The Decline Of The Senators

While they are the second-lowest scoring team in the league, the Senators have now surrendered 157 goals — second most after Edmonton’s 159, before Saturday’s action.

Since my last update of the Senators they’ve had just 3 wins in 15 games! Yes it has been that bad. Out of 5 games between 18th of December till the 31st, Ottawa scored 2 wins and 3 loses, out of which 1 was in OT. So that’s 5 out of a possible 10 points.

Of the 10 games we’ve played so far in January, the only bright spot is a 6-4 win against the New York Islanders. We’ve lost all the other 9 games, 2 in OT i.e a miserly 4 points out of 20. The low points have been humiliating home loses to Toronto 1-5 and 1-7 to Montreal. At home! Also a 0-6 loss in Boston to the Bruins. This makes reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs a distant dream.

It’s time to rebuild and that is only possible by offloading current players. Who do they move?

The Senators are casting about to see what they can get for Mike Fisher. But with the 30-year-old armed with a no-movement clause and two years left on his contract carrying a cap hit of $4.2 million, two league executives seriously doubt he’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. He’s been with the Senators his whole professional career, having signed on in 1998. Similarly the three Chris-es have been with Ottawa for more than a decade – Philips since 96, Neil from 98 & Kelly since 99. They form a huge core of the team – do the Sens trade these guys?

Ottawa needs a better top class goalie and better defencemen. The goalie problem has been stated for a long time and we just can’t depend on Pascal Leclaire who has been injured most of his time in Ottawa. If he is 100% fit he is more than capable of being a top class goalie. Brian Elliot is at best a good deputy but he has been leaking goals of late. Robin Lehner is too young and too untested but seems to be a goalie for the future.

I would try to sell the following – Gonchar, Smith, Shannon, Foligno, Regin, Ruutu, Winchester, Kovalev, Elliot & Kuba and try to get some strong players if possible.

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