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Game Day: Ottawa @ St. Loius - where is rock bottom? |
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With the 3-1 loss to the Wild on Monday night, and the Coyotes and Sabres both winning, the Senators are now just 6 points out of the NHL's basement.
The Sens didn't play a terrible game, but couldn't generate much offensively against the Wild, who are a great home team and showed it against Ottawa. Mike Condon was good in the Ottawa net, but not good enough for the shutout he would have needed to get the win as Alex Stalock was the superior netminder on the night, turning away 37 shots for the win.
Ottawa has allowed 3 or more goals in 12 of their last 14 games, and they don't have enough offense to cover that inadequate goaltending/defensive coverage on a nightly basis.
Playing without their best player in Mark Stone (knee), it was an incredibly thin forward group, and only Matt Duchene on a breakaway was able to find the scoresheet, while their "other" best player Erik Karlsson was on the wrong end of all 3 Wild goals.
Karlsson simply doesn't have the mobility he did last season and is consistently getting caught flat footed or in no man's land because plays he was making before he can't get to at the moment. I am sure it is just as bad for him, but watching him flail around is frustrating and sad. Ray Ferraro made mention of that fact during the broadcast and suggested it was a result of rehab vs training in the off-season and that he should be able to get it back for next season, but is that a $100M+ bet the Senators are willing to make in the off-season, if Karlsson is still a Senator at that point?
The Senators also continue to shoot themselves in the foot, taking yet another too many men on the ice penalty with a lack of attention to detail by all involved, including the coaches and the players.
They will try to right the ship a little bit tonight when they pay a visit to St. Louis, to face a Blues team that went into Ottawa last Thursday and beat a rusty Senators team coming off its break by a 4-1 score.
St. Louis is also coming in off a loss, dropping a 5-2 decision to the lowly Coyotes on Saturday after sweeping their mini-road trip through Ontario last week. You can bet they don't want to lose two straight to bottom-3 teams while they are in the midst of a difficult playoff race.
It probably won't happen, but I think Condon played well enough to earn another start in a back to back, because Craig Anderson isn't getting the job done so maybe give the backup a stretch of games to see if he can get into a rhythm of some sort.
As the losses and frustration pile up, so does the uneasiness of the fan base that the ownership and management are going to make a mess of the situation. Confidence seems to be at an all-time low, and no matter how bad things look right now they could easily get worse before they get better, because I am not sure they have hit rock bottom yet.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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