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One step forward for the Ottawa Senators, then one step back and there is concern that, if this continues, another season will go up in smoke.
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Senators coach D.J. Smith must have woken up Friday morning wondering what it will take for his group to find the consistency it so badly craves as it prepares to face the Calgary Flames on Saturday at the Canadian Tire Centre to close out this two-game home stand before heading to Sweden.
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The Senators couldn’t get a key save on Thursday and, as a result, couldn’t save themselves from losing 5-2 to the visiting Vancouver Canucks, less than 24 hours after a huge 6-3 victory over the Maple Leafs on the road.
The only choice now is to turn the page on the latest loss and try to end a five-game home losing skid that dates back to a victory over the Washington Capitals on Oct. 18.
We’ve heard the fans voice their displeasure and the players aren’t the least bit pleased with where they sit, either.
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“Nobody in here likes losing, and things haven’t been going our way,” defenceman Jakob Chychrun said Thursday night. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We’ve got to dig deep here and keep working as a unit and get ourselves out of this hole.”
expected the Senators to be sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference at this point of the season, but here we are.
Should they be better? Absolutely. This group has strong talent and guys who can make a difference on a nightly basis.
But that hasn’t been the case through the first 12 games of the season and the club has a 5-7-0 record as a result.
The fans in Ottawa have seen this scenario before and want changes, but interim general manager Steve Staios is determined to put a stop to the culture of chaos we’ve seen here in the past.
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Maybe this team isn’t ready to make the next step or perhaps it’s not nearly as close as we thought it was before the first puck was dropped last month?
An area Staios is looking at is the way this roster was constructed under former general manager Pierre Dorion and are the right pieces in place?
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There aren’t many players in the club’s core — Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris and Drake Batherson to name a few — that can say they have shown the consistency needed to help the Senators make the playoffs for the first time in seven years.
Make no mistake, it’s not just about those four players because everybody on this roster has to be better if the Senators are going to halt this slide before it gets to the point where it’s too late to consider making the post-season.
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Smith and his staff are pushing all the right buttons to help get this team on track. They haven’t sat still, the players haven’t quit on them and anybody who watched Thursday’s loss to the Canucks knows the Senators outplayed the best team in Canada but couldn’t get a timely save from Anton Forsberg.
Injuries haven’t helped matters. Defenceman Artem Zub returned Thursday after missing seven games with a concussion. Thomas Chabot, the club’s top-paid defenceman, remains out with Erik Brannstrom while forwards Mark Kastelic, Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto aren’t available, either.
The Senators went into Friday night’s action ranked No. 16 in the East, but the club is only four points out of a playoff spot. All is not lost here by any stretch of the imagination and there’s a lot of racetrack left in the season to get this headed in the right direction.
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The easy thing to do is point the finger at Smith and his staff, but it’s Staios’ job to look at the big picture. He’s not the kind of person who will have a knee-jerk reaction to a bad stretch because he knows the core of this roster is still young and wants them to find solutions.
But if this continues, it might be time for Staios to make a deal.
The Senators wanted to keep prospect Tyler Kleven in Belleville for a long stretch this season to help him develop with big minutes. Instead, he played a mere 13:20 against the Canucks in a league where he’s still trying to figure it out.
The Senators have been kicking tires looking for depth on defence for the past three weeks. Dorion started the search and it would make sense if Staios has picked up where he left off. The injuries have exposed a need for the organization to have more depth it can rely on nightly.
Right now, however, the solutions have to come from within. The Senators need to clean up their act defensively, especially in their own end.
“You’ve got to be ready to play when the game starts,” Smith said. “We had a turnover on the first shift, and it ends up in the net. We had a turnover when it’s 3-2 and there’s lots of clock left, and it ends up in your net. Whether they’re bad bounces or whatever they are, you’ve got to take care of the puck.”
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