New lineup is fun but flawed
Sens’ new, fast-paced style entertaining but it’s not the best route to victories
Follow along as we try to get a grip on the wacky, wide-open ride the new-look Ottawa Senators have taken us on in the opening week of the season.
Let’s begin with the excitement that comes from seeing the speedy, shiny stuff and taking in the new car smell. The early bash of Brady Tkachuk, the flash of Alex Formenton, the slickness of Thomas Chabot and the shock of Max Lajoie have created a buzz of promise.
If you look hard enough, you can glimpse a little bit of the 2017-18 New Jersey Devils here, a team that caught fire with the help of youngsters Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Pavel Zacha and Will Butcher.
Like the once-plodding Devils, the Senators’ patient trap game of yore has been replaced by an end-to-end track meet.
The edge-of-the-seat action from the first four games includes the following: a combined four goals in a 7:26 span against Chicago, four goals in 4:27 at Toronto, four goals in 13:56 in Boston and five goals in a 14:25 stretch with Philadelphia in town on Wednesday.
All told, we’ve seen 35 goals in 241 minutes. Go to the bathroom or go for a beer and you might miss a goal or three.
Yes, shinny is fun. Yet if we’ve learned anything about the nature of extended NHL success, all that glitters is not gold.
If the Senators had caught a break or two, they might have another win, instead of their current 1-2-1 record. At the same time, they could also be winless, due to their sloppy play.
Look under the hood of the sporty new Senators vehicle and too many pieces in the initial stages of the rebuilding project aren’t in sync. Far too often, the brakes aren’t even working.
Forget about the notion of a shutdown pair of defencemen.
As much as coach Guy Boucher tries to juggle his largely inexperienced group, the Senators have yet to find a single blue-liner who can consistently contain top forwards in his own zone. Accordingly, Jakub Voracek delivered a five-point night in the Flyers’ 7-4 win Wednesday and Patrice Bergeron put up four points in Boston’s 6-3 win on Monday.
Without injured centre Jean- Gabriel Pageau around to lead the necessary attention to defensive detail among the forwards, the breakdowns have been compounded that much more.
In Craig Anderson’s three starts, the Senators have given up 43, 37 and 45 shots. Only John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks has seen more action and he has played in four games.
“There’s no reason to panic or anything, but we’ve got to learn quick,” centre Matt Duchene said following the loss to the Flyers.
Ultimately, an aggressive attack only works if a team can adjust quickly to a counterattack. The Flyers had a field day in exploiting turnovers in and around the blue-lines.
“We’ve given up a lot of goals,” Mark Stone said of the leagueleading 20 that the Senators have already yielded.
“We’re turning the puck over and letting them come back pretty easy. (The Flyers) got three goals off the rush, as well, so that stuff can’t happen.”
Whether the Senators have the necessary skill to plug all those holes following the summer sell-off is an open question.
What we do know is that the new, younger edition of the Senators practises harder and longer. After taking one of their league-mandated days off Thursday, the Senators should be fully prepared for yet another back-to-basics workout Friday in preparation for Saturday’s matinee against the Los Angeles Kings.
The message is that trying to win by trading chances in a game of odd-man rushes won’t work.
“It’s exciting, but it’s not going to win many games,” says Boucher, who insists he was fully prepared for a bumpy ride at the start of the season.
In the big picture, there’s no difference between losing a game 7-4 or 4-1.
Either way, it comes up zero in the points column.
There’s no question, though, that a high-scoring loss creates more positive attention than a low-scoring defeat.
The happy medium, of course, is finding the delicate balance between the two that leads to the road of consistent success.