Senators who respond dangerously exaggerated to MacDermid Trade – The Hockey Writers Ottawa Senators Latest News, Analysis and more

The senators are not a weak team, but that night against the Canadiens they looked helpless, so they added a player to ensure that that no longer happens. Yet the entire debacle is an exaggerated response to an incident in a preseason game that the rest of the season has no influence on the rest of the season, and now the senators are putting up a dangerous collision when they then meet Montreal.

MacDermid has no place in Ottawa

There is no doubt that MacDermid is currently one of the most difficult players in the NHL. Standing 6-foot-5 and with a weight of 234 pounds, he is one of the ruling true NHL weights, and he has made a name for himself by acting against other giants. His tilt with New York Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe made the headlines, both for the Violence on the ice and the Reactions made from both sides before and after the event.

However, that is about everything that MacDermid is doing now. During his nine-year career, MacDermid has an average of only 32 NHL matches per season, which means that the majority of its time is injured or a healthy scratch. The reason is most likely that players like him no longer have a place in the NHL. Beyond are the days of using enforcers on the fourth rule to protect the star players. Fighting is finished in the competition And despite the incidental rise of a throwback enforcement rider such as Rempe or Arber Xhekaj, teams prioritize skill and speed during their setup. If you regularly play an action of a enforcer, a team generally gets worse.

Take a look at Macewen. He is 6-foot-4, 236 pounds and on average 33 games per season during his seven-year career-bijna identical figures for MacDermid. In his two seasons in Ottawa, he only played 51 games and put together 78 penalty minutes, the same pace as MacDermid with New Jersey. Yet the senators did not need him in their lower six, instead they turn to cousins, Michael Amadio and Ridly Greig. The addition of Lars Eller and Arthur Kaliyev In the low season, Macewen pushed further into the depth map, which meant he was intended for the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2025-26.

If MacDermid and Macewen are basically the same player, that does not leave much hope that the newest player of the senators will suddenly find a regular schedule this season. It is also not as if the senators had no toughness; Even with Macewen sparingly, the senators were still within the upper half of the NHL in Penalty minutes (PIM) last season, and although Brady Tkachuk almost doubled the second highest Pim total of the team, Ottawa never looked physically over. It makes no sense to act for a player who does nothing but the departing player, except that they look bigger.

The preseason is not the regular season

Over the years there have been countless examples of small players who bloom against easier competition and stagger strong teams during the handful of matches before the regular season starts. Just look at who the NHL scoring race leads so far; Buffalo Sabres Center Josh Norris already has five points in four games, with players such as Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre and Noah Philp just behind him. Although they are all talented players, no one is expected to lead their teams in scoring this season. Instead, everyone benefits from playing against more inexperienced players, so that their statistics are blown up.

The same applies to Ottawa. Although fans would expect that Tkachuk or Tim Stutzle led the team in scoring, the preseason ended with a three -way draw between Greig, Kaliyev and David Perron, all of whom had two points. In the meantime, Stutzle and Tkachuk have only combined one assist between them.

Related: Canadiens and senators have an emerging rivalry

That is to be expected in the preseason; Star players rest for the regular season, and get depths and younger players opportunities to show coaches and management how they fit the organization. Meanwhile, Kaliyev, Donovan Sebrango, Olle Lyckell and Nikolas Matinpalo lead the senators with four games played. It has been a strong show of them all, but even with their production it is unlikely that someone will spend a lot of time in Ottawa this season, although Sebrango is still with the team After the last cutbacks.

Small players can cause major damage

Just like Lyckell and Sebrango, it is unlikely that Xhekaj will play a lot in the NHL this season. The younger brother of the defender of Canadiens Arber proved that he could drop the gloves with the best of them, but did not do much else in three games this preseason. So when he saw the chance to scrape with Yakemchuk, a much higher prospect, he literally grabbed the opportunity. If he can prove his strength against a large, competent player, he would certainly be one of the first names that management thinks when they have to call someone at their agricultural team.

Yakemchuk, however, has a real chance to make the senators this season. De Rookie had a fantastic show in last season’s training camp and had jumped to Pro after this season, an external recording of securing a bottom-pair position on Ottawa’s opening night schedule. He had a number of really good displays against the devils on both ends of the ice. But the debacle against Montreal did nothing to help his business. When asked if he learned something from the game, head coach Travis Green brutally answered: “Not real, no” (from another chaotic preseason game, the Canadiens found value where the senators did not do that, “” The athletic – 1/10/2025).

There was no point in the game of 30 September against Montreal. Not only did not give new insight into players or line combinations, but non-Fighters were forced to get in touch with much stronger opponents, causing potential injury. Fortunately, no senators hurt the game, but the same cannot be said for the Canadiens, who saw their star-smokie Ivan Demidov through cousins ​​and later left the game and their often injured center Kirby Dach was struck by Sebrango.

Injuries are an inevitable part of the hockey game, but there is a direct correlation between the number of games that someone plays and the chance that they will be injured. That is why the NHL has that decided to shorten the preseason, From next season. But their treatment of incidents during this preseason and many before it has encouraged rolling and platforms to take freedoms with the stars of other teams. Podcaster and commentator Steve Dangle was mainly fired About the series of injuries, saying in a recent episode: “The NHL has been telegraphing this months and months and years: injure your opponent, break their bones, clambering their eggs, shortens their career and the punishment will be worth it.”

The senators saw the actions of Xhekaj as an attempt to injure Yakemchuk, and be ashamed that they could not respond sufficiently to intense physicality, so they went outside and took one of the toughest players of the NHL. From 5 October, MacDermid, Sebrango and Cousins ​​are all still in the main setup, which implies that the senators want to make a very clear explanation early in the season – you can’t push us around. But someone will have to pay the price for that attitude. Will it be a Rookie such as Demidov, or a veteran like Dach? Then Sebrango and MacDermid will return to the minors, and the senators will get back to work as usual.

But if the senators were just hanging on their game, they would not have to waste time on the rest of the competition that they are just as heavy and mean as the rest of them. Now, instead of picking up crucial points in a tight Atlantic Division race, they have to set a tone when they are again confronted with the Canadiens, or the Maple Leafs, or the notorious tough Florida Panthers. These are the actions of a bruised ego, not trying to make a team better, but the macdermid trade could cost the senators much more than their reputation.