FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Seven in a row. This is more than a slump. Maybe more than a tail-spin, even. This team is in a complete free-fall. There are going to be losing streaks and rough patches over the course of an 82 game season but when it lasts this long (like 9% of the entire season), there is serious cause for concern. The Senators are fortunate to play in the worst division in hockey because otherwise, this would have been damn near impossible to come back from. As it stands now, they trail the Boston Bruins by four points for 3rd in the Atlantic. A record of 33-19-7 would get them to the 95 point mark that represented to cut off in the East last year. Doable but they’ll need to uhh win one first.
-What was especially frustrating about Chapter 7 of this losing saga, is the fact that they showed almost zero push-back when the Canadiens scored the go-ahead goal. Completely lifeless. It’s sort of difficult to look like you’re completely out of a game when down a goal but that’s how this game felt. Even the announcers were talking like the game was over just five minutes into the third period. When you’re going through a stretch like this you need a couple things to go your way but that won’t happen if you aren’t willing to work for it. And outside of Mark Stone, I really didn’t get the sense this group was willing to work for it last night.
-Another thing to keep in mind is that this game went exactly the way Guy Boucher wanted it to. A tight-checking close game. They just didn’t get a result. Listening to Guy Boucher’s post-game comments he seemed completely content with the way his team played, frequently praising the work-ethic, execution and their ability to limit chances. Players said the same thing too. And that would make sense. One of the hall-marks of last year’s team was their remarkable ability to win close games with a combination of clutch goal-scoring, timely saves and a team buying into a defensive system. A team believing that was the way they had to win games. But as was pointed out frequently last season, it’s a dangerous line to live on.
-Another night where a power play goal could have made the difference. They only had the three opportunities but as has often been the case lately, they just couldn’t generate enough quality looks with the man-advantage. Guy Boucher is trying some different alignments with his team up a man, including Stone playing up top and Karlsson on the opposite side, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Matt Duchene probably should have had a penalty shot of his own considering the standard that was established on the Jonathan Drouin penalty shot but you certainly can’t expect any breaks from the officials in Montreal.
-There was a thing that happened with Jared Cowen towards the end of his time in Ottawa where I noticed every single play he made on the ice. Both good and bad. He’d make a decent outlet pass or win a one-on-one battle and I found myself making a mental note of it. Almost as though I was trying to convince myself there might still be something there. And it’s happening again with Cody Ceci. Every time he’s one the ice, I can’t look away. Now, he is nowhere near as bad as Cowen was in the 2015/2016 season but he is definitely trending in the wrong direction as a player. Still think a lot of that has to do with overuse by the Coach (and in the wrong role) but it’s painful to watch on some nights. He just looks like he’s in way over his head a lot of the time.
Boucher’s Post-Game Comments
Player Interviews
Advanced Stats
Boxscore
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