After a tough road loss in Nashville where the Senators struggled to find some offense, the club plays in Buffalo tonight in what I would call a very important game and as much of a must-win game as you can find in early November.
That might seem a bit hyperbolic, but the fact is that the Senators played their best hockey so far this season buoyed by the emotion surrounding Craig Anderson and his wife Nicholle's cancer diagnosis. I said at the time that that emotion can only last so long, and it seems to have run out. They need to be more consistent night to night, and tonight they need to show some push-back. Sound familiar?
The key to success, or at least to making a run at the playoffs will be to avoid prolonged losing streaks and nipping them in the bud before they get started. The Senators have now lost two straight against teams that could hardly be considered world beaters, and the have to turn around and play the Sabres again, the team that beat them on Saturday night thanks to a great performance from Robin Lehner.
This team seems to have done a 180 since last season. They couldn't keep the puck out of the net last year and were able to outscore bad defense and goaltending on a lot of (but not quite enough) nights. This year, the goals against have been decent, but lately they haven't been able to find the back of the net, regardless of how gaping that net has been on a lot of occasions.
So while the Senators will not make or miss the playoffs based on a November game in Buffalo, this will be on that could determine the direction of the club for the next little while, and in a conference that could be so tight that every point matters, dropping points you should get at any point in the season could come back to haunt you in April.
Buffalo is also limping in off a loss, 4-0 at the hands of the Bruins.
A loss tonight would make three in a row, with the red-hot Kings coming to town on Friday night. It is by no means time to panic, but the team needs to show something. The frustrating thing from a Senators fan's standpoint is that Ottawa hasn't exactly been playing terribly, which would also make this couple of losses explainable. Nor have they been playing well enough to say definitively that they were robbed. Like Senators' teams of the past, this one seems to be playing to the level of their competition. Unfortunately, if that is the case they better find another gear at some point because they have had a pretty soft schedule so far.
And it all begins tonight. Unless it doesn't.