The bad news is the Sens have dropped another game. The good news is the teams immediately above them in the rankings have been stinking it up too so despite the Sens and their lack of winning, they’re still only a few points out of a playoff spot. I think that’s probably the most positive thing I can come out with right now after sitting through the Isles vs. Sens game. I’m not sure exactly how I’m conscious right now. Watching that game felt like I was sitting through a Lord of the Rings movie; I was watching a lot of people moving around slowly and endlessly without ever actually achieving anything. Honestly, I think everyone who paid the price of admission tonight is still owed a hockey game. I mean no insult to the Isles and I have no problem with a team using fundamental, conservative hockey to win games but I was flipping back and forth between the Montreal vs. Boston game (which started at seven, which was convenient) and then the Ottawa vs. NYI game and the contrast was quite apparent in the intensity level department. I don’t expect Ottawa and New York to really get worked up about playing each other like it was an Isles vs. Rags or Sens vs. Leafs game but for two teams that are in desperate need of points - well, at least the Sens aren’t shooting for the number one overall pick – I thought the tone of the game was a lacksidasical one.
Let’s face it, the Sens have always had trouble winning in games where the contest is playing a mistake-free, fundamentals game of hockey. There’s a reason the Devils and the Bruins - two teams that play relatively conservative hockey - have always given the Sens trouble and it’s that the focus in Ottawa has never, ever been about conservative, fundamental hockey skills. In the past, Ottawa has had the firepower upfront and mobility from behind to play a wide-open style of game that relied on high end talent and offensive chemistry to win games. That’s simply not possible anymore and it’s also not the best way to go about winning hockey games in any case. What we see now is a team that doesn’t have the firepower it used to have but also doesn’t have fundamental hockey to fall back on.
I’m still quite certain this roster has the components necessary to succeed in the NHL and just needs direction and time to gel. To that end, I would like to implore Coach Hartsburg to really reign in his players and get them to play very high-intensity, boring hockey (as opposed to the mind-numbing and mistake-ridden, low-intensity boring hockey we saw today). I implore him to please get the Sens to play a good game of puck possession rather than receiving the puck and desperately trying to move it up the ice even if it means making a stupid pass or dumping the puck far out of reach of teammates. He is the only person who is in a position where he can stop the Sens from making questionable passes, showing a total lack of patience with the puck, and from showing a total lack of willingness to stand in the slot in front of either net.
Some notes:
- Nick Foligno once again managed to worsen his plus/minus rating even though he only played eight minutes. It’s almost comical at this point. Might I suggest he is not ideally suited to fourth line duties and he may be better off either in a top six forward capacity or in the AHL?
- Ryan Shannon made his Sens debut tonight and was unfortunately injured when he was elbowed. Hopefully he’s ok and can give the big club another go very shortly.
- Kuba scored his first goal of the season and I feel he and Volchenkov have been far and away the two best d-men on the Sens this year. That didn’t change tonight as I found Kuba was still the only reliable offensive weapon on the back-end and Volchenkov was still the only reliable d-man in his own zone.
- Joey MacDonald does have the ability to steal a game. I’ve seen him do it a couple of times in his career. I really didn’t feel like he had to steal anything tonight though as the Sens were looking uninspired. The Sens came into the third with only 14 shots on goal and the only reason they ended up with 30 shots in total is because the third period was practically a continuous power-play for them. And even then, they couldn’t capitalize. It looked like the Sens were not moving around enough on the power-play. The guy with the puck never really had solid options and it was very difficult to determine who the unguarded, extra-man was at most times.
- The Isles collapsed to their net more often than any other team I have seen. When a team does that, it makes it tougher for the opposing team to get in good shots from the slot but it also makes it easier for the opposing team to take shots from the point. It’s too bad the Sens couldn’t get a lucky bounce from any of their point shots as it might’ve given them some spring in their step. However, the real reason I brought up the collapsing to the net routine is that usually teams that rely on that strategy have a horrible transition game and are easy to shut down coming out of their own zone. The Isles did have a terrible transition game tonight but the Sens simply didn’t shut it down. They let the Isles move around much more than they should’ve been allowed to.
I guess that concludes my thoughts about tonight’s game. It’s really a shame that more energy wasn’t put into this matchup between two struggling clubs. As I’ve said before, the Sens have the talent, just not the discipline or fundamentals. What they need is a coach that can instil those traits into the Sens and hopefully Hartsburg will get that done sooner rather than later or I fear his position and the current roster are in jeopardy.
-Gerz
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