Just want to make a call back to two paragraphs from yesterday's game day preview:
The team has ridden its top horses, for better or for worse, all season long. As Karlsson, Hoffman, Ryan, Turris, Stone and Anderson go, so do the Senators. If those players, or at least a majority of them, are not the team's best players on any given night, the Senators will struggle. Such has been the case, at both end of the ice lately.
In the last 4 games, the top end "group of 6" (the 5 skaters listed above plus second line centre Mika Zibanejad), have combined for just 2 goals and 7 assists for 9 points. They have just 3 points at even strength combined in 4 games. Slumps happen and offense can come and go, but they are also a combined -22 in that stretch.
I hate to say "I told you so", but in this case, I told you so.
The difference between the disappointing and "sky is falling" effort against Montreal and the win over the Kings two days later was the simple fact that the Senators best players were the Senators best players, and on this occasion, they finished.
Sure there was the lineup swap of Kyle Turris and Mika Zibanejad, but in the grand scheme of things the lineup was the same as was the deployment, yet there was a vastly different result.
The Senators still gave up way too many shots, Craig Anderson gifted the Kings a goal, and probably should have had at least one of the other goals, but in the end did enough to get his team the win.
It is a familiar pattern, the difference this time being the "big 6" cashed in to the tune of 11 points (2 more than the last 4 games combined) and a combined +10 rating.
That is how the pendulum swings. The game plan, however flawed or unreasonable given the players at hand, is the same, it is a matter of the star players executing properly. And getting a bounce or two doesn't hurt, like Erik Karlsson's broken stick, seeing-eye shot that somehow found a way in.
It doesn't matter who plays 4th line left wing on this team if the first two lines both have an off night at the same time. When the offense can score 5 goals on 21 shots, and light the lamp on 3 straight shots in the second period against Jonathan Quick, thank your lucky stars and run away.
That is the kind of opportunistic scoring the Senators have and it has been there more often than not so far this season. That is great when it works, but when it doesn't you get the odd dreadful performance like Saturday night, where everything goes wrong.
There were certainly some sweaty palms after Jake Muzzin made it a 1 goal game with 10 minutes left and knowing the Senators' propensity to be involved in games that are never in doubt until the final whistle blows.
The Senators went back to the way they started their top 6 this season (with Zack Smith playing the role of Clarke MacArthur), and quite frankly that is the deployment I would prefer to see going forward. I like the Turris-Stone combination and they were the dominant duo to start the season. Now that Ryan has been jump-started and almost everything he and Hoffman do ends up in the back of the net, I hope that is the way Cameron keeps the lineup.
As for Anderson, he is certainly showing signs of fatigue having played 15 games in 31 days and he needs a breather. Andrew Hammond wasn't good in his pair of AHL starts, but his AHL numbers were never anything to write home about, and now that he is back in the NHL he should get the start against the Capitals on Wednesday. Anderson stepped up big time when the team needed him, but given the workload and the number of shots he has faced, he looks tired on the ice and needs a well-deserved break regardless of what he says. If Hammond can even play once a week and give the team a chance to win, a fresher Anderson is a better Anderson.
In the last month (Nov14th to Dec 14th) Anderson has started all 15 games and he has faced 485 shots. Next highest is Marc-Andre Fleury who faced 359 shots in his 11 starts over that same time frame. Saying he needs a rest is not an indictment on his play, but his numbers show a decline in his performance, and understandably so. If the Senators were giving up 20-25 shots a night playing 15 games in a row might not be so bad, but at 32+ per night it is bound to take its toll on the guy tasked with stopping them all.
Ottawa got a couple of favors out of town last night with the Sabres beating the Red Wings and the Oilers edging Boston in overtime meaning the Senators gained ground on both as the playoff race begins to take shape with teams nearing or passing the 30 game mark. It is no longer early in the season.
The tough December stretch continues as the club heads out on a quick 1 game road trip to face the red-hot Washington Capitals before coming home to take on the struggling Sharks on Friday night.