It’s always awkward meeting the old team.
But on the same day as the trade?
Matt Duchene met with his most recent old team, the Ottawa Senators, with his new team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sergei Bobrovsky got the shutout for the Blue Jackets Friday night – file photo by Brent Clark
He didn’t score but the Jackets managed a 3-0 win in Ottawa just the same.
“I enjoyed myself out there,” Duchene said. “It was obviously a good way to kind of end my time as a [Senator]. Actually [I] probably felt more comfortable because I was in this building than had we gone somewhere else.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves to get the shutout.
“It’s probably a whirlwind day for [Duchene],” Columbus forward Nick Foligno said. “To which he said, it’s pretty funny, he goes, ‘I’m actually used to this,’ with what he did when he came [to Ottawa]. As he gets more comfortable and understands us better, I think his skill and everything will take off even more.”
Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for Columbus.
“It was fun [playing with Panarin and Atkinson],” Duchene said. “I thought the fact that we didn’t get [a goal] 5-on-5 was crazy tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things. Obviously [we hit] a goal post early, a crossbar on the power play, but I thought we did some good things and we’ll just keep getting better the more we play together.”
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Senators highlights]
Craig Anderson made 37 saves in the loss.
“It just shows you how hard it is to produce in the NHL,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said. “You’ve got your high-end core players; they produce, but they also make the other guys produce. The other guys, the complementary players, all of a sudden get a lot of points. If you take out those high-end guys, then the complementary players have to become the go-to guys and that’s very difficult.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.