HOGBERG STEPS IN FOR INJURED MURRAY
With goaltender Matt Murray nursing an upper body injury, the Ottawa Senators have entered one day at a time territory in how they're going to fill their net.
Saturday afternoon against the Winnipeg Jets, it will be the beleaguered Marcus Hogberg who gets the start, with Filip Gustavsson backing him up.
After that, nothing is written in stone. Joey Daccord, who started in Belleville's season debut against the Laval Rocket Friday, could also enter the picture as soon as Monday in Toronto, when the Senators begin a threegame set with the Maple Leafs.
“Today, with COVID-19, you can't get guys in and out (quickly),” Senators coach D.J. Smith said in a Zoom call following Friday's practice in Winnipeg. “We'll re-evaluate everything after Saturday's game and see where we're at.”
So far, nothing has gone according to plan for the 2-121 Senators on the goaltending front.
Just when Murray had rediscovered his groove following his shaky start to the season, he left Thursday's 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets after a collision with defenceman Nikita Zaitsev. At this point, Smith says, it's not serious enough for Murray to be placed on the injured reserve list.
“We'll try to loosen him up and see what happens,” said the coach.
Hogberg, meanwhile, is in a desperate search for the solid game he displayed with the Senators in the latter half of the 2019-20 season.
There's no hiding from the string of weak goals and numbers — an 0-5-0 record, 4.88 goals against average and .836 save percentage — that have him sitting next to last in the NHL's goaltending statistics. Coincidentally, the only netminder with worse digits is former Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, now playing with the Washington Capitals.
“It has been tough, there are some goals that I want to have back,” Hogberg said. “But at the same time, I have to just try to take a big breath and believe in myself. I know I can play and I just have to focus on one shot at a time.”
There has been a disturbing pattern to some of the goals. Coming on in relief of Murray for the third period Thursday, Hogberg once again lost his angle, leaving too much of the net for Mathieu Perrault to score the Jets fourth goal.
Not surprisingly, Hogberg worked closely with goaltending coach Pierre Groulx at practice, looking for solutions.
“It's just simple stuff,” Hogberg said. “Sometimes I over play it at times and I'm maybe too aggressive. Me and P.G. are working to adjust that.”
Smith suggests that Hogberg, like many young players, is feeling the heat of playing under the hockey microscope in Canada and putting too much pressure on himself. Hogberg doesn't disagree.
“Every time you step on the ice, you want to play well and win the game and be the guy that can help the team, but at the same time, I just have to relax a bit and focus on my thing and what I can control.”
The Senators don't necessarily have to win Saturday's game for Hogberg to restore his place in the crease, but he does have to showcase enough in order to hold off Daccord and Gustavsson.
Smith has nothing but positives to say about his attitude.
“He has had a couple of off starts, but here's a kid who really works hard, battles in practice and his teammates love him. He lost his father a year ago. The guys are there to support him. He's going to battle out of it, because that's what he has done his whole career.”
Smith has had to be all about positive re-enforcement on endless fronts, considering the team has lost 12 of its past 13 games and 13 of 15 overall.
The Senators have proven they can keep pace with North Division teams for a period or two at a time (Ottawa outshot Winnipeg 18-6 in the scoreless first period the other night) but they tend to lose their focus and structure when they aren't rewarded and then fall behind. Now, they have to find a way to stay competitive without their No. 1 goaltender.
“There are lot of things that are frustrating, but if you're not positive in a situation like this, you're never going to get out of it,” said Smith. “I see little victories here or there that maybe (other) people don't see, like the (third) period against Edmonton and the (first) period against Winnipeg.
“Other teams are going to push back against us. Right now, we're ending up on the losing end, but valuable minutes are being played by a lot of young kids. Valuable lessons are being learned on how to win hockey games.”