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I've decided to lend my professional
(read: amateur) insight in the direction of Paul MacLean and the rest of the coaching staff after that abortion of a hockey game on Tuesday night.
Honestly, I've written about good wins, and I've written about bad losses. I've covered everything in between. What unfolded against the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Place on Tuesday was a new low, a phrase I think Ottawa Senators fans are going to get mighty comfortable with this season.
But, the fans that have so desperately and enthusiastically welcomed a rebuild didn't exactly have this in mind. Giving up touchdowns against both Philadelphia and Colorado in the past week is one thing, but a 5.00 GAA over the course of the year? Ghastly.
Like I've said plenty of times in the past, this team has no business pushing for a playofff spot right now; that much is obvious. But, complete no-shows like the game on Tuesday night are unspeakably poor, especially when you're icing a young team that's expected to be motivated and hungry for TOI.
Nevertheless, in lieu of another post-game blog that pretty much lets the box score do the talking, I've offered some suggestions. Make sure to weigh in yourself.
1. End the Mika Zibanejad Wing Experiment - For Now
When Mika Zibanejad's playing the pivot, he is an exponentially more creative player in the offensive zone, and seems to take a liking to a defensively responsible role down the middle of the ice.
When Mika Zibanejad's playing on the wing, he seems out of sync with the flow of the game. And, if you can't play on the wing of a talent like Jason Spezza, it's probably a 'you' problem.
Zibanejad's eighteen years old, and the guy could become an otherworldly winger in a few years. No one can forecast the future for this kid, other than that he obviously has a strong upside and he should be with this team for the duration of the year. Paul MacLean's been pretty adamant that his development would further if he remained with the team, and I have no reason to believe he'll be sent away considering the dearth of talent up top.
But, since we're playing 'now' and not five years from now, why not plug in the kid where he's more comfortable? It's not like there's a log jam down the middle and he's being forced outside, either.
2. Go Ahead, Call Nikita
There's already speculation that Bobby Butler's groin injury might be far more serious than anticipated, and if he's going to miss a few weeks, go ahead and bring back the enigmatic Russian. Filatov's absolutely tearing up Binghamton as expected, and I think the coaching staff will continue using and abusing his two-way contract as needed for now.
By the way, major props to Filatov for heading to the AHL affiliate and busting his ass. He may have had a work ethic problem in the past, but he looks like he's genuinely trying to improve on his game, and that in itself is laudable. Will he ever succeed with consistency at the NHL level? Your guess is as good as mine.
But, I appreciate the effort.
3. Less Alex Auld, More Anyone Else
I absolutely loathe being hindsight guy. You know hindsight guy - we all know hindsight guy. He's the one that'll tell you a move was awful only after the results have correlated in a negative fashion. If, for instance, the opposite occurred, he'd remain silent, pretending to support the move or moves surrounding said player.
With that said, I wasn't extremely enthused with Auld's signing from the get-go, but tempered my anger quite a bit with the obvious realization that he wouldn't see a ton of time. Plus, he's just a stop-gap at the position like a decent portion of #2's are, and everyone knows the goaltending future rests in the form of Robin Lehner.
But, I still thought this team should've made a concerted effort to bring in a reliable and quality back-up, especially considering Craig Anderson's volatilty and past health issues.
Alex Auld is not quality, regardless of what a sixteen game sample size in Montreal suggests from the year past. I don't want to absolutely drill a guy for a bad performance, but I didn't think he was that impressive against Washington, and last night's play was one of the most despicable in recent Ottawa Senators history. No exaggeration. I mentioned on Twitter that it was one of the worst performances I'd seen from a goalie in quite some time, and upon further review, I'm sticking to that claim.
I'm not sure how in the world an NHL-level netminder gave up that goal to Matt Read, but you know what? Fluky goals happen from time to time. I watched Jacob Markstrom let in a similarly obscure goal on the same night on a tough angle, and he even knocked the puck behind the red line. Everyone - especially a back-up goalie - gets a pass.
But, to follow that up with that flop-fest in the crease on Simmonds' goal? Bad. And Claude Giroux's blast, while oozing with velocity, did beat him on the far side. Isn't Auld's 'strength' supposed to be his size?
I'm not going to beat Alex Auld into the ground, but I thought his play tonight was of the 'F minus' variety.
4. Put an End to Awful First Periods
There's no excuse for how abhorrent this club has been in the first twenty minutes. You can debate back and forth about whether or not its coaching or execution, but the fact is this team is finding itself in an unsavory position just minutes after puck drop. There's no way you can beat some of these more respectable clubs by only playing 2/3rds of a hockey game.
For the record, they've been outscored 13-2, which is easily the worst in the National Hockey League.
That's more effort - or lack thereof - than skill.
I'm not sure what a coach
can do other than continue to scream and bag skate his club into oblivion, but something has to give. Just some friendly advice to Paul MacLean - the last coach that was sent packing was historically laughable in the third period. So much so, the team generally had trouble overcoming it.
5. More Erik Karlsson!
Is 40:00 TOI per night okay? Alright, I don't want the kid getting too tired. How 'bout some kind of bronze statue right outside of Scotiabank Place in his honor? You know, thirty feet in height and such.
Karlsson is absolutely tearing the league to shreds right now, but it's going relatively unnoticed thanks to how bad the Ottawa Senators are playing. In six games, Karlsson's already tallied eight points (1G/7A), and pretty much ignites the offense every time he's out on a shift.
As of Wednesday, Karlsson's T-2nd in the league in scoring, behind only Phil Kessel and Anze Kopitar.
His game still needs some polishing defensively, but I'm pretty confident in assuming that neither scouts nor the coaching staff ever thought he'd be some kind of prototypical shutdown defenseman. No, he's out there to play respectable defensive zone hockey, then absolutely dial it up when on the attack.
Shutdown defensemen are the more valuable commodity, but it's hard to ignore how useful Erik Karlsson can be to a team.
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