National Post (National Edition)
Senators' rough start is only the beginning
REBUILD TAKES A LONG, HARD TURN IN THE TOUGH CANADIAN DIVISION
First, the good news: the kids are all right. Whether it's Josh Norris playing the role of a top-line centre or Brady Tkachuk exhibiting the sort of traits you'd want from a potential captain or Tim Stuetzle doing a little something on every shift that catches your eye, Ottawa's youngest players have so far been their best players. The future looks bright for a Senators team that has spent the past several years tearing the foundation down and rebuilding.
The bad news is that the rebuild is not over. Far from it.
Two weeks into this very short and very strange season, Ottawa has one win in eight games. That win, which came against the Toronto Maple Leafs on opening night and was followed up by a one-goal loss in a rematch two nights later, might have made it seem as though the Senators were ahead of their development curve. Some suggested they were going to be better this year than anyone initially thought. A few were even so bold as to suggest that they might even sneak into a playoff spot.
And then reality hit.
Last week, the Senators dropped three in a row to the Winnipeg Jets, losing by a combined score of 14-7. This week, they went 0-3 against the Vancouver Canucks, where they were outscored 16-3.
Ottawa, which is on a seven-game losing streak, can't seem to score. It can't keep the puck out of the net. And with 3½ more months to go, it probably can't wait for the season to end.
In other words, the Senators are not spoiling any of the pre-season predictions that had them finishing last in the North Division. At this point, winning the No. 1 overall pick seems more likely than qualifying for the playoffs.
Ottawa is the worst team in Canada. If given the chance, it might be the worst team in the NHL.
And that's fine. This was supposed to be a year where the kids played a ton of minutes and took their daily lumps. This was supposed to be a year of growing pains, where the kids learned to crawl before taking a step toward contending for a playoff spot. Wins and losses were not supposed to matter as much as the process.
And the Senators are starting to see that growth. Head coach D.J. Smith praised the team for playing “winning hockey” in Thursday's 4-1 loss to Vancouver. Keep it up, he said, and the wins will eventually come.
Maybe. Or maybe this is going to be one of those years where the losses keep piling up and the only thing worth looking forward to is the potential of adding 6-foot-6 defenceman Owen Power — the projected top pick in the 2021 NHL Draft — to a growing stable of young players.
With that being the case, this would normally be the time when the rest of the hockey world stopped watching games featuring the Senators and switched their attention to the actual contenders. But that's not happening this year. With Ottawa facing a Canadian opponent on every other night, their mistakes are being broadcast across the country for all to see.
We're seeing how the sausage is made. And it isn't pretty.
Losing three in a row is one thing. Losing three in a row to the same team is another. And when you do it twice, it's impossible to ignore.
There is no hiding this year. There is no escape. There are also no breaks.
Ottawa doesn't get to play Detroit, Chicago or any of the other teams in the league that are already in the mix for a lottery pick. They don't get an opponent on the second half of a back-toback or even get to surprise a team that it will only see twice in the year.
No, for the next threeplus months, this is going to be a torturous grind. You could say that this might be the best thing for a team that is trying to take that next step. By losing, you're learning. But at the same time, it's looking more and more like the Senators are the goat being dropped into the dinosaur pen in Jurassic Park.
They are quickly becoming the North Division's punching bag — or confidence booster. It's the one relatively easy matchup in a division where there are no easy nights.
Playing the Senators may not be a guaranteed two points in the standings. But against an inexperienced team that is still learning how to play at both ends of the ice and is leaving goalie Matt Murray out to fend for himself, it's definitely a chance to break out of a scoring slump.
Just ask the Canucks, who were no better than the Senators were when the week started, having lost five of their past six games. At the time, their top players weren't scoring like they were supposed to and their goalies weren't making the saves that they needed to. Three games later, with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser combining for four goals and seven points and J.T. Miller scoring his first two goals of the year, everything seems right again in Vancouver.
Next up for Ottawa is Edmonton. And with the Oilers struggling to put wins together, you can bet that it's a two-game series that Connor McDavid has already circled on his calendar.