By Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
February ended for the Ottawa Senators in punishing fashion on Wednesday night, with a decisive 4-1 loss on home ice to the Winnipeg Jets. And while the Jets are possibly the best team in the NHL, this game nevertheless provided yet another reminder that the team is still at-best a fringe playoff contender… and less than that when missing key roster players like Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, and Shane Pinto. The Jets earned 2 very tidy road points by holding off some early pressure by the Senators, establishing a 2-0 lead in the first period, and then leaning on a 27-13 shot advantage over the last 2 periods.
WPG 4 - OTT 1 (NHL Game Highlights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wXxgXPElv8/
The Good - most of the good in this game came from the people wearing the Jets’ uniforms, but it’s nice to see Ullmark consistently back in the goalie rotation. It wasn’t his best game, but he still put up a 0.921sv%, which kept the game competitive. Chabot scored a nice goal for OTT to make it a 3-1 game, but it was too much of a hill to climb at that point in the game. Full marks to Tyler Kleven for throwing down the gloves, even if he showed that he’s not as much of a fighter as you might expect for a player of his physical nature.
The Bad - it seems a bit unfair to be overly critical of a short-handed team playing against a top opponent, but there were certainly some pretty serious mistakes being made on the ice. This would definitely include Stutzle blindly passing the puck in his own D-zone leading directly to the first goal, and Ullmark not finding the awkward rebound in time to avoid the second goal. These are precisely the kinds of things the team wasn’t doing when they were playing with more focus and commitment to team defense, and hopefully we don’t see those becoming a habit as the remaining games of the season become more intense.
The Ugly - It’s one thing to lose to the best team in the NHL, but quite another for a supposed playoff contender to lose 5 straight games in February by a combined score of 23-8. With just 26GP to play, the Senators now find themselves in a 5-team dogfight for the last 2 playoff spots in the East, and playing some of their worst hockey of their season. With the trade deadline just over a week away, GM Steve Staios will have to decide very soon whether or not he feels the team has sufficient playoff potential to warrant a major roster addition. The good news? Two of their next 3 games are vs. SJS/CHI, and 3 of the following 4 games are vs. DET/NYR/BOS, who are 3 of the teams they’re in direct competition with.
The loss drops the Senators record to 29-25-4 on the season, which puts them on pace for 88 points for the season, which is generally regarded as insufficient to secure a Wild Card playoff spot. That means the Senators have to make up ground if they want to make the playoff cut, and they don’t have a lot of runway to get that process started. It’s true that 9 of their last 11 games will be played at home, but that’s not going to matter if they fall any further behind in the standings than they already have on this losing streak. Saturday night will be a golden opportunity to get back into the win column, as San Jose comes into town with the worst record in the NHL, and a 1-7-2 record in their last 10. Time for a gut check.
What did you think of the Senators’ loss to the Jets? Please share your comments, and as always thanks for reading!
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