Senators still have Canadiens in sight
Ottawa four points back of Habs in race for first place
ST. PAUL, MINN. Seven games left in the season and the Senators still don’t have a ticket booked to the NHL’s big dance.
It’s in the Senators’ best interest to get that done as soon as possible because five those games are on the road and only two will be played at Canadian Tire Centre before the season wraps up on April 9 against the New York Islanders with a 5 p.m. start in Brooklyn.
While the Senators have maintained their goal is to finish as high as they can in the Atlantic Division, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night to start this four-game road trip left them four points back of the Montreal Canadiens for first place.
The Senators didn’t go on the ice on Wednesday. They took a lateafternoon charter to Minneapolis and will have a morning skate on Thursday. That’s when we should find out why defenceman Erik Karlsson saw only limited playing time in the third period and only one shift in OT against the Flyers.
After the NHL’s leading shotblocker got in front of a shot in the third, he wasn’t on the ice nearly as much as usual and didn’t take part in the shootout. That doesn’t mean Karlsson won’t suit up against the Wild. That update will come from coach Guy Boucher after the skate.
“We’ve said all year our goal is to make the playoffs and we’d rather do that sooner than later,” said centre Zack Smith on Wednesday. “If we can have one more step toward that tomorrow night with a win, that’d be huge.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, who scored a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, are now four points behind the Senators, who have 91, for second place in the Atlantic, while the Boston Bruins (86) and Tampa Bay Lightning (83) are both pushing to climb as the finish line fast approaches.
This isn’t the position the Senators wanted to be in as they prepare for this final stretch. The belief has always been that if they got to 96 points, that would guarantee them a spot in the post-season. That’s still the case, but they can’t afford to let points slip away, either.
They haven’t faced any of them much, but the Senators don’t have a win this season against any of the three opponents left on this trip. The club dropped a 2-1 OT decision to the Wild on Nov. 13 in Ottawa and a 3-2 decision to the Jets on Feb. 19. The club is 0-1-1 against Detroit.
Coupled with the loss to the Habs on the weekend, the Senators have dropped two straight and four of their past six games. Goalie Craig Anderson, who made a terrible giveaway to allow the Flyers to tie it up in the third period on Tuesday, has won only one of his past five starts.
Boucher looks at the glass halffull, so he preferred to see the positives in the loss to the Flyers. The Senators had opportunities — they just weren’t able to cash in and if they’d just got a goal or two instead of the posts they hit, then it would have been a different story for Ottawa.
The Senators still have confidence, but they’d like to halt this losing streak and get back to playing good hockey going into the post-season. You can’t just flip a switch once you get to the playoffs — that’s why it’s better for Ottawa to work out whatever issues it has right now.