Whatever can go wrong...

There is a lot going wrong in Sens land these days. Not to overstate the drama, but with the sub-par play in the last 30 games there are issues that have to be addressed. Although the Sens lost 5-3 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, it actually looked like some things were on the turnaround. Maybe it's my eternal optimism, but I saw some good things in the game.

First of all, the secondary scoring. The line of Mike Fisher, Dean McAmmond, and Chris Neil looked pretty solid, and the three each scored a goal. Fisher also took seven shots, and McAmmond fired five. Hopefully that lines sticks together for a while, because they were effective tonight. If Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, and Randy Robitaille--who has been playing better of late--were able to get their offensive act together, the Sens could have put enough goals past Tomas Vokoun to win the game.

Most damaging to Ottawa in this lost, however, was defensive play. Forwards weren't in position to offer defencemen puck support, and defencemen like Chris Phillips and Andrej Meszaros made uncharacteristically poor decisions to cost Ottawa. When Phillips loses his check as badly as he did on Florida's fifth goal, then a lot is going wrong for this team.

No questions were answered in goal. While Ray Emery made some big saves at times, he also let in some very stoppable shots, and can't allow five goals even if he does face 40 shots. It's unknown which goalie is going to start against Tampa Bay on Thursday, but precedent will suggest it will be Martin Gerber. John Paddock didn't do the goaltenders any favours pulling The Gerber against Philadelphia, and probably should have let him finish the game.

Ice time was pretty equally distributed in the game, which is something I love to see. That's what Bryan Murray did last year, and it allows all players on the team to collectively fight through their slump, instead of 12 guys sitting back as the first-liners are continually thrown out their as the only possible solution to the problems; in the long run, it will benefit the team. Kudos to Paddock for realizing that.

The biggest problem appeared to be the Sens' hesitancy. There were pucks in open spaces, and Sens players looked hesitant to go for it and would choose to try and play defence while the Panthers would skate around them. If the Sens are more deliberate in their actions--easier said than done--a lot of the pieces will begin to fall into place.

I figure I'll mention one final thing. Although Wade Redden finished -3 on the night, I though he had a decent game, and I thought he was alright on Sunday against Philly, too. One thing that has been lost in his defensively questionable season is that Redden is fifth in team scoring, and is on pace for a career-high 47 points this season. Joe Corvo, seventh in team scoring, is also on pace to set a career-high with 41 points. If the Sens' play, and especially the powerplay, picks up in the coming games, these two will be a key part of it. Just something to keep in mind.

Searching for answers

I didn't write a blog about the Sens' 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. There wasn't much to be said, it was a bad game that the Sens deserved to lose.

An interesting statistic graces the front page of the Ottawa Citizen today: In the first 19 games of the season, the Sens were 16-3; in the 29 games since then, the Sens are 14-11-4, less than a .500 winning percentage.

The fact that the Sens are still in first place in the East is a testament to how amazing the start of the season was, but that amazing start is far removed in the mind of most Sens fans. The nagging questions we've all been asking are what has happened since then, and how the Sens can get back to their winning ways.

Although this collapse cannot be placed squarely on the shoulders of one individual, you have to wonder what role John Paddock has in this dilemma. A lot of the problems start in nets, and by not choosing one goaltender to run with, Paddock has made both goaltenders worse. Ray Emery has not been given the consecutive starts he needs to get into a groove, and Martin Gerber has been unceremoniously pulled from games--the loss to the Flyers is a key example, where the result was not the fault of the goaltender--and hasn't been given reason to believe he'll be the starter. As the head coach, Paddock needs to make a goaltending decision and stick with it; both goaltenders can be good once they're given the opportunity.

In that story from the Citizen, Paddock seems to be asking the same questions we are all asking.

Why are we not playing harder? I think it's a matter of just raising the level of urgency and understanding that level of urgency has to be maintained.

-John Paddock

Once again, the head coach needs to have a handle on these problems. If the team is suffering from a lack of urgency--and I'm still a little fuzzy on what that phrase means--a coach needs to find a way to instill it into his players, and work off internal leadership to have the team work itself out of a rut.

The injuries to Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson (although Alfie will be back tonight against Florida) have come at an inopportune time when the Sens started to look pretty good, as seen in the 3-2 victory over Detroit. And that is inconvenient to the efforts to turn the slump around. However, just about any coach with a top line of Heatley, Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza can win a game, especially when those three elite players are surrounded by the depth that Ottawa has. The challenge comes in having the team win when some of those players are not in the lineup, or are not playing at their best. And this is a challenge that Paddock has failed to answer.

