The Ottawa Senators swept the season series with a perfect 4-0 record with a 4-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is also the second time this month that the Sens won in the (for what its worth) Battle of Ontario.
The problem for the Senators is that those are the only two games that the club has won so far this month, which is almost half-way through, and that slide has meant less than meaningful hockey will have to wait until October.
Mark Stone led the way with a goal and two assists, and if Alex Chiasson had any hands at all it would have been a third assist on a shorthanded play where Stone put Chiasson in all alone but the struggling winger put it over the net. Zack Smith also scored and Jean-Gabriel Pageau had 3 helpers as the Senators continue to be a 1 line team, which is apparently enough to beat the Marlies, but not any other teams.
It continues to be a struggle to find some secondary scoring, as the fourth line has probably been the most consistent and effective group after the Pageau line. Bobby Ryan had about as much effect as Kyle Turris did for the Senators last night and Mike Hoffman wasn't much better. The experiment to keep the two separated hasn't worked and it is probably time to put them back together with Mika Zibanejad and try to get them going.
Zibanejad made a nice play to fake a slapsoht and open up the legs of Garrett Sparksand Hoffman earned an assist to open the scoring in the first period, Cody Ceci darted in for the 2-0 goal seconds into the second and Craig Anderson kept the Leafs at bay, recording his 4th shutout of the season with 29 stops.
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The disappearing acts of Hoffman and Ryan down the stretch in the past two seasons has to be concerning the Senators bras. In games after Valentine's Day from last year and this, it has been Stone carrying the load, almost on his own.
Stone has 48 points in 42 games after V-day over the past 2 seasons, when the Senators needed wins the most. Hoffman has 22 points and Ryan 20 in the same 42 games, while Turris has 30 in 35 games he played.
There will be lots of time to fully dissect things when the season is over, but with the Senators struggling to keep the puck out of their own net, having two of their best goal scorers go completely dry at crunch time doesn't help. Thank goodness Stone found some chemistry with Zack Smith and dragged him to 20 goals or it would have been over a long time ago. Or maybe in hindsight it would have been better to have an even worse February to get better odds at a top 3 pick.