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Today, he serves as the first-unit power-play quarterback and is confident in trying to make plays, rather than trying not to make errors.

“If I compare to last year, my first couple of games here, I didn’t want to make any mistakes,” he said of the night-and-day difference. “Now I know that it’s part of the game and I know if I make a mistake, it’s my job to get back out there and make sure I don’t do the same thing over again.”

Ten seconds into Saturday’s game, Chabot joined the rush and set up Mikkel Boedker, who only failed to score thanks to an outstanding stop from Canadiens goaltender Carey Price. It was a rough first period, though, with Chabot on for the Canadiens second and third goals. Come overtime, Chabot was the go-to defenceman, including a 1:30 shift to open the extra session.

For his part, Lajoie rifled a shot off the crossbar on a first period Senators power play that would have turned a 2-1 deficit into a 2-2 tie. He had a rock solid night at both ends, with three shots on goal and two hits.

Boucher is trying to protect the youngsters where he can. Part of the reason for dressing seven defencemen for the past three games — remember, all three contests have been on home ice — is the fact he can control match-up situations against opposition forwards.

In Chabot’s case, there has also been some surprise early chemistry with Dylan DeMelo, who was largely an unknown when he arrived in the trade for Erik Karlsson.

“As I started playing with DeMelo, it was pretty interesting,” Chabot said. “I didn’t know anything about him and he probably didn’t know anything about me, either, but we seem like we got a good connection right off the bat. We try to keep things simple in our own zone, so that we can enjoy our time in the offensive zone.”