There is a limited number of things a coach can do when a team is not playing hard enough. Paddock doesn't have control over the actions on the ice of a player like Antoine Vermette; he can't simply say, 'Antoine, go and score!' and have it happen. What a coach needs to do is establish a system the players can buy into and give the players the tools and the opportunities to play that system.

On a personal level, it's no secret that Paddock is a huge fan of the physical aspect of hockey. He needs to adapt his mindset to the assets of the Senators, however. Ottawa doesn't have players like Steve Downie or Scott Stevens, no matter how much Paddock wishes we did. Instead, we have Chris Neil--effective in small doses, but often prone to taking penalties while trying to draw them-- and Anton Volchenkov--much more effective for his positional play and shot-blocking ability than his bone-crushing hits.

More importantly, though, Ottawa has speed. Enough speed to break the trap when teams try it, and enough speed to outskate any team in the league. Almost to a man, the Sens are a fast team; Vermette, Dean McAmmond, Chris Kelly, and Shean Donovan are a few players whose speed can kill opposing teams, and even role-playing forwards like Cody Bass and Christoph Schubert are fast when they need to be.

So Paddock needs to adapt to the assets the Sens have. He needs to give the CASH line the ice time they need to be effective, but he can't over-use them; they will become worn out before the end of the season, and other players will suffer from their lack of ice time. And the players need to look at themselves in the mirror, and reflect on the run the Sens put together during last year's playoffs; if they want to get their again, every single person will have to step up their game. If they want to go that one step further, there's another step they'll have to get to.

After each period blog...

First Period

After watching that first period, I'm not extremely happy with the Senators' performance. It seems that they don't have to same jump as in Game 1. Fleury is making the saves that he didn't make in Game 1. This is the recipe for disaster for the Senators.

Spezza tried sakting through a few Penguins, and Alfredsson tried the same thing. It's not working. Right now, I would say that our success in this game depends on whether Spezza and Heatley can step up.

...and the second period is starting, I'll see you at the post-game show.

Second Period

Much better! I called them out, and Heatley and Spezza stepped up. Another player who has been playing really well is Joe Corvo. He's rushing up the ice and getting the puck into the Penguins' zone with ease. Also, he's one of the few players on the powerplay who thinks 'shoot' first. He's blasting shots at the net at every opportunity.

Lots more odd-man rushes for the Senators - I want to see more of that in the third - it benefits the sens alot more because when Heatley's staring Fleury in the face, Fleury is going to blink first.

Crosby has been dangerous in this period. But, I suppose if you can keep Crosby at 'dangerous' and not 'deadly' then you're not doing too badly.

In the third, I want to see more of the same from the sens, with a further crack-down on Crosby and Staal - the sens' D might as well send a message while they're winning the game.

Third Period

I guess I can't just start a period-by-period blog and then not finish it. We definetly had our chances. Alfredsson blew at least one GRAND scoring opportunity. The Senators were taking plenty of shots at the net, they must have finished with at least 35. But they took way more shots than that, many of which simply missed the net.

Some prime examples of poor defensive positioning cost us this game. Staal was alone in front of the net (didn't I say to watch out for that guy?). Plus, Crosby was left uncovered when he netted his (lucky) goal.

I watched parts of the game on NBC. Not bad Americans, not bad. They did talk about Crosby alot, and they did call Christoph Schubert 'Christian' for most of the game - but their analysis was fair and they did not overload the viewer with stats - something that networks that are used to covering NASCAR sometimes do.

The Penguins were put to shame in the first game and rebounded with a win. The Senators now have the cris-atunity (crisis+opportunity) to come back and show the Penguins that they can bounce back as well. Note that the Senators have less than 24 hours to rebound from their loss, whereas the Penguins had more than two days.

See you tomorrow! Go sens!

One streak ends, another continues!

The streak that continues...

The Ottawa Senators have made the playoffs for a decade straight. That's pretty impressive no matter what team accomplishes it, but it should be extra special for the Senators who have not missed the playoffs since they first made it there in 96-97.

That's not to say that the team has gotten better every year, but rather that effective management has allowed the Senators to fill in the cracks relatively seamlessly. If not for the early-season collapse (better than a late-season collapse, I guess) the Senators would be first in the Eastern Conference right now, despite all they lost in the off-season.

