Talking to the players about a season gone wrong
It took a while, but reality has set in for the Ottawa Senators.
Four consecutive losses have put them 16 points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild card spot in the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference and, in fact, closer to the basement, after the Buffalo Sabres moved within four points with a startling 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
Coming off a horrible 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Senators players had Wednesday off to lick their wounds and try to figure a way out of the doldrums as they prepare to face the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre in their final game before the NHL AllStar Game break.
People might not like the words, but you have to give captain Erik Karlsson credit for his blunt assessment of the situation when he was asked after the latest bad loss whether this team was close to turning the corner.
“No, not really,” Karlsson said. “I think we’re trying to figure it out but, as I said, we’re dedicated to do it, we work hard enough and we put the effort into doing it, but when it comes to playing hockey, I don’t think that it’s there right now. It’s not something that’s going to be fixed easily over the next little bit.
“It’s going to take some work and we’re going to have to find a way to get back to that good feeling that we know we can have, and go out there to play with speed, control and a good possession game, which is something that we haven’t done in a long time.”
Karlsson is right. The Senators have shown zero signs of coming out of the malaise they’ve been in all season. They’re at a loss for words to explain what’s gone wrong, but Tuesday provided another example of the team not giving itself a chance to win and letting a game slip away due to bad mistakes.
Frustrated isn’t the word to describe what’s happening, and maybe the Senators need to collectively look in the mirror to try to find the answers, because this season has gone from bad to totally embarrassing for a team that nearly went to the Stanley Cup Final last spring.
“We should all be done making excuses for this. I just don’t want to hear any more of it,” defenceman Mark Borowiecki said. “It’s not acceptable and we’ve got to figure out a way to get over this.
“It’s extremely tough. This is such a long, arduous season and, at the best of times, it wears on you mentally and physically. When things aren’t going your way, it just adds up and adds up. We’re in our own heads right now. By no means am I making an excuse. I’m searching for answers, too, but at some point, we’re just going to have to man up and find a way out.”
Borowiecki said the inconsistency of this team runs deep.
“There’s many different ways to approach this, but I think the message to each other and to ourselves, from the coaches to the players and everyone top-tobottom in this organization, is that this isn’t acceptable, coming out and playing the odd shift hard and taking the odd one off,” Borowiecki added.
“The lack of accountability ... I just think we need to really man up, own this and get through this together. The easy thing is for me to say (what’s happened here) is above my pay grade, and I’m sure everybody has an answer and everybody has a solution, but it’s frustrating for people watching, the media, and even more frustrating for us.
“We’re not taking this lightly in here. It’s not like we’re goofing around after games and feeling good about ourselves and going to sleep at night. None of us are happy about this. We don’t know why it’s happening, and if we did, it’d be a lot easier to fix.”
Many people feel the easy solution for turning things around would be to fire head coach Guy Boucher, because it doesn’t look like his message is getting through anymore, but this organization has had six coaches in 10 years and general manager Pierre Dorion believes the players should be held accountable.
At this point, it makes no sense to make a coaching change. The best bet is to let this season play out, deal a couple of players for prospects at the deadline, get a strong first-round draft pick and then figure out what do with Boucher and his staff.
The Senators can salvage this season by at least pushing to the finish line with a better effort, but they look like a team resigned to the fact they’re going nowhere fast, with an end to the losing nowhere in sight.