Wherein The Ottawa Senators Can't Buy A Goal

Sad Michalek (Photo via sbnation.com)

Silver Seven, hands down my fave Senators blog, beat me to the punch on this one. Alfreddson and Co. cannot score a goal to save their contracts. It's downright shitty timing for a drought with the NHL playoffs around the corner. Ottawa has scored 5 goals in their last 4 games. That's 0.8 goals per game. And that is just not enough. Teams go in and out of these funks throughout a season. I get it. But now is not the time to start falling apart. I've watched these games over the past week and one theme keeps coming up: puck support. As in there isn't any. How do you expect a defensman to pass the puck from his defensive end to his forwards when they are all floating around the offensive blue line? Why are you expecting a pass when your ass is in neutral? Why are you consistently dumping the puck without burning steel to grab it? MacLean stated that he wants the Sens to be a puck possession team, but it looks like they are a puck regression team of late. Instead of pushing the play, they are giving it away. These are terrible habits to get into with the second season on the doorstep.

According to sportsclubstats.com, the Sens need to be a .500 team during the remaining 8 games to be assured a spot. As of this moment, they are sitting at a 94.1% chance of qualifying for the tourney. Now, the only bright side I see in this offensive eclipse is that they could slip into the 8th seed and play the New York Rangers instead of the Bruins. The Rangers are no walk in the park but Ottawa does have their number this season since they've won 3 of 4. The Bruins on the other hand are 5-0 against the Sens. If losing is part of their master plan to play a team that isn't from Boston, they are giving me a fuckin' heart attack.

I've heard some peeps say that Ottawa couldn't generate any offense in their last game against Jersey because Spezza was out, which is a bunch of crap. Spezza has been invisible before he missed that game, so that point is moot. The REAL issue here is that no one is pulling their weight. Here are the guilty parties: Turris - 4G 3A in 25 games, Alfredsson - 0 G 3 A in 11 games, Spezza - 2 G 4 A in his last 10, Michalek - 0 G 2 A in 6 games. The offense has been coming from Karlsson (9 G 8 A in his last14 games) and that's about it. Thank Frank Finnigan that Ben Bishop has been incredible since he was picked up via a trade before the deadline. The 6'7" kid from Denver has put up some very respectable stats that should make Craig Anderson nervous: 1.95 GAA with a .925 save percentage.

It's not all doom and gloom for the Sens in the end. But they will need to get their offense back online as soon as they can. If not, they will be a round one victim and will need to fight the Toronto Maple Leafs for tee times.

-Paqman