‘ We get bitter, or we get better’: Duchene
We get it. The players had to try and find something positive after losing 2- 1 to the New York Islanders Saturday, but the talk that they could have beaten the Islanders on Saturday and should have beaten Arizona on Nov. 18 is irrelevant.
What matters is that the Ottawa Senators losing streak is at six games — their longest in almost four years — and they were outplayed, sometimes badly, in the other four defeats.
Worse still, picking up but one point over that stretch in the modern NHL with points for overtime and shootout losses is devastating.
It seems so early to talk about this, but to reach 95 points — the entry spot for Toronto in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference last season — the Senators would need to pick up 73 points in their final 60 games. That’s 35- 22- 3, 34- 21- 5 or 33- 20- 7.
Mountain, meet the Senators. “We’ve got two ways we can go,” Matt Duchene said moments after finally breaking his ice cold stretch with a late goal against the Islanders. “We get bitter or we get better ... we’re going to choose the latter.”
DIVISIONAL HOPE
It’s astounding, really, how terrible the Atlantic Division is, where only Tampa and Toronto have won more games than they’ve lost. If the Senators somehow make it back into the playoff race, they have a better shot as the third seed in the Atlantic than as a wild card team ... As dire as the situation appears in Montreal, the Canadiens could pass the Senators in the standings with a win over Columbus on Monday. If not then, the Canadiens could overtake the Senators during Wednesday’s meeting at the Bell Centre, which kicks off the Senators ridiculous seven- game road trip ... When the clubs met Oct. 30 at Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators were 5- 1- 5 and the Canadiens were 3- 7- 1, eight points ahead.
ABOUT THE CAPTAIN
It’s no coincidence that captain Erik Karlsson’s personal six- game pointless streak is at six games, the same length as the Senators slide. The last time Karlsson went so long without a point? His rookie season of 2009- 10, when he went eight games without hitting the scoresheet. “We can do whatever we want and feel good about ourselves, but it’s results that we want,” said Karlsson. “We’ve got to pay the price a little bit more. I feel like we’re playing a little bit too much on the outside. If we don’t play the best hockey than we possibly can, we’re not going to put ourselves in situations to win games.”
RISE OF BIG BEN HARPUR
Beyond the points, something seems a tad off about Karlsson. It’s hard not to think that he’s still adjusting after his major off- season foot surgery. In explaining why he chose to play rookie Ben Harpur over rookie Thomas Chabot Saturday, Senators coach Guy Boucher said it was because Harpur could help take some defensive pressure off Karlsson in five- on- five situations. “( Harpur) is able to play against the better players. It relieves some of the time on ice against better players for Erik to be able to do his thing, to give him a breather to go on offence and we thought we needed more of that.”