The trade deadline came and went, with nary a whimper from Bryan Murray and the Ottawa Sentors. And you know what, I am fully OK with that. The assets they had available weren't going to generate much return, and anything anybody might have wanted to steal wouldn't be assets they want to give up.
Bryan Murray said in an interview after the deadline had passed that he had a couple of calls on Erik Condra, one of whom wanted the Sens to pick up half of the remaining salary, or about $150K. Condra has been very good with the kids he is playing with and has been effective, opening the door to a possible contract extension in the off-season.
Murray couldn't move a defenseman (Patrick Weircioch) and he also related a couple of stories about recent conversations he has had. He thinks Wiercioch can still be good, but needs to improve his footwork to get places faster. Murray also said that he ripped the club following Andrew Hammond's first start, saying he was angry that the team couldn't (or wouldn't) play that well defensively in front of the other goalies. Not really deadline related, but an interesting anecdote.
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The Senators played their 60th game of the season on Saturday night in San Jose, so it is time for my 10 game segment analysis of the team. I continued the process at the 50 game mark just for consistency sake, when it appeared that the Senators were out of the playoff picture all together. Well now I am glad I did, because the Senators 5 game win streak combined with a dreadful run by the Bruins has them at least in the discussion.
So here is the adjusted standings of where each team was after playing their 60th game.
Still some work to do, and you have to think the Bruins won't continue to slide, so the Senators will have to make sure they win their games in hand to make up the 3 point gap in the pace.
So why have the Senators been able to close this gap and claw their way back into contention?
As you can see, they tied their highest offensive output of any 10 game segment, but had the best defensive segment of the season to date. Possession-wise, they had 7 games where they were better (corsi-wise) than their opponent, and bucking the trend of earlier in the season they won a majority of those games.
Andrew Hammond might have a lot to do with it, but the fact is whether it was the rookie goalie in net or the team finally "getting it", they simply played a better series of games against some tough teams. This is probably a by-product of a number of factors - the coaching change, young players getting more experience and learning on the job, and the return of Marc Methot to solidify the top pairing.
Whatever the combination of the factors, this team has a certain mojo going into the final stretch and even if they come up short the stretch run will benefit the team much more than possible draft positions they will have given up in the process. A winning environment is contagious and so is a losing environment. I have said before that the detriment of having this young group mired in a season of misery would far outweigh the advantage they would gain by having a 6th pick instead of 12th or whatever it ends up being.
I have been promising the results of a bit of draft research I did the other night, and I will get to that later this week to illustrate just how indifferent the draft can be after the top 4 picks.
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The Senators put their 5 game winning streak on the line when they start to head towards home, stopping in Minnesota for the first of back to back mid-west games. They face the Wild tonight and the Jets in Winnipeg tomorrow. Andrew Hammond, who was a no-brainer for NHL 1st star of the week announced yesterday.
The Wild come in sitting in the final wild card spot in the West, but they do have a cushion because the third spot in the Pacific will be contested before any team can set their sights on the Wild.
Ottawa has, other than the first 10 minutes or so of the San Jose game, played its best stretch of games this season backstopped by Hammond's improbable run and solid play throughout the lineup.
Jared Cowen is eligible to return from his suspension but was the extra d-man at practice yesterday and it looks like Dave Cameron isn't going to mess too much with a winning lineup. Curtis Lazar will probably get back in up front now that the unsuccessful showcase of Colin Greening is over. Greening will likely be headed back to Bingo once the road trip is over to wait for the probable buyout in the off-season.
Craig Anderson was taken off IR and will back Hammond up with the expectation of starting against the Jets tomorrow.
Every game from here on out is important, but these back to back games this week could put a lot of pressure on the Bruins, who don't play again until Thursday night. Two wins by the Senators would bring them within 3 points and they have 2 games left with Boston. Senators fans might also want to be Flames fans this week, as Calgary plays in Philly tonight, and Boston on Thursday, two of the teams the Senators need to catch. The Flames could really help the Senators cause with a couple of road wins.
But, while the fans can watch the out of town scoreboard, the team cannot because none of that matters if they can't continue to win games. There is little (more like no) room for error, but the fact that they are in that race is exciting.