What must the Senators do, to turn the ship around?
When is late too late?
That certainly must be the question Bryan Murray asks himself every day.
As the NHL works its way nicely into the second quarter of the 2010-11 season, Murray’s Ottawa Senators are sinking deeper and deeper in the Eastern Conference standings.
This, I’ll admit, comes as a real surprise to me. It’s not that I had visions of the Senators winning the Stanley Cup, but I definitely thought they’d be a playoff team and certain a better club than the one that finished fifth in the East last season with a 44-32-6 record. As it stands, the Senators are 12-16-2 and have scored just 65 goals while allowing 90 (a differential of minus-25).
Last season the eighth place Montreal Canadiens, finished with 88 points. For the Senators to hit that mark, they’d have to go 31-21 in their final 62 games. Of course that doesn’t factor in points they could achieve in games that go to overtime, but you get the idea.
The Senators will need to do an immediate about-face if they are to make the playoffs this season.
So what’s wrong with this team?
It certainly isn’t a lack of talent. How can a team that has the likes of Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, Alex Kovalev, Mike Fisher, Milan Michalek up front as well as Sergei Gonchar, Filip Kuba, Chris Campoli and Erik Karlsson on defence be so hard-pressed for offence?
Alfredsson leads the Senators with 18 points in 30 games, over an 82-game season that translates to just 49 points. Forty-nine freakin’ points! Spezza, who missed games because of injury, has just seven goals and 16 points in 25 games. He’s on pace for 49 points.
Kovalev expressed disappointment and concern about being demoted to the fourth line, but if we’re being honest, he hasn’t been engaged since joining the Senators as a free agent last season. Even at the age of 37, he is one of the most supremely skilled players in the NHL, he often looks like he’s barely going through the motions.
Injuries have played a role in the Senators inability to win consistently this season, but so to have the team’s youngsters, who have failed to take the necessary step forward for the club to be successful.
Peter Regin looked very much like he had arrived as an NHL centre late last season, particularly in the playoffs when he scored three goals and four points in six games. This year, he has just one goal in 28 games and recently has been a healthy scratch.
Karlsson, a skilled puck-moving defender, has also been a healthy scratch this season and rarely resembles the confident young man who had five points in six playoff games last year.
Meanwhile, Nick Foligno has two goals in his last six games, but didn’t score in his first 24.
Murray has made it clear he is willing to make a trade or two to shake things up, but in today’s salary cap world, trades are hard to make. That puts the pressure on the coach.
Much like John MacLean in New Jersey, Todd Richards in Minnesota, Ron Wilson in Toronto and Brent Sutter in Calgary, Ottawa coach Cory Clouston needs to find a way to get his team going soon or risk losing his job. It is often stated that it is easier for a team to change one coach than 20 players and that has never been more evident than in today’s NHL.
The sad thing is changing coaches just might be the most ineffective move a GM can make. Scott Gordon was canned in New York, replaced by Jack Capuano, and are the Islanders any better? No, of course not. They may be worse!
Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk has been remarkably patient thus far, but you have to wonder how long that will last. This is not a bad hockey team, but it is an underachieving group and with 52 games remaining, something needs to change in a hurry.
IN A PICKLE: The San Jose Sharks, like the Senators, have also not played to their potential this season. Amongst the concerns with the team is the play of defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Prior to scoring a goal against Buffalo Thursday, Vlasic (know as Pickles) had not registered a point in his first 27 games. This is a player who had three goals and 26 points as a rookie in 2006-07 and two years later scored six goals and 36 points. Certainly the Sharks were counting on more than one point from a player logging nearly 22 minutes of ice time per game.
