Kelly key to getting Senators on track
Leadership singled out
In the six-month NHL season, we’re all guilty of getting too caught up in the short term.
A team wins two or three in a row and we often suggest they’ve turned the corner to something great. Drop two or three, though, and we have a tendency to believe all could be lost.
In the case of the Senators, fan worry was back after the back-to-back shutout losses to Buffalo and St. Louis.
The Senators have since rebounded with an uneven win over Dallas and a solid victory over the New York Islanders — which is in keeping with how they’ve been able to keep hills from becoming mountains throughout the season. The Senators kept a mid-December dip to three games (0-2-1) and the new year slide to four games (0-3-1).
The way coach Guy Boucher sees it, the leadership group has been pivotal in not letting things get away.
“Our guys that have to come up with some leadership really have,” Boucher said of a group that includes Erik Karlsson, Dion Phaneuf, Mark Stone, Kyle Turris and Chris Kelly. “They recognized that we had a little patch of periods that we didn’t like and that we’ve got to clean that up. They were the first to do that.”
Boucher singled out Kelly, who was “extremely vocal the past two games and very calm about what we had to do and how to manage it.” HAMMOND CLEARS WAIVERS
Goaltender Andrew Hammond was assigned to Binghamton of the American Hockey League Sunday after clearing waivers.
As a result, the complication of having three goaltenders in the NHL has now become the problem of having three netminders in the AHL. For now, the question is how does Kurt Kleinendorst handle Hammond, Chris Driedger and Matt O’Connor? Longer term, the Senators must try to find a way to dump Hammond’s $1.35-million salary that remains for the 2017-18 season.
RYAN’S HOPE
Good on Boucher for trying to pump up Bobby Ryan’s defensive play Saturday, but something is amiss when your highest-salaried forward — $7.25-million salary cap hit for this and the next five seasons — is not playing with either Derick Brassard or Kyle Turris. Ryan played 16:33 against the Islanders, but he had no shots on goal.
It would be a shock if the Senators chose to protect Ryan for the expansion draft.
THE DEFENSIVE PUZZLE
The Senators have dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen for the past two games, partly because Boucher was concerned about the health of one of his top-six blue-liners — who he didn’t name. Could it be Marc Methot, who ended up playing only 14:38 against the Islanders? The only time Karlsson’s partner has played less this season was on Nov. 13.