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.

3 Reasons Why The Ottawa Senators Are A Team To Watch

(Photo via senators.nhl.com)

Many (everybody) predicted that the Ottawa Senators would be tenants in Bettman's basement this season, myself included. I wasn't going to flip out like I did last pre-season when all the puck pundits predicted the Sens would miss the playoffs. I decided to have no expectations for this club this year. In case you missed it, the Sens traded a few pieces away before the 2011 deadline that were considered "heart and soul" character players including fan favourite Mike Fisher and defensive specialist Chris Kelly. So, this Ottawa Senators team is rebooting and building the next chapter of their history through the draft and free agent signings. I would've never guessed that the Sens would be holding down fifth place in the conference, 2nd in the Northeast in January. Did I mention that they are one of the hottest teams in the league over the last 10 games? Ottawa is 7-1-2 with a couple come from behind wins. This has been their story this season.