The Senators limped into the All-Star break last week by losing their fifth straight game, and it is that streak they will put on the line tonight when they meet up for their post-break debut in Raleigh to face the Hurricanes.
It is a beat-up Senators squad, as they entered the break with a number of AHL callups on the roster, and those players have been re-summoned to the Sens after having been returned for the weekend. The Senators recalled Colin White, Chris DiDomenico and Erik Burgdoerfer yeserday, and the Senators will also have newly acquired Magnus Paajarvi in the lineup. The Senators claimed Paajarvi, who has 2 goals and 2 assists in 44 games this season, off waivers from the Blues on Friday. Paajarvi is in the last year of his current contract and carries a low cap hit, and is essentially a warm body to keep around as insurance for the anticipated exodus in the next month or so.
The Senators have had a nightmare season, and Tuesday will be the club's 48th game of the season and they haven't reached the 40 point plateau yet. And as bad as it has been, January has been especially brutal.
On January 2nd the Senators swapped special teams coaches, in an effort to fix lackluster performance from both units. At the time their power play was operating at 15.9 %, 24th in the league and their penalty kill was clicking at 77.1%, 27th out of the 31 teams.
Well, in January their power play is at 12%, tied for 28th in the league, and their PK has been especially bad, at 66.7%, 29th in the NHL.
That is a microcosm for this season, and anything they touch to try and fix seems to get worse. Whether that is coaching, players, or whatever, that has them looking forward to getting the elusive top 3 pick come late June and a house-cleaning rather than looking forward to playing past the first week of April.
It hasn't just been special teams, as 2018 has been dreadful in terms of possession numbers. Up to Jan 1, Ottawa had a 48.56 Corsi% for, which was ranked 22nd in the league. Not very good numbers, but outlandishly bad. Cue the month of January, and that number this month has plummeted to 43.32%, dead last in the league, and by a pretty significant margin over 2nd last New York Rangers (44.95%).
This is a team that has either given up on themselves, or they have stopped playing for their coach, despite the mid-December vote of confidence from GM Pierre Dorion for Guy Boucher.
The Senators should be facing a desperate team in Carolina, as they are on the precipice of falling out of touch with the pack of teams fighting for a playoff spot. They enter tonight's game 3 points out of the second wild card spot and in last place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Canes have had the same Achilles' heel as the Senators for the most part this season, and that is goaltending that has not lived up to expectations. Scott Darling was brought in as a backup in Chicago and expected to be the guy to make the jump from career backup to starter, and paid accordingly (4 years, $16.6M) and he has a GAA of 3.02 and a SP of .892 in 29 appearances, and a 9-13-6 record. Cam Ward, who the Hurricanes have consistently tried to relegate to the backup role, or move out altogether, actually has stepped up and has a respectable 13-6-2 record even if his stats aren't remarkable (2.87 GAA & .904 SP).
Games like this are the type that the Hurricanes have to think they need to win if they are going to keep pace and put themselves in position to nab a playoff spot for the first time since 2009.