Detroit's defense has been much better than Ottawa's this season- this is a complete overexaggeration in what quantifies as "help."
Ottawa are allowing 2.55 expected goals against/60 (3rd worst in the league) vs Detroit's 1.87 xga/60 (7th best in the league) by NaturalStatTrick's model.
Guys like Merrill and Stecher are allowing significantly less shot attempts than the majority of the Senators defense (as they also did last year with Vegas/Vancouver respectively), the only ones that come close are the ones who haven't played many games like Zub and Wolanin. Nemeth, despite the terrible team around him, had very good shot suppression metrics that would've made him the best defenseman on the Blackhawks last season.
That 1D in Chabot has not had a partner that is a legit top 4 D the past two seasons, so I don't blame him entirely for his poor xga/60, and it's not fair to look at Brannstrom's small sample size, but that is very poor "help" for a rookie defenseman to try to elevate on the Senators just looking at the past two seasons. Most of Detroit's major breakdowns defensively this season have come on the penalty kill (a lot of bad personnel decisions, Hronek is a terrible PK defender and Blashill continues to put him out there).
Seider took one of the best teams in the SHL this season and completely elevated them to another level offensively and defensively. He's as much of a sure thing as it gets. Both teams will have their share of roster turnover this offseason on the blueline and it's dependant on who Steve resigns/trades for assets assuming next season is both of their rookie NHL seasons, but *until* Ottawa shows significant defensive improvement from guys like Chabot, Brannstrom etc. in the NHL it's erroneous to suggest Ottawa has a leg up there. And I don't see what makes Bernard-Docker good enough to be confident that he'll be an NHL impact player anymore than your average low-offense shutdown defenseman, personally.
Not trying to support the argument you quoted, we don't even know how both Detroit/Ottawa defenses will look like in 2-3 years but just wanted to note that everything Ottawa in the NHL this season has to be taken with a big grain of salt. The team is heavily discombobulated right now
First, there seems to be a very big coaching problem. Hockey systems have not been well executed at all which explains a big part of their problems. Defensive coverage was NOT NHL level for the first 6 road games. They were gift wrapping several GA per game, which was reflected in goalie stats. Some adjustments seem to have been made since, which allowed Matt Murray to pick up his game. Marcus Hogberg on the other hand hasn't looked like NHL goalie at all. His positionning is really bad and has hurt the team more than anything.
To the coaching staff defense, having yet another complete turnover of the veterans (starting from no one left from the 2017 playoffs run) plus a bunch of very green players (very low NHL experience), plus basically no training camp makes it hard to instill anything. There is very little chemistry right now because not many players have played together before. Plus, you have to wonder if the coaching staff is working with any player to rectify problems in their game (video coaching?)
There was also very poor choices of personnel going into the season :
- Stepan (many Sens fans, including me, were not happy with this, paying a 2nd for Stepan who has a 6.5 AAV was ridiculous). He is not motivated and has slowed down considerably the last few years. Many of us think it would be much better to play any center prospect over him
- Anisimov, guy has also declined big time and is not NHL level anymore, due mainly to a lack of speed. He was a cap dump when acquired so no big surprise here. Having him in the lineup hurt the team at the beginning but at least it only lasted 4 games. Starting Anisimov over Colin White was ridiculous and it has been proven quite quickly.
- Paquette dumped on Ottawa (good trade because Sens got a 2nd and saved money on Gaborik/Nilsson LTIR contracts) as Tampa had no choice but the guy clearly doesn't want to be here. He's an heart and soul player and if his heart isn't in it, he's useless.
- Coburn was also acquired in that deal and the guy is also done at the NHL level. Great career. Still played 8 games and hurt the team in many games he played
- Mike Reilly : this guy is the definition of Jekyll and Hyde. One night he looks like a legit NHLer and the following night, he's AHL level only. I have no idea why Dorion paid a 5th round pick to acquire him and thought he would help the team in any way
- Josh Brown : paid a 4th round pick, we were kinda expecting a solid 3rd pairing D-man but he has been really bad, like NOT NHL level at all. Another pick wasted, hurt the team in 9 games so far
- Erik Gudbranson : another 5th round pick given up but at least this acquisition is not as bad as the others. Problem has been more playing him anything over sheltered 3rd pairing/PK minutes. In that role he's fine.
All that being said, the defense is MUCH MUCH better when both Artem Zub (25 y/o rookie) and Erik Brannstrom (21 y/o) are in the lineup. Unfortunately, EB only played 3 games and got injured and Zub was sidelined last night for covid protocol, only has played 6 games so far. Many Sens fans have been wondering why it took so long to get them in the lineup as they are night and day better than Josh Brown, Coburn and even Reilly and Gudbranson. Wolanin has also been injured and the guy hasn't played a lot of hockey in the last 2 years (injuries). There was some major rust to shake off and it seems to be coming but playing him with Josh Brown or Coburn is not going to help him lol
No training camp games has really hurt that team, much more than veteran teams that have been playing together for a while and have a lot of good/decent established NHL players. Ottawa has Zaitsev, Gudbranson, Connor Brown, Tierney, Dadonov, Watson and that's it. Impossible to do anything with that kind of veteran core. Which is why many Sens fans want to see Dorion fired as soon as possible.
