Another team making the Senators look good
In back-to-back games, the Oilers and Sabres made the Senators look like a legitimate playoff team with the way that they danced around them. Tuesday’s 4-0 win was an impressive one for Ottawa, although Buffalo also has the worst record in the league since the end of November, so their quality of competition was quite horrendous. Just like the Oilers, the Sabres heavily rely on a few players (Jack Eichel, Jeff Skinner, and Rasmus Dahlin), and it is obvious that the rest of their roster simply cannot keep up.
Buffalo looked like a team that could not wait for the season to end, and that showed up in the final result of the game. A win like that means nothing for the standings or even the lottery, but it’s good for the young players to have a bit of a morale boost every once in a while.
Record without Cody Ceci
Cody Ceci missed his third straight game on Tuesday, and that made me wonder how well the team had done without him this season...
Senators improve to 5-3-0 without Cody Ceci in the lineup this season
— Trevor Shackles (@ShackTS) March 27, 2019
He missed four games earlier in the season in which Ottawa won the first three, and that was an entertaining time because an extended winning streak without Ceci would have resulted in some fantastic Twitter content. He missed one game before the trade deadline due to precautionary reasons, and then he has missed the past three. A 5-3-0 record in eight games is obviously an incredibly small sample, but I think you can easily make the argument that the team would improve just by cutting him loose. Of course, his replacement would not be a good defenseman either, so the trade-off wouldn’t be very good, but it is pretty obvious the amount of trust he gets actively hurts the team.
Brian Gibbons proving his worth
Gibbons had a goal and an assist on Tuesday, bringing his point total to 10 in 14 games with the Senators. I love to see underdog stories like him succeed, and it’s getting to the point where Ottawa almost has to give him a chance on the team next season. His assist on Tuesday looked incredibly impressive, which adds to the long list of great plays he has already made as a Senator:
What a play! Gibbons to Wolanin to Paajarvi who finishes the open net to make it 4-0 #GoSensGo. #Sabres just can't keep up right now.. pic.twitter.com/NMO6jEHwWm
— Alex M (@nhlsensandstuff) March 27, 2019
Even on his goal, he showed good patience to not shoot in front of traffic, and instead gives it off to Christian Jaros, then gets it back anyway:
Gibbons makes it 2-0 #GoSensGo with just 11 seconds left! #Sabres let up a tough one. pic.twitter.com/qPMoWYKDqF
— Alex M (@nhlsensandstuff) March 27, 2019
Will he keep up this pace that would give him 59 points in a full season? Of course not, but he’s doing everything he can to prove himself. I think I’m on board with bringing him back on a one-way deal next year, although just for one year because there’s no need to keep him locked up and blocking a prospect. Quietest 50 point season?
Did you know that Chris Tierney has 46 points this season? I feel like nobody has really noticed that. With six games to go, there’s a chance that he could hit the 50 point mark, which might be the quietest 50 point season in the NHL. He had 40 last season in San Jose, and I wasn’t really confident that he would ever improve on that, although he’s proven people wrong on that. He certainly benefited from playing with Mark Stone at times, and the fact that he only has nine goals means that perhaps he is more of a 40 point player moving forward.
He has also ranked quite poorly in defensive metrics and actually has a negative goals above replacement at 5v5 (but very good special teams numbers) according to Evolving Wild’s metrics. So even with the chance to get 50 points, I wouldn’t consider him a top-six centre, but I do think it’s funny that he has this many points without many people even noticing. He’s still a good player to have as a third line centre, although I wonder what teams might be willing to give up to acquire him, just because Ottawa has a lot of similarly limited centres in their system right now.
Eastern wildcard race
With the Senators being officially eliminated from the playoffs not long ago (and out of the race months ago), the only playoff race fans have been following is the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot. Ottawa has Columbus’ first round pick this year, and they could realistically be picking anywhere between 15th and 22nd (unless they reach the conference finals), so missing the playoffs could give the Senators a solid pick right in the middle of the first round.
With six games left for the Blue Jackets, here is what the standings look like:
Carolina hasn’t clinched yet, but they are in a better spot than Montreal and Columbus for now. So it’s looking like it will come down to the Blue Jackets and Canadiens for the final spot, with Columbus just one win away from grabbing that last spot as they hold the tiebreaker (ROW). Tonight is easily the biggest game of the season for both of them, as the Blue Jackets host the Canadiens. It could very well come down to the final day of the season, and Ottawa will be playing Columbus for game 82. It would be incredibly satisfying to kill their playoff hopes, just like Ottawa did against Boston in 2016. I don’t have anything against Matt Duchene or Ryan Dzingel, but I’d like to see that first round pick as high as possible.