NOW IT’S OFFICIAL: SENS ELIMINATED FROM PLAYOFFS
Convincing 6-2 victory by Edmonton closes door on Ottawa’s disastrous season
This Ottawa Senators season was deemed a disaster months ago. Thursday’s ugly loss just made it official.
While many thought it had already happened, Ottawa will wake up to the news the Senators were officially eliminated from the NHL playoff picture Thursday night with a 6-2 loss to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in front of 16,538 at Canadian Tire Centre.
McDavid led the Oilers’ charge with a four-point effort, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had three points. Drake Caggiula and Ty Rattie had two points each on a difficult night for Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson.
For Ottawa, Only Filip Chlapik, with his first NHL goal, and centre Matt Duchene were able to beat Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot.
“Some of our young guys are really stepping up, and now we’ve got to follow suit as older guys,” Duchene said.
The final nine games of the regular season will now be about looking toward next year. After advancing to within a goal of the Stanley Cup final last spring before losing in Game 7 of the East final to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators are headed for a long summer.
It looked like Duchene had given the Senators a boost when he scored his 23rd of the season at 4:43 of the third period on the power play to pull Ottawa to within a goal, but the Oilers struck for three straight goals from Caggulia, Rattie and Nugent-Hopkins in a span of 1:43 to pull out to a 5-1 lead.
“I thought we did a good job through two, and then they get that one and it just unravels after that,” Duchene said. “It’s disappointing. Once they get those two (goals) in the third, that’s when we’ve got to shut it down and stop the bleeding and be mature as individuals.
“We have to have some pride and play for our goaltender. I think we can do a lot better job out there.”
There was one highlight late on a tough night for the Senators. Chlapik, called up from Belleville earlier this month, tipped a Bobby Ryan shot by Talbot at 14:23 of the third for his first NHL goal. The assist gave Ryan his 500th NHL career point.
“It feels awesome. It took me 12 games to get my first one and I just wish we could get a win for that,” said Chlapik, who said he’ll give the puck to his parents. “(Ryan) told me before the last game if he got an assist on my first goal it would be his 500th. I’m lucky to be part of it.”
At times this looked very much like a game between two teams headed for an early spring, and at this point, the Senators are grasping at just about anything they can get to finish strong.
While the Senators haven’t had any hope of making the playoffs for a while, it’s now a reality.
“It’s not just shut it down and wait for next year. Guys are playing for jobs and positions next year. We want to get better as a team,” centre Zack Smith said before the game.
“We owe it to the management, the fans and ourselves to play the best hockey we can in the last 10 games. It’s not an easy position, to be on the outside looking in, without playoffs in the future. It’s tough. We’ve just got to work a little bit harder to get up for it and get motivated. We’re professionals. That’s our job.”
It doesn’t help the Senators that they’re short-handed.
Not only are they without captain Erik Karlsson, who is on personal leave, the Senators don’t have top winger Mark Stone, still out with a knee injury. Defenceman Christian Wolanin left the University of North Dakota on Wednesday, signed a contract and made his NHL debut on Thursday.
The Oilers aren’t going to make the playoffs, either, but pulled out to a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. The Senators were outshot 26-22 through two periods but had better chances on Talbot in the second when Ottawa held a 13-8 advantage on the shot clock but couldn’t beat him.
The Senators learned the hard way just how quickly McDavid can burn you. Left alone in front of the net, he took a perfect feed from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and beat Anderson at 5:10 of the second period to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead and, at that point, it looked insurmountable.
“We just didn’t have an individual answer for McDavid. He got four points and took the game over,” said Senators coach Guy Boucher.
One area the Senators want to work on down the stretch is their defensive play because they’ve been terrible in their own end all season. That was never more apparent than on the first goal, when some defensive gaffes in the Ottawa zone led to Caggiula opening the scoring at 8:23.
The Senators host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at
7 p.m. to close out this threegame homestand.