Sens at Land's End

Long time no post! And interesting things have been happening with the team over the last little while, too. Mostly bad things. I will now do a quick recap of the last two weeks in Sens land, which I feel can be summarized with reference to three disturbing trends.

Disturbing Trend #1: Blown Leads
January 10 against Buffalo, the Sens give up a two goal lead in the third period. They end up winning in a shootout. Then January 12 against Detroit, after playing a truly beautiful first two periods — huge thumbs up to the entire team for that one — the Sens give up another two goal lead in the third. They end up winning in regulation. So in both cases, the result was of the good, but I’d really like to see them … I don’t know … not collapse once in a while.

This disturbing trend no longer seems to be an issue for the team, but sadly that’s just because they never get the lead any more so they can’t possibly give it up. More on that later.

Disturbing Trend #2: Injuries! So many injuries.
I was really enjoying the Detroit game until that horrific moment in the third period when Dany Heatley went shoulder-first into the boards and left the game, at which point I started hyperventilating and soon passed out. When I came to the next morning I heard the news that Heatley had separated his shoulder and would be out 4-6 weeks. I lost consciousness again, waking up just in time to listen to the game that afternoon against the Islanders. I tried to calm myself down by thinking that hey, it couldn’t get much worse, right? Except no, because Jason Spezza left during the first period of that game after taking a hard hit. That almost did me in. Happily, Spezza didn’t end up missing more than part of one game. Relief! Except that not really, because two games later Alfie went down with a hip problem. What the hell?! How do those three of all players on the team suddenly end up getting injured at almost the exact same time? It’s too much for a Sens fan’s heart to take! Too much for a Sens player to take as well, I think: I had the feeling the team was shaken after seeing Heatley leave the Detroit game, and I think they likely would have maintained their lead in that one had he not got hurt. Though they seemed to be unaffected by Alfie leaving during the game against Carolina, I definitely think the shock of losing both those guys so close together hurt them in the games Alfie missed against Tampa Bay and Philadelphia.

Somewhere in all this there is a pun on The White Stripes’ song “The Big Three Killed My Baby.”

As I write this post, I am listening to the Florida game, and Alfie is back in the lineup, though it seems obvious that the hip is still bothering him. The Ottawa Sun reported today that Heatley, being some kind of genetically superior uberman, could be back sooner than expected. That’s good, because I have been walking around saying “4-6 weeks!” in a plaintive tone to various friends since his injury happened and I’m sure they’re getting sick of hearing about it.

Disturbing Trend #3: General Suckitude
Yeah that’s right, the Sens suck now. We all know it. Let’s look at the evidence.

Record: The Sens were 16-3-0 in their first 19 games. Since then, they are 14-12-4, aka 14-16, aka below .500. To put a bit brighter spin on it, they are 14-8-1 since that seven-game winless streak in November-December during which they went 0-4-3. However, in their last 15 games, they are a mediocre 8-7-0.

Goals against: The Sens are in the bottom half of the NHL in terms of even strength goals against and power play goals against. The team’s goals against average of 2.77 is 19th in the NHL.

Goals for: The Sens are still the highest scoring team in the league. Unfortunately, they pretty much have to be given the above. Since losing Heatley, they’ve been outscored 23-13. Take away the 5-1 win over Carolina and that’s 22-8.

Special teams: Well, we are used to the Sens’ power play being absolutely craptastic this season so the fact that it’s currently ranked 13th in the NHL actually comes as something of a pleasant surprise; however, they allowed their first short-handed goal of the season in the terrible 6-1 loss to Philadelphia, which is telling regarding the team’s defensive play of late. A look at the penalty kill stats is a shocker, as the Sens are now 16th in the league in that area.

Add all that up and it’s bleak to say the least. What’s truly alarming is the fact that the team struggles and struggles and does absolutely nothing about it. It feels like, for the most part, they just don’t care. They started the season with such fire; I could tell they were determined to get back to the Final this year, but that seems increasingly unlikely. This team has awful goaltending, weak defense, spotty offense, and what appears to be a real lack of character. I am not surprised at the goaltending or the fact that the offense behind the big three isn’t all that great. I am really shocked by the poor defensive play and character issues. If you had told me in October that a large portion of this team was basically going to quit showing up for games within a couple of months, I would never have believed you.

And yet I still think there’s reason to be optimistic. The game against Detroit showed that they can put in an extremely solid effort when they’re motivated. It’s still in there somewhere. It just has to come out a lot more often, and it needs to start showing itself very soon or this post-season will be a short one indeed.