SENATORS’ DOWNWARD TRAJECTORY CONTINUES
Frustration mounts as Duchene remains pointless and team loses fifth straight
The downward spiral continues and the question marks keep growing for the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators extended their losing streak to five games with a 5-2 defeat to the high-flying Columbus Blue Jackets Friday at the Nationwide Arena.
As the Senators flew home immediately after the game for Saturday’s date against the New York Islanders at Canadian Tire Centre, they were shaking their heads yet again.
“It’s a tough slide right now, a lot of frustration,” said Tom Pyatt, who opened the scoring. “We’re going to be a better team coming out of this. We just have to keep building it. It’s nice we have that game tomorrow to get right back into it.”
On Friday, the Senators offered yet another new way to lose, finishing the road trip with nothing to show from three games.
“We made more mistakes than them, doesn’t matter whether it’s in the first, second or third period,” said defenceman Dion Phaneuf. “The road trip is not good. There is nothing to draw from it. We didn’t get any points, but we’ve got to find a way to claw back.”
Thanks to Craig Anderson’s early goaltending, they were very much in the game in the third period, tied 2-2 and only a couple of great Sergei Bobrovsky saves away from taking a final period lead.
Yet after coming up empty on a power play, extending yet another ugly streak — that’s 0-for-17 now — Cam Atkinson stepped out of the penalty box, breaking the tie with 9:30 remaining. It was Atkinson’s second of the night.
Three minutes later, Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno, the former Senator, beat Anderson up high. Tyler Motte iced the game, scoring into an empty net.
Before the late rally by the Blue Jackets, Bobrovski made superb stops off Mark Stone, on the power play, and Bobby Ryan, to keep the Senators from going ahead.
“When you’re in this, you’ve got to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Ryan. “I think you can start to see it a little bit. We’re stuck in the storm right now.”
After two periods, the Senators and Blue Jackets were deadlocked 2-2. Pyatt and Mike Hoffman had the Senators’ goals, while Atkinson and Markus Nutivaara scored for the Blue Jackets.
Don’t be fooled. The Senators had no business being close and were only alive because of Anderson’s goaltending.
Hoffman’s goal, on only the Senators seventh shot of the game, nine minutes into the second, tied the game 2-2.
Anderson didn’t see the Nutivaara shot that gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead, a floater from the blue line that cleared a scrum of buddies in front of him. The Senators challenged the play, pleading goaltender interference, but the argument went nowhere.
Senators coach Guy Boucher was stressing the positives.
“I thought the first 10 minutes of the third period were outstanding,” said Boucher. “The power play looked great, both units, just couldn’t score. And we were right there, at 2-2.”
The Senators entered the game with myriad problems.
The goaltending hadn’t been good enough, with both Anderson and Mike Condon have been in net during the losing slide. Senators coach Guy Boucher stuck with Anderson against the Blue Jackets, believing that as the No. 1 goaltender, he has to play a major role in leading the team out of trouble. He certainly did his part Friday in answering Boucher’s trust — at least in the opening two periods.
The defence has been spotty during the slide, leading to a lineup shakeup. Rookies Thomas Chabot and Ben Harpur were both in the lineup against the Blue Jackets, while Boucher opted to make Freddy Claesson a healthy scratch.
The pairing of Harpur and Cody Ceci had a rough opening two periods, guilty of giveaways and struggling to contain the pressure from the Blue Jackets. Look for a change Saturday against the Islanders.
Topping the issues among the forwards was the fact that Matt Duchene entered the game pointless in six games with Ottawa, while linemate Ryan was goalless in 12 games this season. After being shutout again Friday, those streaks are now at seven and 13, respectively.
With little chemistry happening, Boucher split them up midway through the second period. Duchene found a new home on a line with Hoffman and Ryan Dzingel, and he had more jump afterwards. Ryan played with Pageau and Alex Burrows.
“I’ve had some chemistry with Pageau in the past and you know what you’re going to get,” Ryan said. “I thought we had some good, grinding shifts down low. For me, individually, I had the puck a little bit more and had some chances in the third.”
Everything, meanwhile, is going right for the Blue Jackets.
Bobrovsky has been incredibly stingy, going 5-0 with a 0.79 goals against average and .978 save percentage during the hot stretch. kwarren@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ Citizenkwarren