Sens haven’t hit fire sale mode, but changes loom
There is no “For Sale” sign being put up outside the Canadian Tire Centre.
But, that doesn’t mean there won’t be changes made in the New Year.
The Ottawa Senators will close out 2017 with back- to- back home games starting with a visit by the Columbus Blue Jackets Friday night. Then, after the Boston Bruins visit Saturday, general manager Pierre Dorion can draw up his list of New Year’s resolutions to improve this hockey club.
While the word in NHL circles is Dorion isn’t ready to sell off all of the club’s assets, he has been willing to discuss nearly every player on his roster — with the exception of captain Erik Karlsson and winger Mark Stone — as the Senators sit 14 points out of the final wild card spot in the East with 47 games left to play.
League sources indicated Wednesday the most popular players on the club’s roster if Dorion wants to trade remain the likes of winger Mike Hoffman, centres Derick Brassard and Jean- Gabriel Pageau along with defenceman Cody Ceci.
Of course, nothing can happen until Dorion is ready to pull the trigger.
League executives believe there are several teams that have spoken to Dorion about Hoffman, who has a cap hit of $ 5.1 million that runs through 2019- 20 campaign. It’s believed the St. Louis Blues are among the frontrunners for Hoffman and GM Doug Armstrong is willing to part with the necessary return.
No, the Senators don’t want to do a total rebuild, but if they’re going to make changes they want to get younger and Hoffman can bring back the pieces the organization wants if the playoffs are out of the question this year. He is a proven goal scorer and that’s why he has drawn a lot of interest.
But, breaking up is difficult to do and you can’t fault the Senators for the fact they’re having a difficult time stomaching how sideways this season has gone. The players know Dorion can’t afford to sit still much longer without making changes and many have been around long enough to know moves aren’t far away.
“( Changes) are part of the business and when you don’t have success changes happen and when you don’t play well changes happen,” said alternate captain Dion Phaneuf following the club’s 37- minute skate at home Thursday. “We’re all big boys, we know this business. We’ve been around it and we’ve seen it.
“It’s on us. It’s not on anyone else. As players, we haven’t gotten the job done.”
The players haven’t got a sense of the timetable, though.
“You almost don’t want to comment on it because I don’t know where they’re at with it and I’d be speaking out of turn if I really did and commented on it but I think we all understand it’s coming because of where we’re at,” said winger Bobby Ryan.
Phaneuf said he believes the club’s management has been tolerant with this group.
“I think they’ve shown great patience and they’ve given us lots of opportunity to come together and we’re going to try to continue to try to work out way out of it,” Phaneu said. “We’re not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves because that doesn’t do anybody any good.”
The Senators head into the visit by the Jackets with only three wins in their last 19 games. They’ve given up four goals or more in 15 games this season — including a 5- 1 loss Tuesday in Boston — and the Senators have only two victories in those games where they’ve pretty much come apart at the seams defensively.
“It’s been frustrating in all aspects,” Phaneuf said. “The whole slide, or the whole ( six weeks), however, you want to say it, we just haven’t been able to grab traction. If we knew and it was that easy of a fix we’d do it.
“Whenever you have this type of adversity and whenever you go through this, there’s only one way to get out of it and that’s to come together and you’ve got to work your way out. Maybe in a couple of weeks, we’ll be standing here and saying we’re playing much better. But we’ve got to find a way to work to deserve it.
“Right now, we’re in the position we’re at because we deserve to be where we’re at and we haven’t played well enough.”
It’s hard to believe it has to come to this for a team that got to within a goal of getting to the Stanley Cup final last spring and coach Guy Boucher will argue this isn’t the same team but the Senators made minimal changes. The reality is this group — including the coaching staff — has completely underachieved.
Boucher opted to try to keep the message positive and really, what other choice does he have? Nobody is going to throw in the towel because there’s too much hockey left to be played.
“I’m looking forward to ( Friday’s) game. I really am,” Boucher said. “Every moment of the day is a chance where we can do so something good whether to change, keep or grow something.
“I want to have a hard game against a hard team and I’m expecting a hard fight.”
If some of these Senators don’t put up a fight they’ll be packing their bags.