FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-Well that was a disappointing effort. Especially for the last game in franchise history. The Ottawa Senators have played some decent hockey over the last couple weeks but laid a bit of an egg heading into the nine day break. They sure looked like a group that had their minds elsewhere for most of the night. In fact, just about everyone seemed flat with the exception of maybe Bobby Ryan. Not exactly a recipe for success. They’ll have a lot of time to think about what went wrong too as the Senators don’t play again until February 1st in Pittsburgh.
-There was a moment in the first period where we all got a glimpse of Playoff Bobby. You remember him don’t you? The high-skill power forward capable of changing the game with a single shift. The player who had fans chanting his name at points during that post-season run from a couple years ago. Fact is, Bobby Ryan has been one of the team’s best forwards for most of the season and especially over the last couple weeks. The issue with Ryan is always confidence and when he’s feeling good about his game, he can still be a damn good player in this league. Bad contract but a good player.
-They debate over the merits of the 11/7 alignment raged on last night as again, Guy Boucher opted to go with an extra defenceman and sat Rudolfs Balcers in the process. While Boucher himself really hasn’t done a great job of explaining his thought process, I do think there is a good argument to be made. The team is weak on the back end and the idea is you can rotate defenceman depending on who is playing well on a given night. At the same time, it means more ice time for the high-end forwards. The only problem is, Boucher continues to struggle with the whole identifying who is playing well on a given night part. Last night, Christian Wolanin finished just a shade over 8 minutes in a game where the team was desperate for offence. Doesn’t make a lick of sense. Especially when you consider how high Boucher was on Wolanin like a week ago.
-Yesterday, Craig Anderson was surprisingly vocal on the topic of crease-crashing and this game only strengthened his argument. Anderson was bumped a couple times and in one instance, was completely run over by an attacking Coyotes forward. Arizona scored on the play and the goal was quickly wiped out but for some reason, the play wasn’t deemed to be deserving of a penalty. You can certainly see why Anderson is frustrated lately. It’s been pretty much open season in front of his net and in instances like last night, the forward is actually going out of his way to make contact. There was a time when that would mean a visit from the tough guy or a good ol’ fashion goalie running at the other end of the rink but now it barely draws a reaction. Disappointing that the officials didn’t call it but equally disappointing that nobody came to the defence of their goalie.
-Safe to assume that last night is a game Brady Tkachuk will want to forget. He wasn’t the only player that struggled last night but two of his mistakes were especially glaring and ultimately cost him his usual spot riding shotgun with Mark Stone. He still finished the game with just over 14 minutes of ice but a lot of that ended up being on the team’s third line with Zack Smith and Jean Gabriel Pageau. Tkachuk has been fairly locked into his spot in the line up this season and that’s partly because he’s been so consistent. Even when he’s not producing offence, he is still finding ways to create chances and to have an impact on the game. Not last night. At least not in a positive way. The break probably comes at a good time for a lot of guys, Tkachuk included.
-Bonus Thought- There were a couple interesting updates on both Matt Duchene and Mark Stone shared during last night’s game. During TSN’s Insider Trading segment, we learned that Pierre Dorion is expected to meet with Matt Duchene’s agent Pat Brisson again this week. And while it sounds like the two sides are making some progress in those negotiations, it seems like they are sorting of waiting for an answer from Duchene on exactly what he wants to do. The Senators really can’t afford to wait much longer. I suspect the meeting this week could be a defining one in those negotiations. Bruce Garrioch seemed to echo that sentiment during his Question Period segment although interestingly enough, he seemed fairly confident in the state of contract talks with Mark Stone. Again, the Senators can’t wait much longer for these two guys to sign on the dotted line but it’s encouraging that Garrioch, who is close with the organization, remains confident on where things are headed with Mark Stone.
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