Monday night was pretty grim.
The Ottawa Senators were embarrassed in the opener of their three-game series against the Vancouver Canucks. It was one of those nights where everything that could go wrong, did. Multiple times. A fifth straight loss in what has quickly become an ugly start to the season.
We all knew there would be nights like this.
This is a transition year of sorts where young players are being gradually worked into prominent roles. At the same time, a handful of stop-gap veterans are expected to fill out the roster and help the kids grow. Just about every expert agrees that there are better days ahead for the Senators. Those same experts all seemed to be in agreement that it probably wouldn’t be this year. That was always the reality of this 56-game season.
Although based on the reaction from fans throughout the day on Tuesday, it’s safe to say we weren’t quite ready to handle these low points. Not like this, anyway.
What we witnessed, both on Twitter and here in the comment section, was a level of anger and frustration I am not sure I’ve seen from Sens fans before. Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration but when you consider the mood after that opening night win against the Toronto Maple Leafs less than two weeks ago, it was a fairly dramatic swing in emotion. It’s hard to tell if it was just different people driving the conversation for 24 hours but nobody was safe yesterday. Apparently the loss proved that Pierre Dorion is a terrible GM, that DJ Smith is a terrible coach and that the rebuild that we were all so excited about 12 days ago, was unfortunately, a failure.
Tough loss, indeed. The good news is, Colin White and Christian Wolanin are both playing tonight so we’re back on track.
The Ottawa Senators continue their road trip tonight in Vancouver.
For the Senators, this is game two of a seven-game road trip. They’ll play these same Canucks again tomorrow night before travelling to Edmonton for two games against Connor McDavid and the Oilers. They close out the road trip with a stop in Montreal.
It’s a grueling stretch for an Ottawa team that comes into tonight’s action sitting last in the North Division and 31st overall in the NHL.
No game day skate for DJ’s group today but we’ll assume yesterday’s practice combinations are a pretty good indication of how they’ll start tonight.
Colin White, Braydon Coburn and Cedric Paquette are in. Artem Anisimov, Josh Brown and Alex Galchenyuk are out.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Stützle-Tierney-C. Brown
Paul-White-Dadonov
Paquette-Stepan-Watson
Chabot-Zaitsev
Reilly-Gudbranson
Wolanin-Coburn
Marcus Hogberg starts tonight.
Puck drop is scheduled for a far more reasonable 8:00 PM tonight. Pre-game nap- optional. The game will be broadcast on televisions (Sportsnet, TVA), on radios (TSN1200) and on mobile devices (shady streaming sites).
Now, behold…the beauty of today’s HEAD2HEAD table. Although I do wish the Senators would put some better numbers in it.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 1-4-1 (3 pts) | 3-5-0 (6 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.50 (T-24th) | 3.25 (T-10th) |
| Goals Against | 4.50 (31st) | 4.25 (30th) |
| Power Play | 12.0% (25th) | 12.9% (24th) |
| Penalty Kill | 76.9% (T-16th) | 76.9% (T-16th |
| Shots For | 28.3 (21st) | 29.9 (17th) |
| Shots Against | 32.2 (24th) | 36.4 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Zaitsev- 5 pts Paul- 4 pts Tkachuk- 4 pts Norris- 4 pts |
Horvat- 10 pts Hughes- 7 pts Boeser- 6 pts Miller- 5 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Marcus Hogberg 0-1-0 3.80 GAA, .875 sv% |
Thatcher Demko 1-3-0 4.32 GAA, .890 sv% |
