At least Ales Hemsky isn't an Oiler any more. You will remember the last time Ottawa visited Edmonton it was Hemsky, who would become a Senator the next day, drove a stake through the hearts of the Senators with a 2 goal, 3 point performance that was a big blow to the postseason chances of the Sens.
This time around, it will be Curtis Lazar in the spotlight, as he returns to Edmonton not as a member of the WHL's Oil Kings, but as an up and coming star in the making for the Ottawa Senators. Without a doubt, the kid line centred by Lazar has been the story for the Senators as they tread water and flirt with a playoff spot. With Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman lighting the lamp, the line has been the most effective unit 5 on 5, providing not only energy and a spark, but offense as well.
I usually don't make predictions as to who will win or who will score in games in this space, but it would be nice to see Lazar light the lamp for the first time in front of much the same crowd that supported him over his junior years.
The Senators are coming into this game after dropping a 4-3 overtime decision to the Vancouver Canucks, in a game where they had chances to win, and had a couple of calls gone their way, would have banked an extra point.
The Senators are still getting good goaltending on the whole from Craig Anderson,who will likely get the start again. What they are not getting is great performances from some players who should be leaders and producers. The likes of Bobby Ryan, Mika Zibanejad and Milan Michalek, who worked together as a line on Tuesday in Vancouver, need to get on the scoresheet with much more regularity. The three have combined for just 4 points (all assists) in their last 5 games. That simply isn't enough for three players who are supposed to comprise half of a team's top 6 forwards.
The Senators find themselves in a familiar spot in the standings, fighting already for a wild card spot while also looking over their shoulders at teams that are close to running them down from behind. It is going to be a race all season, and games like this are ones the Senators must win to keep pace.
The Oilers are also accustomed to their place in the rankings, and it is certainly not a good thing. Throwing (relatively) big money at the likes of Benoit Pouliot, Nikita Nikitin and Mark Fayne has not had the intended results, and they find themselves at or near the basement of the Western Conference once again. You have to wonder how much longer Dallas Eakins has behind the Oilers bench, although the team has been playing better after a dreadful start. They are 5-5 in their last 10 games, but it will be tough to make any headway in the West now that they are already 5 points behind the final wild card spot.
Ironically, Edmonton has had some great success against the Eastern Conference. No Western Conference team has more than Edmonton's 6 wins (Chicago also has 6) when crossing conferences. They have yet to win a game against a Western Conference team.
Taylor Hall is out of the Oilers lineup with a leg injury after he crashed into the opposing net Stamkos-like in Vancouver on November 1st, but fortunately the injury wasn't as severe as the one that cost Stamkos a shot at the Canadian Olympic team. Pouliot has moved up to fill Hall's spot with Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the Oilers top line.
Ottawa is still looking for the complete game that has eluded them, and they are still prone to having long periods of time where they are on their heels and can't turn the momentum of the game around. For the most part the goaltending has made up for those lapses, but it is putting a strain on them, and you can't expect that to last forever.
ERIK KARLSSON- ROVER Pt. 2 So yesterday I threw something out there as food for thought and argued that the Senators might consider creating a new "rover" position for Erik Karlsson that would allow him to free-wheel and not have to worry so much about the defensive side of the game. If you missed it, check it out HERE
It was met with a lot of resistance, as you would expect, rightly so. (and I will admit I did a little bit of trolling myself in defending the proposal).
Bottom line is, Karlsson needs to be better defensively in his own end, and he knows it as much as anyone. Some commenters to yesterday's post suggested that the coaching staff simply ask him to bear down defensively, and I am sure if Paul MacLean had read those comments his response would have been "Why didn't I think of that?" Sorry to be a little tongue in cheek, but obviously the staff is aware of the problem and are trying to address it. While you aren't going to see Karlsson become a healthy scratch Jared Cowen-style, a point has to be made other than just letting things continue as they are. You can point to a partner to pick up some of the slack, but that type of player isn't readily available, if at all. The parade of partners Karlsson have had hasn't worked, and if you think Marc Methot is the answer then you are a little more optimistic than I.
Making such an in-game adjustment such as throwing a third defenseman on the ice while Karlsson is out there could be the type of message that Karlsson might need. Echoing the words of Paul MacLean from a different topic, it might say to Karlsson, "If you are going to do "the this" then I am going to have to do "the that", until you start to do "the that" properly and then I am going to do "the this" until you allow me to be able to get back to "the that". (I lost track myself of what "the this" and what "the that" are, but in simple English - Karlsson must be better in his own end.
I have no doubt that Karlsson is a world-class talent and I defended him before the Norris about his defensive play not being as bad as a lot of people around the league said. Yes, as a young player he was victimized for some highlight reel goals that showed up on SportCentre. But on the whole, he wasn't as bad as people suggested. But at 24 with a Norris under his belt, he has been as bad or worse defensively than pre-Norris, and its not just this year, because it was the same last season. He is without a doubt the most electrifying defenseman in the league with the puck, but "can" and "do" when it comes to defensive play are two different things.
I said that a coach's job is to put players in the best position for success. It is also to find a way to meld a player's strengths into the team system. I also compared Karlsson to Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby and Orr. While those standout talents might be extreme, they could all do something or had a skill set that nobody else has. I think Karlsson and his ability to turn the play around from defense to offense faster than anyone else falls into the same category. The problem is, that style will lead to mistakes and he is going to get beat. That is a given, but lately that style has resulted in Ottawa fishing the puck out of their own net followed by a face-off at centre ice more often than a transition out of the zone with the puck.
Do I really think that Karlsson should be used as a forward or "rover" like I suggested yesterday? Of course not. But something extreme, whether a message or wake-up call for a shift, a period or a game, is needed before those bad habits become second nature and it is too late to turn things around.
And it all starts tonight on TSN5 at 9:30 PM.