The Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks open the 2016 portion of their schedule in the Windy City tonight, the second and final meeting of the season between the clubs. Ottawa defended home ice to the tune of a 4-3 overtime win a month ago. The first meeting was a night of 3's, as Mike Hoffman, Erik Karlsson, Bobby Ryan, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin each had 3 points on Dec 3rd.
Since that game, the Senators have had to run through the wringer, and have a record of 5-7-1, while the Hawks entered that game struggling but have gone 9-4-0 since. They were, however, shut out in 3 of those 4 losses.
Kane may have had his streak snapped at 26, a couple of games after meeting the Senators, but he continues to lead the league (and obviously his team) in points and assists (one assist ahead of Karlsson), and trails Jamie Benn by a goal for the league lead in that category.
Chicago sits 3rd in the Central Division, and are among the best teams at defending home ice. They are 14-5-1 at the United Centre this season. Ottawa will be looking to get on track on the road, having dropped their last 6 away from Canadian Tire Centre.
There aren't any anticipated major lineup changes for Ottawa, except perhaps in net as Craig Anderson and Andrew Hammond are expected to split the back to back games in Chicago and St. Louis, but Dave Cameron hasn't indicated who will get which game. Craig Anderson is a former Hawk and Chicago native so you would expect him to get the call in the front half.
Cody Ceci and Milan Michalek are close to a return, but not close enough to expect them on this road trip, meaning Freddie Claesson will likely play again for Jared Cowen and one of Max McCormick and Dave Dziurzynski will sit out.
Until things change on a regular basis, the complaint will always be about the boatload of shots the Senators give up. They kept the total to 21 in their last game against New Jersey, but keep in mind that was a Devils team who is 30th in the 30 team NHL in terms of shots for, and a team that wasn't exactly pressing offensively while holding a 2-0 lead for a majority of the game.
Combine that with the fact that Erik Karlsson played more than half the game, with almost every other defenseman as his partner at some point in the game, and I am not sure you can read too much into the "new look" defense after 1 game with Claesson.
If they can repeat that performance in terms of shot suppression in the next few games, then they might be onto something. Besides, explainable or not, the Senators are 3-6-2 when they out-shoot their opponent, and 15-8-4 when they are outshot. People keep saying that is a recipe for disaster and the team is playing with fire, but that is pretty substantial evidence of defying the odds.
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So Team Canada bowed out early in this year's World Juniors. Quite frankly for a team that is expected to win almost every year, there was a resounding feeling from the start that this wasn't going to be a version of Team Canada that was going to get it done, and they fulfilled that prophecy.
I didn't get to see Saturday's quarter-final game live, and didn't want to agonize watching it after the fact knowing the final outcome, but from all accounts I have read and heard second-hand it was pretty much a fact that too often the team forgot about the crest on the front of the jersey and were more worried about the name on the back, something that Team Canada brass usually avoids whether it is under 18, under 20 or the Olympic team.
I think back to the last time Canada sent a team that really wasn't expected to win and it was the controversial Steve Downie that essentially took the team on his back in Vancouver and willed Team Canada to victory. It was the year after the "Dream Team" in North Dakota and the expectaions were not high with so many players in the NHL. This year's version didn't have that type of leader.
They didn't have a Curtis Lazar, who although it wasn't his first choice to go back from the NHL last season, stepped in and led the team by example as a returning player and was named captain despite only being in camp for a couple of days. This year's NHL loaner couldn't have been further from that example. Jake Virtanen couldn't have looked less interested in being there in the games that I did see, and he was often selfish and cost his team greatly, and that is a shame.
There are plenty of fingers to be pointed, undisciplined play was a staple of this team. Taking a penalty at times for making a hit that a European official deems too hard is one thing, but the Canadians took far too many lazy, selfish penalties and it cost them throughout the tournament.
Other than Travis Konecny, who had a breakout performance, and maybe Ryan Strome, I don't know if any Canadian player lived up to expectations. It is like this version of Team Canada had a sense of entitlement that because they put on the Maple Leaf that they had expected everyone else to bow down at their feet and hand them wins.
Canada can't and won't win every year, otherwise it would be a very boring tournament. Five year winning streaks are fun, but would become mundane and ho-hum if they happened all the time.
The country has sent less talented teams than this one, but they had a couple of things that this team seemed to lack, and that was the will and the heart. You could argue the "what if's" - names like McDavid, Ekblad, Bennett, McCann & Fabbri would have certainly made a difference if they had been made available, but Canada always seems to make the claim to be deep enough that the B team would be capable of coming away with a Silver behind the "A" squad, and even challenge for the gold. Besides, the Americans are faring pretty well without Eichel, Larkin and Hanifin, a trio who would arguably make as big, or even bigger given the relative depth of the two countries, of a difference to their team.
This Canadian team had 12 NHL first rounders and 5 2nd round picks among its 23 players. You have to remember that these are still kids, but ones that assume a certain role when they make this team. It was a team made up of largely 18 year olds in a (unless you are Finland) 19-year old tournament. From Mitch Marner (whose late retaliation penalty trailing by a goal turned him from hero to villain in the quarterfinal) to Lawson Crouse (who I absolutely loved watching live last year as a draft eligible player, but who was almost invisible, at least in the round robin, this year) to the very average goaltending, the result was almost expected but for all Canadian hockey fans disappointing nonetheless.
The sky isn't falling and Team Canada will be back next year on home ice, and will be expected to win it all. Whether or not they can or will deal with that pressure successfully is another story. Gone are the days where they can just show up and automatically get a medal and only have to really play a couple of nights for the gold. Russia and Denmark's quarterfinal drama only illustrates further how much the next tier has caught up to the super-powers and on any given night one underdog can take an unprepared team out.
I didn't intend for this to be as harsh as it has turned out to be in reading it over, but those are the feelings and I am sure at least some of them, if not all, are shared by many of you as well. Truth be told, I was't even that mad or angry as I followed the score Saturday against Finland. Disappointed, of course because this tournament is always one of the highlights of my hockey year. Maybe it was because the groundwork was already laid or maybe it was the realization early on in the tournament that this version didn't have "It".
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