“It’s tough to play the second half of a back-to-back…...or something like that. With this logic though, the Senators should have had their legs last night. They played horrendously versus the New Jersey Devils, and although Ottawa has played much better at home, they were unable to provide any sort of spark tonight. The Washington Capitals were able to shut out the Senators by winning 4-0, giving Ottawa back-to-back losses in 24 hours.
The main theme from tonight was frustration.
For starters, last night’s game against the Devils left a bad taste in my mouth. With Craig Anderson out with an injury and Mike McKenna in the net, it would have been foolish to expect a win. However, Ottawa had no shortage of scoring chances, and with Washington going to their backup Pheonix Copley, it seemed like an easier opportunity to put those chances home. But almost every time they got a chance in the slot or near the front of the net, they would shoot it right at Copley or miss the net completely. There’s nothing more frustrating than missing the net all game.
The crazy thing is that for just the seventh time all season, Ottawa actually won the possession battle with 60 shot attempts for and 46 against at 5v5. But it doesn’t matter if those quality chances aren’t even hitting the net. It means that they were playing well enough to get chances, but still not well enough to actually score. And watching those chances not go in for an entire 60 minutes is draining.
One of those chances that immediately comes to mind was a fantastic play by Nick Paul that ended on a shot on goal, but a save from Copley:
holy smokes what a silky move by Nick Paul to get around John Carlson #waynenickpaulzky pic.twitter.com/mLrjjkPh3j
— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) December 23, 2018
It was almost a Jason Spezza on Sheldon Souray type move, but he couldn’t finish the job. Paul actually led the team in scoring chances (6) and high-danger chances (4), which is incredibly impressive considering he only played 14:01 tonight. Every time he gets back into the lineup, he proves why he should stay, and Guy Boucher needs to realize that he is becoming an effective fourth line player.
McKenna allowed four goals on the night, but he wasn’t given much help as usual. The first goal early on from Brett Connolly was a phenomenal tip, the third goal came from Jakub Vrana on a mini-breakaway on an almost unstoppable shot, and the fourth goal went in thanks to Cody Ceci’s knee. McKenna had a chance on the second goal that was tipped in from Matt Niskanen, but even then it was hard to be too upset with his performance. As with every Senators game this year, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to change the result.
The game was pretty uneventful from an offensive standpoint, as they only had two opportunities on the powerplay and obviously failed to convert. Colin White once again stood out as someone who is only getting better as time goes on, as he is able to get involved in the play in the offensive zone much more than he did in the past. His speed makes him even more of a lethal weapon, too.
Justin Falk left the game with an upper-body injury after playing just 6:55, and I would assume Max Lajoie will be playing next game after being a healthy scratch tonight. I’ve also gone this far without mentioning the other healthy scratch, which was Tom Pyatt...In the two games he has missed, Ottawa has had two of their best possession games of the season. Coincidence? I think not. No, a 4-0 win isn’t a good result, but at least they did not get caved in their zone the entire game and they had some chances that they could not convert.
Copley recorded his first career shutout tonight, which adds to the list of rookie opponents of the Senators to get a “first.… The game somehow ended without an Alex Ovechkin goal though, so that might be considered a win, honestly.
Something that overshadowed the game tonight (and is much more important in the grand scheme of things) was an update on HNIC from Elliotte Friedman regarding Eugene Melnyk and LeBreton Flats. Here is the whole segment courtest of @SensProspects:
Elliotte Friedman's latest update on the future of the Ottawa Senators pic.twitter.com/ZP8huiS4iw
— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) December 23, 2018
A few thoughts on this:
1. A pushed back timeline was to be expected, but that is incredibly discouraging nevertheless. The Senators will be in Kanata for 4-5 more years at least, and with how slow the city and the team have been regarding LeBreton, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it take even longer.
2. The fact that an offer for the Senators was brought to the league’s attention at the Board of Governor’s meeting is fascinating. The offer was at most $400M, but whoever made that offer was most likely low-balling, knowing that Melnyk can’t hold on for much longer. I think it’s a good sign though that the idea of selling the team is at least being floated around.
3. Melnyk wanting to feed back his debt over the course of 25 or 35 years sounds extremely sketchy, and without knowing the exact specifics, it doesn’t appear to be the best course of action. No wonder the city was unwilling to do that.
The Senators next game is not until after the Christmas break, as they will play in New York against the Islanders next Friday at 7:00. That gives the team five full days to rest up and relax over the holidays, and I hope that they can enjoy some time with family and friends. And I hope that the readers do as well! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone if I forget to say it before Tuesday.
Thanks for reading.