WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOALS GONE?
Sens’ moribund offence directly to blame for team falling out of playoff contention
Bobby Ryan laughed about being a sacrificial lamb of sorts following the Ottawa Senators’ practice on Thursday afternoon.
As he began taking off his equipment, the media crowd went to him, looking for explanations for the post-Sweden misery that’s hit every part of the lineup and caused the Senators to freefall far out of playoff contention.
Following Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Senators rank 29th in the overall standings, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes.
“It’s easy to hide when there’s one guy going through it, because I’ve been there,” Ryan said with a chuckle. “But when you’re all collectively in that rut or slump or whatever the word might be for it, everybody grips the stick tighter. If you’ve got 20 guys doing that, you lend yourself to one-goal games, and that’s what we got last game (a 2-1 overtime loss to Detroit on Wednesday).”
The numbers are beyond ugly. In the eight weeks since what should have been a moraleboosting sweep of the Colorado Avalanche in Stockholm on Nov. 11, the Senators have gone 4-13-4. They have been outscored 77-40 in that span. They’ve lost nine consecutive road games.
Those are the type of statistics the Senators haven’t seen since the expansion days of the franchise.
“Every time we take a step forward to find that rhythm, we take two steps back fairly quickly, and that’s the mark of an inconsistent team, not being able to do it for 60 minutes,” said Ryan. “You try not to let it wear down the guys around you and try not to put on a bad vibe in the room, but we’re all going through it at the same time.”
There are glaring problems throughout the lineup, including the struggling power play and penalty kill units.
The roster recipe isn’t right. The age and experience that was such an advantage during the long playoff run last spring has caught up to them in a hurry.
You can pick it apart anywhere — reloading with an influx of youth, all within the tight budget set by owner Eugene Melnyk, is the pressing challenge for general manager Pierre Dorion — but in the short term, perhaps the area of chief concern is the lack of goal scoring.
If you take away the Senators’ two-high scoring victories since Sweden — a 6-5 victory over the New York Islanders on Dec. 1 and a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 29 — the Senators have scored only 29 goals in the other 19 games.
Even with spectacular goalten- ding — the Senators received a long overdue brilliant effort from Craig Anderson against Detroit — it’s next to impossible to win on a consistent basis with those goal numbers. With the type of mediocre netminding the Senators have received for most of the year, forget about it.
Some of the post-Sweden individual numbers are staggering.
Mike Hoffman has gone 14 games without a goal. Matt Duchene has three goals and three assists in 21 games since Sweden. Tom Pyatt and Nate Thompson each have one goal and four assists. Alex Burrows has but one assist in 20 games and Jean-Gabriel Pageau has four goals and one assist.
Ryan, Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingel and Derick Brassard have had modest success, but together, they haven’t delivered consistently.
It should come as no surprise that Thursday’s workout, in preparation for Friday’s visit by the San Jose Sharks, featured colourful barking from head coach Guy Boucher and associate coach Marc Crawford.
Much of it focused on the need to work harder in the tough areas and to put more pucks on net.
“Production is directly related to the work around the net and that’s where it has to improve,” said Boucher in a message players have heard countless times, from countless coaches, during their careers.
“Thirteen times (against Detroit), we could have had a shot, but we decided not to shoot, for whatever reason. We’re looking for an extra play. In those 13 shots, there might be a goal in there, there might be momentum, there might be a rebound, a faceoff in the (offensive) zone. And we have to value that more.
“Most teams that are at the top, they put more pucks on net to create stuff out of nothing and have secondary chances, which is how most goals happen.”
It’s too late to salvage the season, but there certainly is pride — and, in some cases jobs — on the line.
While the Red Wings aren’t likely to make the playoffs, either, they appear to have turned the corner toward a brighter future with a group of younger, hungrier forwards, showcasing their speed against the Senators earlier this week.
If the Senators’ scoring struggles continue, the pressure to push out veteran forwards in favour of prospects will grow even more intense.