The Sens are back on the ice this morning in preparation for tomorrow’s home opener against the Colorado Avalanche.
Tomorrow’s game kicks off an important stretch for the Senators which includes four straight games at home and eight of their next eleven. Ottawa did a good job picking up points against Divisional opponents on the road but now need to come home and take care of business. They’ll play Colorado on Thursday, Columbus on Saturday, Toronto on Wednesday and then New Jersey next Saturday. No opponent should be taken lightly but those all seem like winnable games.
Here’s how MacLean had his guys lined up at practice today.
MacArthur-Turris-Stone
Ryan-Zibanejad-Chiasson
Michalek-Smith-Lazar
Greening-Legwand-Neil
According to reports from practice, the seven defenceman were kind of rotating in and out so it wasn’t clear what the pairings were. Karlsson was with Phillips and Wiercioch was still paired with Cody Ceci. Looks like it could come down to Jared Cowen or Mark Borowiecki but we won’t know for sure until tomorrow morning.
The Issue with Shots Against
The Ottawa Senators have played three games this season.
They won two of them and probably should have at least come away with a point in the other. Expectations are pretty low for this team among the so called experts so starting the season with four of a possible six points is a solid start. Yet to this point, excitement about the team remains somewhat tempered. And that’s because despite winning two of three to start their season, there are signs that maybe the Senators haven’t performed all that well through the first three. That maybe, their goalies are keeping them in games they have no business winning and that the same old defensive issues are there again this season.
Through three games, the Senators have given up 35.7 shots a game. That has them ranked 28th in the NHL with only the Avalanche and Sabres giving up more shots than they are. Now I think there are a couple problems with assessing this team’s performance based on shot against aside from the fact that it’s a ridiculously small sample size.
First off, Paul MacLean has made defensive zone coverage a priority this season, focusing on it from the start of camp and making significant changes to the defensive scheme in their own end. Second, I don’t think the Senators themselves measure their success on shots or shot attempts but rather quality scoring chances.
On the first point, there have been big changes to their in-zone coverage. MacLean wants to make sure they defend better as a five man unit and focus on being in the “right” position rather than chasing the play. This was a huge problem for the Senators last season as defenders would often get lost in their own end. If you watch guys this year, you can see there is a concerted effort to play their position. At times too much, as they seem to be standing still in their own ends at times.
During the transition to a new system it’s not surprising that the shots allowed might be a little higher than they should be.
Secondly, I think in some ways, the Senators are OK allowing shots from the outside. It has been talked about in the past but Ottawa has never really shown much interest in blocking shots. In general, I think MacLean prefers his guys get out of the way and let the goalies do their job. With Anderson and Lehner in net, they feel like if they can see the shot, they are going to stop it. As a five man unit, the focus is being in good position to prevent second and third chances.
Shots against will be interesting to watch this year. Obviously MacLean and the Coaching Staff would like to see the number come down from where it’s at right now but to predict doom and gloom after three games of higher than average shot totals is sort of ignoring the context in which those shots have occurred.
Plus…they won two of three!
Karlsson Among League’s Best Skaters
Here’s an interesting study by a group called PowerScout Hockey that has developed technology that allows them to track acceleration and top speed of players on the ice. They’ve taken a look at some of the fastest guys in the league in an attempt to determine how fast they travel at their top speed and the rate at which they accelerate. Not surprisingly, Sens defenceman Erik Karlsson is among the best in the league in both categories.
What I always find most amazing about Karlsson is that he has high end speed and acceleration but makes it look so damn effortless.
This video posted by Travis Yost last season shows you exactly what I’m talking about.
