I tried to put together Five Thoughts in the aftermath of that game against Buffalo but decided there were probably a few too many swear words to publish.
That game was a complete disaster. Start to finish. On the heels of one of their most impressive efforts of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning, they laid an egg against the Sabres. Outplayed and outworked from the moment the puck dropped. It was a disappointing ending to the three game road trip and one that will require a pretty quick reset from Guy Boucher’s team.
While that win over Tampa Bay was encouraging, the last three losses (against Calgary, Florida and Buffalo) have been pretty ugly. They’re still in a pretty comfortable spot in the Eastern Conference but a lengthy slump would change that in a hurry.
As we get set for another busy week, a quick collection of news and notes surrounding the team right now.
-The Senators will play their next four games within the friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre. They’ll host two tough teams from the Western Conference in St. Louis and Dallas on Tuesday and Thursday and then host the surging New York Islanders on Saturday night and then those same Buffalo Sabres next Tuesday. Feels like we’ve said this a few times this year but this is another crucial stretch for the Senators. After this four game home-stand, they’ll have just 10 games left at home the rest of the season compared to 18 on the road. That road-heavy schedule the rest of the way makes this upcoming home-stand that much more significant.
-While the Senators have stumbled a little bit, the good news is the teams chasing them in the standings aren’t exactly kicking down the door either. Ottawa still sits two points clear of Boston for second place in the Atlantic Division and with five games in hand The Bruins have a fairly light schedule too as they’ll play just three games this week before taking their five day bye week. By next Saturday, the Senators will have just two games in hand. The Leafs currently sit three points back of Ottawa and will play four times this week (@NYI, DAL, STL, BUF).
-Since shutting out the Washington Capitals back on January 24th, Mike Condon has struggled. He’s posted a sub-.900 save percentage in three of his last four starts and he’s hovering around an .867 sv% over that stretch. There has been plenty of talk about the possibility of fatigue for Condon the last little while and the signs have definitely been there in the last couple weeks. Going to be interesting to see how the Senators handle their goaltending situation this week. They had originally put a 2-3 week time-frame on Craig Anderson’s return but perhaps they accelerate that a little bit. Hammond got into the game on Saturday night but it’s not clear whether or not he’s seen as an option to start.
-In his Sunday column, Bruce Garrioch confirmed that the Senators are one of the teams kicking tires on Avalanche forward Matt Duchene. Kicking tires is all it has been. Not surprising but the asking price on Duchene is said to be ridiculous. The Avalanche are in a spot where they don’t really have to deal Duchene now and they can wait until the summer if teams aren’t meeting their asking price. Young defence/quality prospect/high pick seems to be the starting point.
-Chris Neil was a healthy scratch on Saturday night and has now sat two consecutive games. With the trade deadline looming and longtime Senator set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, don’t be surprised to hear his name mentioned in trade rumours over the next few weeks. Hard to say if there would be much interest around the league or if Neil would even be interested in a deal but it’s a conversation Management is likely to have internally. It’s not entirely clear what Neil’s plans are beyond this season. While he certainly hasn’t talked about retirement publicly, the idea has to be in his head.
-He started the season as a relative unknown but Filip Chlapik has quickly become one of the most exciting prospects in the Sens organization. After another huge weekend, Chlapik now has an incredible 71 points in 40 games with the Charlottetown Islanders in the QMJHL. He leads his team in scoring and is 7th overall in league scoring. The organization wasn’t thrilled with Chalpik’s play last year and told him as much during the off season. Chlapik clearly took that conversation to heart and he’s used it as motivation this season. His points per game rate is higher than Mike Hoffman at the same stage of their career.
