Senators may have shot to end skid
If the Ottawa Senators are going to stop their current four-game losing skid, the club needs its best players to step up.
Ottawa’s oft-maligned Bobby Ryan gets plenty of ice time and he has to step up offensively if Ottawa is going to have any chance of halting this difficult start to the NHL season.
The Detroit Red Wings haven’t been a whole lot better, but Anthony Mantha had been one of the club’s best players with six goals and 10 points before Tuesday’s home game against Vancouver.
Here are five things to watch for when the Wings and Sens line up in Ottawa on Wednesday:
1
Stick with Nilsson in net Senators coach D.J. Smith has indicated he’ll use both goalies, but this time it might be an opportunity to go back to Anders Nilsson. He made 41 stops in the club’s
2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday and he’s given this team a chance to win with 93 stops on the 97 shots he has faced in his last two games.
2
Power up the power play
The Senators have done a better job with the man advantage and had a goal against the Coyotes on Saturday. But the club has to get this area trending in the right direction after going 1-for-25 in eight games this season. The Senators were 0-for-2 against the Stars and haven’t been drawing a lot of penalties, either.
3
A break in the schedule
The Senators had Tuesday off after arriving home from Dallas in the wee hours of the morning. The Wings are coming off a home date Tuesday against the Canucks, which means Detroit will be a tired team. The Senators aren’t going to get many chances like this and they have to take advantage when they do. 4
Production from the middle Chris Tierney has been the club’s best and most consistent centre. That wasn’t expected to be the case at the start of the season. The Senators need more scoring from Colin White, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Artem Anisimov.
5
Home sweet home
The Senators wrapped up a three-game road trip with a 2-1 loss. They picked up a point in a 3-2 loss to Vegas and this game is the first of a three-game homestand. A victory here would set the tone with the Islanders and San Jose Sharks coming to town this weekend. Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas slipped away to Russia earlier this month, part of a trip to visit a couple of former NHLers in the KHL playing with CSKA Moscow.
According to Pavel Lysenkov of Sovsport.ru, Dubas met with centre Mikhail Grigorenko and defenceman Nikita Nesterov, free agents next season. Also on the Maple Leafs’ radar, according to Sportsnet, is undrafted CSKA forward Konstantin Okulov, who has 14 points in 18 games. Montreal is also chasing the 24-yearold, who has been with the club for three seasons.