ANOTHER TOUGH DAY ON THE ROAD
BLACKHAWKS 3, SENATORS 2 (SO)
The trade rumblings surrounding Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson hit a fever pitch.
The Senators team bus was involved in a fender bender on the streets of Chicago en route to the United Center.
The Senators went on to lose 3-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks in a shootout that went seven rounds deep.
Just another day on the road for a club that has won only seven of 29 games away from home.
Nick Schmaltz scored the shootout winner past Senators goaltender Mike Condon in a game that seemed like it might never end.
The Senators certainly had their chances to win in overtime, when both Thomas Chabot and Matt Duchene hit the post.
In regulation time, Zack Smith and Duchene scored for the Senators, while Patrick Kane and Artem Anisimov netted goals for the Blackhawks. Anton Forsberg faced 31 Senators shots in regulation and overtime.
The teams headed into the third period tied 2-2.
Considering the big picture of the lost season, Wednesday’s defeat isn’t any more painful than any other along the way, but it did mean the Senators returned home from their twogame trek to Tennessee and Illinois with only a single point for their efforts.
The bigger story, of course, is what will happen with Karlsson before Monday’s trade deadline.
The game was played with franchise-altering questions in the air.
Is there really a good enough offer out there for Senators general manager Pierre Dorion to move on from the most electrifying player in team history?
If there isn’t, how much sweetening of the pot will be necessary over the next four or five days to possibly make it happen?
They are queries that would have seemed crazy at the start of the NHL season, but it’s a season where nothing has gone according to plan.
That includes the Wednesday afternoon bump in the road that had Senators players filing off their original bus on the streets of Chicago onto a second bus to get them to the arena.
Just another road scar. The Senators entered the game on a four-game road losing streak, including dropping a 5-2 decision to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
With only seven road wins this season, the Senators have the fewest in the league.
They were also facing the Blackhawks for the first time since Kane lit up the Canadian Tire Centre for a goal and four assists on Jan. 9, as part of that Blackhawks’ 8-2 romp.
“He had a party,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said with a laugh on Wednesday morning about Kane. “Too bad we weren’t invited.”
But it’s hardly been a party of a season for the Blackhawks, whose decade-long dominance has come to an end.
The Blackhawks, winners of the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015, will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008, unable to recover after goaltender Corey Crawford suffered a pre-Christmas injury.
The Blackhawks have slipped to seventh and last in the Central Division, a full 10 points behind Colorado before Wednesday’s action. They faced the Senators with only one victory in their previous 10 games and only one win in their previous nine home games.
For all that, the Senators were fortunate to escape the first period in a 1-1 deadlock. The opening 20 minutes were dominated by the Blackhawks, who outshot the Senators 14-4.
Kane — who else? — got the scoring started, with a shot that slipped through Condon into the net with 5:41 remaining in the opening period.
Just as the goal was being announced inside the United Centre, though, Smith countered.
In the second period, the Blackhawks regained a one-goal lead on Anisimov’s goal, but Duchene tied the game again on a blistering shot that sailed over Forsberg ’s left shoulder. Duchene has nine goals and 13 assists in his past 21 games.
There’s little time for rest for the Senators, who were scheduled to fly back home immediately after the game, in preparation for facing the Tampa Bay Lightning, who spent Wednesday night in Ottawa waiting for the Senators for Thursday’s game.