admitted following the disappointing performance that overshadowed teammate Mika Zibanejad\u2019s 1,000th regular-season game celebration. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t have it. I don\u2019t know what to say. We got outplayed, got outcompeted \u2014 things that we\u2019re just not OK with as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since beginning their playoff push on January 25, Ottawa has surrendered the fewest shots in the NHL at approximately 21 per game. They permitted just 14 shots while defeating Toronto on Saturday and 19 against the New York Islanders on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of our structure,\u201d Spence noted. \u201cThat\u2019s part of our identity, so we have to keep that going in order to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite needing only eight saves for the victory, Reimer admitted the quiet evening presented unique challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese games are a lot harder than a 30- or a 40-shot night,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou\u2019re not in a rhythm. You\u2019re not feeling it. It\u2019s not just happening, so you\u2019ve just got to trust it and trust that your body knows what it has to do when the time comes. It\u2019s a difficult game as a goalie to play mentally, but you just trust it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators achieved a historic defensive performance Monday night, limiting the New York Rangers to just nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[56123,56124,56117,56125,56119,56120,56118,56121,5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,56122],"class_list":{"0":"post-519714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-fine-day","11":"tag-fine-day-102-3","12":"tag-fine-day-fm","13":"tag-fine-day-media","14":"tag-fine-day-radio","15":"tag-have-a-fine-day","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-rangers","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkrangers","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-rangers","23":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116282517065850757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}