The streak that ends... Bruins 3 - 2 Senators

The Senators lost in regulation last night to the Boston Bruins. This is the first time that the Senators have lost in regulation time (without getting a single point) in around 20 games! In the words of Bryan Murray, "We played so damn well on the road." Was the cursing necessary? Yes, it probably was. It's a great stat to fall back on when you consider that all playoff games are 5-on-5 20 minute periods - no shoot outs or 4-on-4.

The Drive for Five-ty

Heater picked up a goal last night and he's now on pace for 48 goals this season - not good enough Dany! If you don't make it to 50 this season I will photoshop whatever number you do get onto the back of your jersey - and you will have to live with that number until I find something more cruel to do! So just hit 50 goals this season and we can call the whole thing off.



Doesn't Mike Fisher look good with that 'A' on his jersey? He deserves it - not only is he Canadian, but I'm sure he has other good qualities too! The more people on our team named 'Mike' the better!

Road Trip to TO for a little OT

Toronto: The Land of wasted Dreams.

It turns out that the whole world is warmer than Ottawa at any given time. If you get on the highway and drive in ANY direction, the temperature rises. Arriving in Toronto was nice, as the weather reached 8 degrees on our first day in the city.


My father and I parked downtown and went to the hockey hall of fame. Where, strangely, a side door was open and we just walked right in. We thought we were in the lobby... but they don't keep the Stanley Cup in the lobby - so it turns out we waltzed directly into an exhibit. Since we were so fortunate, we decided to take advantage of it and look through the place. My first time to the HHOF was cool, but probably not worth the $12 they would have charged us.

We checking into the hotel then went to the game, proudly displaying our Senators jerseys.

We had some pretty sweet seats. Walking through the ACC, we saw a fairly large contingent of Senators fans - they often wanted to be loud and proudly show their colours. We never got overly harassed by Leaf fans, most of it came after the game, and it was only a light ribbing. So not too bad - good on ya Leafers.

We were in the Senators' end, so we saw those awesome saves by Emery in the first period, as well as that wicked off-the-draw shot by Heatley (my dad missed it). Unfortunately, that also means that the third period collapse, as well as the overtime goal was right in our faces.

Overall, good trip, bad result.

It's hard dispute that Toronto is the hockey capital of the world. They have everything a hockey fan could want in that town (except a strong hockey team). Check out the Leafs TV - filming right in the ACC. Jody "didn't you used to be on Sportsnet?" Vance was flirting with this guy beside me, I guess your standards drop with your ratings (burn!).

Sens vs Penguins - Another one slips through the cracks

Penguins 5 - Senators 4 (SO)

Anger!

This game just pissed me off. Where was the heart? How could this happen again?

I hope Murray kicks the sen's collective asses over this one. Because until the second half of the third period, this game was a done deal.

Once again, I am proven that Gerber's better than Emery at shootouts, and the sens need to practice them more, since so many points seem to depend on them now in the NHL.

Expect more commentary tomorrow. For now, good night.

Sens vs Blackhawks - Sens: "Games last 60 minutes now?"

BlackHawks 4 - 3 Senators

The one that got away. Yes, there have been a few of them this year. What can be said about this game other than that last goal never should have happened.

You've read the game reviews, and likely watched the game on Sunday afternoon, so I won't bore you with a recap. However, I will bring some interesting observations to your attention.

Alfredsson played a really good game. Look no further than the 1 G 1 A, and 3 shots on net that he got in the game.

Gerber is good at shootouts - if only we could score one! I would also add that I think he's better than Emery at them. Anyone who has seen Mighty Ducks 2 with that blonde chick "The Cat" knows that you #1 goalie is not always your best choice. God Bless you Coach Bombay, you've taught us so much.

Havlat (the 6-million dollar man) did not have a big impact on the game, though he always (deservingly) drew plenty of attention when he had the puck, and Chris Neil hit him hard a couple times.

The Sens are facing their most likely playoff opponent the Pittsburg Penguins on Tuesday. Listening to the Sens Underground podcast today, one of the hosts admitted to fearing the fact that the sens will play the pens (expect to hear that sens-pens phrase alot) in the playoffs because Pitts recently acquired a whole bunch of tough guys (including Gary Roberts) to protect Sidney Crosby and generally kick ass all over the ice.

I do not fear the Penguins. They are too young and easily bruised. "Neiler, go get 'em!"

Expect Chris Neil to go after Crosby, then Laraque goes after Neil, then McGratton goes after Laraque - it's the hockey food chain! (The game is on A-Channel).