Senators' goaltending the problem
Mediocrity in net leaves Ottawa reeling in Eastern conference race
The first quarter of the season, who could have thought it would come to this?
There was talk of the at-one-time 15-2 Ottawa Senators potentially surpassing the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens as the best team ever in the game. That Canadiens squad lost only eight games the length of the (80-game) season, so to compare the Sens to them was a clear indicator as to just how dominant they were. Looking at the standings nowadays, not only has Ottawa reached eight losses, but, taking into account overtime defeats (for which teams earn one point instead of none), they have effectively tripled that amount (they're now 34-20-5). Talk about falling from grace.
Perhaps a credit to their torrid start to the season than to their consistency, the Senators still find themselves atop the Eastern Conference standings, but barely.
In a battle of the top two teams in the league, the Sens hung on to beat the somewhat favoured Detroit Red Wings in early January 3-2. Whereas the Red Wings (despite ending off Monday a decade-high six-game losing streak) have further separated from the pack (prior to their slump, they held upwards of a 20-point lead on the next best team in the West, the Dallas Stars), the Sens have made a habit of not playing up to their potential going 5-10-1 since that meeting. Their once huge lead over second place has now totally evaporated as they are now tied in points with both the New Jersey Devils and the current Canadiens. Granted, Ottawa has one game in hand, but the way they've been losing recently - in style - nobody should be holding their breath on Ottawa pulling away all that much again anytime soon. So, what's the problem? At the core of their worries is their goaltending situation. The team ranks in the bottom third of the league in terms of goals allowed. Thanks mostly to their high-powered offense of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza have they managed to stay afloat, while goaltenders Martin Gerber and Ray Emery just haven't been doing their jobs. And because head coach John Paddock has employed the popularly coined 'win-and-you're-in' approach to deciding who gets to start on a game-by-game basis, neither has had the chance to develop a sense of comfort in between the pipes. In fact, since that heralded victory over Detroit, only twice has an incumbent goaltender had a chance at playing three straight games, falling short each time for a three-game winning streak. Twice, all the while, the team has had two three-game losing streaks, however. Perhaps realizing that his experment has failed horribly, Paddock will be putting Ray Emery in once again despite his losing this past Saturday to New Jersey. Clearly, it's the right way to go, trying to establish a number-one goaltender himself when neither has been able to accomplish the feat on their own. With just 23 games left in the regular season, nobody realistically expects the Sens to screw up enough to miss the playoffs entirely, but they're no longer the intimidating powerhouses they were at one point, not even just this season, but since the turn of the century when, year after year, they've regularly found themselves amongst the league's elite.
There may be ample time left or the Sens to save themselves the trouble of falling out of first place - even with their troubles, the smart money is still on them to get their act together and win the conference - but they're going to forever have to live with the embarrassment of letting the bleeding get to this point.
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles