What. A. Mess.
After taking a couple days to reflect on Saturday night’s loss to the San Jose Sharks, that’s all I can come up with. Top to bottom, that was just an embarrassing display. A performance like that might be forgivable if it wasn’t so damn common for this year’s version of the Ottawa Senators.
Just when you thought they had hit rock bottom against the Winnipeg Jets, they find a way to fall a little bit further against the Sharks. There are has been plenty of finger pointing in the day and a half since their most humiliating loss of the season but it’s sort of difficult to pin point just one thing wrong with this hockey team.
They look like a broken group, right now. Plain and simple. And there’s no easy fix.
But that won’t stop Pierre Dorion from trying. As we get set for what should be an interesting week for the Senators, a quick round-up of the latest news and notes.
-As you’d expect, losing leads to rumours of change and the rumour mill kicked into high-gear over the weekend thanks to comments made by Elliotte Friedman during an intermission segment on Hockey night in Canada. The fact that the organization asked players with no-trade clauses to submit their lists really isn’t news though and should not be seen as an indication that a fire sale is coming in Ottawa. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that Dorion isn’t looking to shake things up a little. Easier said than done though, especially when the latest “shake up” sent his team into a bit of a tail spin.
-The Erik Karlsson rumours are complete non-sense though and someone in this organization should step up and say as much. Pierre Dorion, Tom Anselmi, Spartacat- someone needs to get in front of a microphone and put the speculation to rest and it should happen today. The idea that Eugene Melynk, who is by all accounts on borrowed time as Owner of the Ottawa Senators, could be offended by comments Karlsson made about wanting fair value on his next deal to the point that he would ask the GM to look into trading him is completely ridiculous.
-While moving Karlsson would be silly, there are a number of other players that the Senators should consider moving both to shake things up a little bit and to give themselves additional flexibility moving forward. Bruce Garrioch does a good job laying out some of the options here but basically, in theory, the Senators should be listening on anyone 23 or older not named Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman or Matt Duchene. That doesn’t mean they need to move all those people but they could at least listen and see what might be out there. Problem is a lot of those players would be pretty tough to move.
-Not that there’s ever a good time to go on a slide like this but it is especially unfortunate timing for the Senators. This should have been a week all about celebrating hockey in the Nation’s Capital and instead, it feels like there is next to zero hype for the city’s first Outdoor Game, set to take place on Saturday night. The game looks like it will be a sell-out but it’s safe to assume that a large portion of the crowd will be made up of obnoxious Montreal fans. At least the free Alumni Game on Friday will be mostly Sens fans.
-Alex Burrows was fined $5,000 for an incident that took place late in Saturday’s game against the Sharks. The fine the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and it was the result of punch/butt-end to the face of Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo. You can see a replay of the incident in question here.
-The Senators had a full day off yesterday and are back on the ice in Buffalo later this morning. They take on the Sabres tomorrow night and then return home for a Wednesday night game against the New York Rangers. This team desperately needs something to go right ahead of the Saturday’s NHL100 Classic.
