Until this week, the Ottawa Senators‘ main issue was getting help for their goaltenders, who were facing some of the highest shot totals in hockey.
Now, they may be getting a new goaltender, period. One who can back up besieged starter Craig Anderson.
Mike Condon, whose stellar play a couple of years ago earned him a handsome contract as an NHL understudy, is paying a price for failing to live up to that contract (cap hit of $2.4 million through 2019-20).
After getting pulled in the first period of Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes, Condon was placed on waivers by the Senators. Assuming no team picks him up (he will earn $3 million next season in a back-loaded deal), Condon will likely report to AHL Belleville to try to get his game back into shape.
Partly due to Ottawa’s light early schedule, including a stretch of five home games over a two-week period, Anderson has started all but two of the Senators’ first 11 games. He has a 4-3-2 record with a 3.48 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.
Condon was rocked in both his starts, a 6-3 loss Oct. 8 in Boston, with family and friends in the house, and Tuesday’s embarrassing loss in Glendale to the Coyotes.
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A proud man, son of a Boston police officer, Condon, 28, had to be mortified with his final scene – getting yanked after allowing a shot from the opposing blue line to get past him, off the stick of Derek Stepan. The puck bounced and then leaked through the wickets of Condon for a 3-0 Coyotes lead.
“I had to to do something,” Senators head coach Guy Boucher told reporters in Arizona about yanking Condon. “He’s a hard-working guy. He’s a good person. It’s tough for a coach to pull a goalie. The team needed it. We needed something.”
Condon entered the game with a goals-against of 5.00 and a save percentage of .828. His new numbers: 0-2-0 with a GAA of 6.40 and a save percentage of .800.
Ottawa is Condon’s third NHL team. Undrafted, Condon had a fine NCAA career at Princeton, settled into the minors and saw his first NHL action in an emergency role with the Montreal Canadiens in 2015-16, filling in for an injured Carey Price.
Condon held the fort, appearing in 55 games, with a 21-25-6 record, .903 save percentage and 2.71 GAA. That earned him a world championship appearance with the United States, where he played five games and had a 2-2-0 mark.
The Senators acquired Condon in 2016-17 (for a fifth-round pick) and he was a godsend, saving the season while Anderson was away from the team for an extended period to be with his wife, Nicholle, receiving treatment for cancer. Anderson returned for the playoff run as the Senators played three rounds in the spring of 2017, before falling to Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.
In 40 regular season games Condon was rock solid, with a 19-14-6 record, 2.50 GAA and .914 save percentage.
Senators management promptly rewarded Condon with a three-year deal worth $7.2 million (nn echo of the contract given to backup Andrew Hammond, after his brilliant ‘Hamburglar’ run in 2014-15).
In 2017-18, his first season under the new contract, Condon slipped to a 5-17-5 mark in 30 games, his goals-against 3.25 and save percentage .902.
With little work this past month, Condon has been unable to stay sharp in what he hoped would be a bounce-back season. Now, the best-case scenario for him is either a fresh start somewhere else, or getting some work in the AHL to regain his form.
If Condon clears waivers and is sent down, it’s likely the organization would promote veteran Mike McKenna to Ottawa, leaving prospect Filip Gustavsson in Belleville to work with Condon.
McKenna has a 3-3-0 record with the B-Sens, a 2.72 goals-against mark and .914 save percentage. Gustavsson is 1-2-0 with a 3.06 goals-against and .917 save percentage.
The backup could be needed in action as early as this weekend, as the Senators play their first back-to-back of the season. Ottawa visits Buffalo on Saturday afternoon, returning to Canadian Tire Centre to meet the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday evening.
Having grown up immersed in New England sports, Condon always made a comment when a certain visitor to the Senators room was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap. Sadly, on Wednesday at about the time the Red Sox were celebrating their World Series parade in downtown Boston, Condon was being notified he was being placed on waivers, his immediate future unknown.
SHOTS GALORE
While Anderson, 37, has been a workhorse for the Senators, he is going to need some help soon – from his backup, and from his teammates on the ice.
The rebuilding Senators have put their goalies into some difficult situations, as recently as Sunday in Las Vegas, when Anderson faced 53 shots in an overtime loss to the Golden Knights. It was a franchise-record shot total for the young Vegas organization.
The Senators had arrived in Vegas off a loss in Colorado in which Ottawa was utterly dominated by the Avalanche. It was as though the Avs’ top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen had the Senators under a spell.
Afterwards, Anderson said he enjoyed the action in both games. He is playing well. But something has to give, and it just might be Anderson’s body.
The Senators have given up an average of 37.6 shots per game, second only to the Anaheim Ducks, who have left John Gibson out to dry, to the tune of nearly 39 shots on average (38.8).
In five-on-five shot attempts (SAT), the Senators are a lousy minus-157. Only the Ducks and New York Islanders have a worse shot discrepancy.
No longer will Anderson have the schedule on his side, between games. After just 11 games in the month of October, Ottawa’s schedule heats up, including a string of back-to-back situations (six) in November and December.
The Senators were returning home from Arizona Wednesday, and will meet the Sabres in Ottawa Thursday.