SENATORS HAVE TO BE OPEN TO ANYTHING AT TRADE DEADLINE
Minutes after the Ottawa Senators had lost their 29th game of the NHL season Tuesday (4-1 in Nashville), head coach Jacques Martin spoke about his team's effort, the pushback in the first period and the missed opportunities in the second period.
What he didn't spend much time talking about was his team getting zero shots in a third period in which the Senators were outshot 19-0. It's not a misprint — the Senators had zero shots over the final 20 minutes. Let the ineptitude of that sink in.
Martin said his team “ran out of gas.”
“Ran out of gas?” They couldn't get a single shot on net because they were exhausted?
If you're falling back on the “ran out of gas” excuse — if a player is tired, get off the ice — you're not looking at the real problems.
“We were grinding a bit, that's expected on a back to back with some travel,” winger Mark Kastelic told TSN 1200's Gord Wilson.
“That's no excuse. Guys were battling and pushing. They're a good team over there. It was an unfortunate ending to the trip. We have to reset, regroup and get ready for the next one.”
It's not going to be an easy fix for a team that some nights executes Martin's schemes well; other nights, including Monday's 6-3 loss in Washington, are disastrous.
The goaltending isn't good enough, the defence isn't good enough, the forwards aren't good enough, at least collectively. That's been proven over a 57-game body of work, with the Senators sitting in second-last place in the Eastern Conference.
When the Senators turned up the heat in the first two periods Tuesday, Nashville goalie Juuse Saros was there to stop the puck, keeping his team in the lead. Those game-savers are something the Senators haven't got enough of this season. While goalie Joonas Korpisalo made plenty of big stops Tuesday, some of them unconventional, it was the pucks that got past him that really hurt. A couple of the Predators' goals, maybe all of them, were stoppable.
But that's life for the Senators this season. Not enough saves. Nashville had two goals on its first seven shots. Game over. As it turns out, that's all the Predators would need.
After the Predators scored those two goals, the Senators settled down and played pretty well for a big stretch of the first and second periods, outshooting Nashville 14-8 and 11-9 before the final-period bombardment.
“There are some things we need to clean up,” said captain Brady Tkachuk. “It's frustrating. Frustrating games (Monday and Tuesday). I don't know what else to say.”
The Senators will soon find out the severity of an injury to centre Josh Norris, who left the game in the second period after being knocked into the Nashville net. He left the ice looking like he was in extreme discomfort and didn't return to the game. The Senators called it an “upper-body injury.”
It's worrisome because Norris, who has 16 goals and 14 assists this season, missed much of last year with a shoulder injury and eventually had surgery.
“What happened with Josh, I'm hoping and praying it's not too bad,” said Tkachuk. “Unfortunately it's part of the game. He's such a big part of our team on and off the ice. It definitely deflated us a bit. We wanted to win it for him. Unfortunately, we couldn't.”
Whatever the situation is for Norris, the Senators need to find a way to bounce back, a way to play the hockey they were playing before back-to-back road setbacks.
The Senators have shown they're capable of taking it up a notch. Too often this season, though, we've seen them find ways to hit new lows.
For some of the team's fans, the NHL trade deadline (March 8) can't come quick enough. It would be shocking if the Senators weren't a seller, with potential free agents Vladimir Tarasenko and Dominik Kubalik the most likely to be heading out.
There have been rumblings defenceman Jakob Chychrun, who has another year left on his contract, will be shipped out. While it isn't out of the realm of possibility he will be dealt, the Senators will want a high price in return if they go in that direction.
And, if you're general manager Steve Staios, who inherited this roster mess from previous GM Pierre Dorion, you've got to be open to anything. When you're near the bottom of the standings, it stands to reason you'd listen to an offer for just about anybody on your roster.
Ottawa is home to the Arizona Coyotes on Friday before heading out on a four-game-in-eight-day road trip that goes from Philadelphia (Saturday) to Anaheim (Wednesday) to Los Angeles (Thursday) to San Jose (Saturday).