FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Losing to a rival is one thing. It sucks but it happens. Getting embarrassed is another thing entirely. Not only did the Sens look awful in these last two games against the Canadiens, they just sat back and let it happen. Zero push-back. Zero fight. Just a really disappointing 120 minutes from a team that seemed to have turned the corner a little bit. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the two losses is they didn’t seem all that frustrated at any point. I have no idea how they can look at those obnoxious grins on guys like Max Domi and Brendan Gallagher and not snap. Hit someone. Punch someone. Do something.
-Reading some of the reaction to the last two games, it’s almost as if the three previous wins never happened. In the span of a week, we have done another complete 180. Four game losing streak, this is the worst team of all time. Three game winning streak, hey maybe they can push for a playoff spot. Two losses in a row to the Montreal Canadiens, relocate the damn franchise for all I care! Swings like this are fairly common in a rebuilding year. There are nights when everything goes well that the Senators look like a team that could push for a wild card spot. Those wins over the Flyers, Rangers and Sharks showed us the best of this group. But the margin for error is so thin for this group that they all have to be pulling in the same direction to have any success. Unfortunately the last two games , which were arguably the biggest games they’ve had all year, were complete duds. No-shows from way too many guys. It will be interesting to see how they respond this weekend.
-Not sure what was going on with Thomas Chabot last night but it’s safe to say that was the worst game he has played all year. He just couldn’t handle a puck cleanly to save his life and it seemed like he spent most of the game flipping the puck out of his own zone to nobody in particular. One of the nice things about Chabot is when he is on, he is actually able to make a clean breakout pass or skate it out of trouble. He wasn’t even trying to do that last night. Certainly hope that isn’t some sort of coaching adjustment to be a little “safer” with the puck. Whatever it was, it sucked. Expecting him to bounce back in a big way this weekend.
-Ladies and gentlemen, the Tom Pyatt experiment needs to end. And it needs to end now. If not for the fact that Matt Duchene and Bobby Ryan were both out of the game with an injury, there is just no way Pyatt should have seen the ice again after that turnover on the second Montreal goal. Just an inexcusable error and from a player that is often billed as a defensive specialist. We all have our blind spots and for Guy Boucher, that blind spot is Tom Pyatt. While there have been times in previous years where Pyatt gave the Senators some decent shifts in a bottom six role, it’s pretty clear that those days are long gone. Pierre Dorion has done a nice job of trimming some of the fat from the roster the last couple years and Pyatt should be next on that list. There are a number of guys, including someone like Nick Paul, that can give the team better minutes in that bottom six role. It’s time to pull the trigger.
-Losing a second straight game to the Montreal Canadiens sucks. Potentially losing Matt Duchene for a prolonged period of time is devastating. Matt Duchene left last night’s game in the second period and Guy Boucher didn’t have much to say after the game, only hinting that it’s an injury that could potentially be long-term. We’ll find out later today. Watching the play, it’s tough to tell exactly what happened. Obviously it’s an injury somewhere in the right leg but I’ve been people speculating everything from hamstring to achilles. Goes without saying but losing Duchene long-term would be pretty much curtains for a Senators team that is already thin up front. There is an added layer of concern when you consider Duchene’s contract status. By all accounts the team is trying hard to sign Duchene to an extension but if those talks were to fall apart, a serious injury would obviously hurt Duchene’s potential value in a trade. Bad news either way. And to think, it all could have been avoided without that fucking awful slashing penalty call they handed him moments before. Seriously, that was one of the worst calls I have ever seen.
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