The Ottawa Senators look to win their second in a row, but they will likely need to play a better game than they did against the Devils if they hope to beat the league-leading Anaheim Ducks at home tonight.
Craig Anderson was the brightest light among a lot of blown bulbs, and in this case it was enough as he stopped all 34 shots he faced for the 2-0 shutout. He will get the start once again for the Senators.
The Sens will be without Curtis Lazar, who begins his quest for World Junior gold with Team Canada today. The next opportunity to see the young winger play will be Sunday evening when Ottawa hosts the Team Canada – Team Sweden exhibition game. Lazar is expected to play in that game, possibly alongside Connor McDavid on one of Canada’s top offensive lines.
As of yet, the Senators haven’t made a roster move, so Colin Greening will get back into the lineup to take Lazar’s spot.
Ottawa was dominated for most of the game on Wednesday, being out-shot 34-16 and out-attempted 40-18 at even strength for a team Corsi of just 31%, and even if you don’t follow analytics very closely you can tell that isn’t very good at all.
The Ducks come in for the second half of a back-to-back, having defeated the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night by a score of 2-1.
Anaheim has been without superstar Corey Perry since December 5th with a knee injury. He has skated in Anaheim on his own but is still some time from returning. The Ducks have also been without Francois Beauchemin and Kyle Palmeiri, but Beauchemin could return tonight.
Anahiem is at the top of the standings despite being the 19th ranked team in terms of 5 on 5 Corsi, with a 50.2% rating, ahead of 24th ranked Ottawa (47.3% Corsi). Anaheim has a sub-par power play (17.5%) as well as bottom-half penalty killing (80.5%) so it is really quite remarkable that they are where they are in the standings. Their shooting percentage and save percentage are both middle of the pack, and they don’t really do anything outstanding except somehow come away with wins.
COLIN GREENING A VICTIM OF HIS CONTRACT?
One of, if not the, most maligned players on the Ottawa Senators roster this season hasbeen Colin Greening. Sure, he is also the only player who has been on the roster all season that has yet to record a point, but I truly think that he is a victim of his contract. Greening is in the first year of a 3 year extension that will pay him just under $8M. He is making $2M this season, and that goes up to $2.75 next season and then $3.2M in the final season of the deal.
When it was signed, there were a lot of head shakes, because that is simply too much for a guy who had one good season on the wing of two players who were in the midst of career seasons (Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek). Lo and behold, who could have predicted that the winger would fall back to earth and when that line was dissolved that Greening would struggle to put up points? How about everybody.
BUT… Greening would still be a solid and useful player if he were making an Eric Conrda- level $1.1M. Greening has the highest Corsi rating among all forwards on the team and the second highest Relative Corsi For, trailing just Mark Stone in that latter category. When Greening plays, he faces some of the toughest competition while having among the fewest offensive zone starts.
Obviously there is a disconnect between the advanced stats and what is seen on the ice, but despite all the calls for Greening to be dealt, demoted or bought out, the fact is that in a 4th line role he can be pretty effective.
Is he going to be a pickup on my fantasy team any time soon? Absolutely not.
Is he overpaid for what he can offer? Absolutely. But he isn’t the only one in a league filled with horrible contracts.
Does he have a spot on an NHL roster? That depends on what level your team is at. If you are counting on him to get points then no. If you just need someone to forecheck and to bang some bodies, then he could have a spot…unless you are up against the cap and then the value isn’t there.
For the Senators, it probably isn’t the best use of cap space they have ever made. And the fact that he has been a scratch far more often than he has played is an indication of both the disappointment that he hasn’t had offensive success and the fact that the Senators have a lot of players with more upside that will develop.
I don’t know if Bryan Murray will be able to find a landing spot for his contract, whether the team will bite the bullet and buy him out in the off-season, or whether they will just live with the mistake for the next 2 ½ seasons, but really, you can’t blame Greening for the contract he was given (or the fact that he also managed to somehow get a partial no-trade clause in that deal). He hasn’t rocked the boat despite being sat out for 2/3 of the games, and has been nothing but a good pro through the process.
If anything, Greening on the ice is simply too nice. Only Chris Neil is averaging more hits per game among the Senators forwards, which is a factor on a team that doesn’t have a lot of physical players up front. With Neil and Zach Smith out of the lineup, the Senators might need that dose of physicality. If he only had a bit of a mean streak. He has the speed and size to be a physical force and be an impact player on a 4th line. As it is, he his but doesn't seem to hit to hurt, like you see many players play. I don't mean dirty, but just mean and with a purpose.
Hopefully he can play well in Lazar’s absence and maybe a team likes what it sees and offers up a late round draft pick for him (which is the current asking price) so he can go to a situation where he will be used.
I just think he often takes more grief than he deserves, and it is simply because of his contract. But I haven't heard that him or his agent put a gun to Murray's head and made him sign the deal. Players need to get what they can get, and it's not like it was an 8 year, $50M contract that they will never be able to recover from. It is really a drop in the bucket even to a "budget" team like the Senators.