FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Of course…now the Ottawa Senators start to play some of their best hockey of the year. Good timing, fellas. With nothing left to play for and all the pressure off, the Sens are finally starting to play some consistent hockey and buying into the game plan. They’ve been far more responsible in their own end of the rink and staying patient on offence. Two areas that have been major issue for this team over the course of the season. It’s easy to play well when all the pressure is off though. Would have been nice to see this kind of structure a few months ago.With last night’s win over the Minnesota Wild, the Senators are now locked in at no lower than 24th overall. Both the Flames and the Jets are now too far behind. They can still be passed by Buffalo, Arizona or Montreal but that’s looking less and less likely at this point. This Senators team was never bad enough to roll around with the bottom feeders of the NHL and unfortunately, just not quite good enough to grab a spot in the playoffs. That means at best they’ll have a 6.5% chance at the first overall pick. Their chances currently sit at 3.5%.
-Erik Karlsson is really, really good. He’s the best defenceman in the league and it’s not even all that close. If he doesn’t win the Norris Trophy at the end of the year it’s a disgrace. I feel like I need to keep repeating this every day until the end of the year because the mainstream media is quite clearly trying to steer the conversation towards Drew Doughty. What’s hilarious about the whole Doughty vs. Karlsson debate is really, there isn’t a single statistic where Doughty is better than Karlsson other than…his team is better. So what I’d like to see at the end of the year is each guy that votes for Drew Doughty, attempt to explain how he landed on that conclusion.
-Obviously there has been a lot to be frustrated about this season but one of the positives has been the emergence of some decent young forwards in the team’s bottom six. Specifically, Nick Paul, Ryan Dzingel and Matt Puempel have all shown signs that at the very least, they can all be quality bottom six options. Add Curtis Lazar into the mix down there too and you have a pretty solid group of forwards to choose from heading into next season. A top six of MacArthur/Turris/Stone/Hoffman/Zibanejad/Ryan isn’t bad either.
-People have been pretty down on Bobby Ryan again during the second half of the season but I liked what I saw from him last night playing on a line with Jean Gabriel Pageau and Zack Smith. With those two assists, Ryan now has 55 points on the year- his highest point total as an Ottawa Senator. His contract means that he’s always going to have a target on his back here in Ottawa but I think that’s pretty reasonable production from Ryan, especially considering that he tailed off towards the end of the year.
-Bruce Garrioch was on the TSN broadcast between periods and had some interesting although maybe not all that surprising comments about the Mike Hoffman situation. And they certainly didn’t paint the most optimistic future for Hoffman’s future here in Ottawa. For what it’s worth, I really don’t think the Sens have ruled out any options on the Hoffman front. I do still think there’s a chance they could do something long term with Hoffman but it’s unlikely that the number they are willing to go to will be enough for Hoffman’s camp. It’s at that point that a one year arbitrated deal becomes a possibility but as Garrioch mentioned last night, that’s a situation where the Senators would likely deal him rather than go down that road again with Hoffman. The key for Ottawa will be to avoid backing themselves into a corner where they have to take a less than market return in a potential trade. They have to be willing/prepared/able financially to go to arbitration if trade offers aren’t good enough.
*This morning, the Senators announced they have signed Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Macoy Erkamps to a three year entry level contract. The name had me wondering if this was April Fool’s joke at first but it turns out this is a real player and a quite productive one at that. The 21 year old Erkamps had 71 points in 71 games as an overage defenceman in the WHL this season.
