As you are likely aware, the sky was falling and now has fallen.
A season full of promise has been dashed in the blink of an eye and the once promising Ottawa Senators are now doomed. In fact, according to an article published in The Athletic yesterday, if you take away all the good things the Sens have done early in this season, only bad things have happened. Terribly concerning, if true.
Don’t you dare suggest that it’s early or that the underlying numbers are actually okay or that special teams and goaltending are the main issues in these last two losses or that the team is mostly fine. See, they are bad and you need to say they are bad otherwise you’re lying to yourself. Also it’s important that you blame the current GM and Coach for the early struggles of the special teams and goaltending and say that Shane Pinto would fix both of those things because it helps if we all yell in the same direction.
Despite this, it appears as though the Senators will continue to play games despite being completely fucking toast.
Okay, okay. Maybe that’s all laying it on a little thick for the seventh game of the season but can we all seriously back away from the ledge for a moment? No? Well I tried.
The Ottawa Senators visit the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Before we talk about today’s game, a few things…
-The Senators are not losing because of Coaching. In fact, early indications suggest that the team has actually done a pretty good job of addressing some the defensive woes that plagued the team in previous seasons under DJ Smith. Fewer shots against, fewer high-danger chances. Goaltending and special teams need to be better though.
-This is a results driven business and Smith and his staff are keenly aware that ultimately, they will be assessed on wins and losses. This was always going to be the case this season and even more so with a new Owner and President of Hockey Ops evaluating every aspect of the organization.
-Pierre Dorion deserves some of the blame for the inability to get Shane Pinto under contract but so do Shane Pinto and his agent. It’s not like Pinto was last on Dorion’s To Do list and they just ran outta money and never got around to it. The two sides talked at length long before any of the summer moves and both agent and GM deserve some blame for not treating the situation with sufficient urgency and letting it get to this point.
-Pierre Dorion has not just pulled the trigger on a deal to create cap space because he believes that the current offers ultimately make the Ottawa Senators a worse team and put the organization in a worse spot.
-Pierre Dorion also recognizes his job security will ultimately be determined by wins and losses. Although in the case of Dorion, the writing was probably on the wall before the puck even dropped this season. Kind of the reality of a new Owner. That clock started ticking long ago.
-Both DJ Smith and Pierre Dorion are human beings.
Okay, I feel better now. It’s Game Day!
The Senators are scheduled to take a game day twirl at 11:30 AM this morning so we’ll find out if there are any lineup changes then. The good news is they’ll have Brady Tkachuk available after he narrowly avoided both serious injury and suspension in the back half of that game against the Buffalo Sabres.
We’ll assume same look for now although a bit of a shuffle of those forward lines might be a good idea.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
Joseph-Greig-Tarasenko
Kubalik-Norris-Batherson
Kelly-Chartier-Kastelic
Sanderson-Chabot
Chychrun-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Bernard-Docker
Joonas Korpisalo is expected to get the start in goal for the good guys.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:38 PM on the Island with the game carried on TSN5 and TSN1200. Links to illegal internet steams will be provided to SensChirp Premium members directly.
Here’s today’s HEAD2HEAD table, which curiously shows that the Senators are actually kind of good at some of the stuff and the things. Huh.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 3-3-0 (6 pts) | 2-2-1 (5 pts) |
| Goals For | 4.17 (4th) | 2.60 (24th) |
| Goals Against | 3.50 (24th) | 3.40 (21st) |
| Power Play | 22.2% (12th) | 12.5% (23rd) |
| Penalty Kill | 73.9% (T-21st) | 68.7% (27th) |
| Shots For | 33.8 (6th) | 30.4 (20th) |
| Shots Against | 26.3 (2nd) | 32.8 (23rd) |
| Leading Scorers | Tarasenko-8 pts Sanderson-7 pts Stutzle-7 pts Chychrun-6 pts Joseph-6 pts |
Dobson-5 pts Palmieri-5 pts Barzal-4 pts Nelson-4 pts Clutterbuck-3 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joonas Korpisalo 1-2-0 3.64 GAA, .872 sv% |
Ilya Sorokin 2-1-1 3.00 GAA, .900 sv% |
