It is said by many in the hockey world that to win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you need timely goal scoring, good defence and solid goaltending.
In their second round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators are only getting one of those and it is NOT good defence or solid goaltending. In fact, it might be the play of Sens net minder Craig Anderson and defenceman Erik Karlsson that has hurt them the most and because of that, the Senators find themselves down 2-0 in the series.
During the regular season and in their first round over the Montreal Canadiens, it was Anderson’s goaltending that was winning hockey games for the Senators. Despite playing just 24 games in the regular season, Anderson was one of the league’s top netminders in posting a 1.69 goals-against-average (first in the league), a .941 save percentage (first in the league) and three shutouts.
It might be hard to imagine, but Anderson was even better against the Canadiens in his team’s first round victory. In this series, he stopped a ridiculous 171 of 180 shots for a .950 save percentage while out-dueling Canadiens’ netminder Carey Price by a wide margin.
Unfortunately for the Senators, however, Anderson has not brought that same quality goaltending in the team’s first two games against the Penguins in the second round. In Game 1, Anderson allowed four goals on 30 shots in a 4-1 loss and never looked comfortable in between the pipes.
In his club’s 4-3 loss in Game 2, Anderson had an ever tougher time. He stopped topped just 18 of 21 shots and was pulled in favor of back-up Robin Lehner.
While every goal came from Penguins’ franchise all-star Sidney Crosby, Anderson looked very shaky on the second tally and looked nowhere near the goaltender he was in the regular season and the first round.
With that said, not everything can be blamed on Anderson in the series and the truth of the matter is that he is not getting much help from his defence.
One defenceman for the Senators that has struggled in this series has been all-star and Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. In Game 2, Karlsson was caught flat-footed on Crosby’s second goal of the game, something that the team and their head coach Paul MacLean is not used to seeing.
In speaking with Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail, MaClean said that Karlsson has not looked like himself since returning from an injury to his left Achilles tendon.
"I don’t think his play is close to what he was before he was injured," Ottawa’s head coach, Paul MacLean, said Wednesday. "He was a dominant, dominant player, possibly the best player in the league at the time of his injury."
For Karlsson, his offence is definitely still there as he has six points (one goal and five assists) in six games and is still moving the puck quite well.
However, in the playoffs, defence becomes extremely important and right now, Karlsson is struggling with that part of his game. Karlsson said the following to MacGregor:
"You could probably ask a lot of people and they would probably say the same thing, including myself. I’m not playing the way I did when I got hurt and that’s just the way it is. I am trying to figure it out."
Both Anderson and Karlsson need to figure things out before it gets to be too late and the team is bounced out of the postseason.
