Ottawa Senators

Game Day: Senators @ Jets - at least go down swinging
April 1, 2017, 8:44 AM ET [9 Comments]
Jared Crozier
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Don't expect a return of the King tonight in Winnipeg. If Don Brennan is to be believed (and I will let you make your own decision on that one), Erik Karlsson and Zack Smith have already flown back to Ottawa and won't be around for this one.




So that being said, a win would be nice, a point would be great, but even in a loss against pretty tough odds, I would at least want to see an effort and a case of giving a damn, because that last aspect wasn't visible against the Wild on Thursday.

Not much went right against the Wild, and games like that will happen now and again, but it is no coincidence it game on a night when they were without their captain for the first time in almost three years. It may have been a perfect storm of a good team trying to get out of a month-long slump and seeing a weak defense in front of them, but Ottawa certainly did their part in making things pretty easy for the Wild for most of the night.

The Jets don't have much to play for at this point, having already been eliminated from playoff contention and playing out the string. However, Winnipeg has won their last three so they aren't just rolling over, so give them some credit on that.

No confirmation as of yet on who will start for Ottawa, but there has to be some consideration to turning to Mike Condon, who has been the more consistent goalie of late, and Craig Anderson has struggled in his past half-dozen games. Anderson has allowed 3 or more goals and had sub-.900 save percentages in 3 of his last 6 starts and has a 1-3-2 record in that time. Condon hasn't allowed more than two goals in his last 3 starts, with a 1-1-1 record. Since March 12th, Condon has a 1.60 GAA and .950 SP in 3 starts, while Anderson has a 3.10 GAA and .900 SP in 6 starts. Which one gives the team a better chance to win at the moment?

The Senators also need to find a way to generate some offense, which would go a long way to overcoming defensive shortcomings without Karlsson and Marc Methot. Some scoring slumps are reaching unacceptable levels (Bobby Ryan, Derick Brassard) and perhaps it is time to concentrate on getting those with offensive potential together to try to get them going rather than spread it out over 3 lines and have just 2 players (Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman) providing most of the offense by themselves.

It is not time to panic, yet, as the Senators have put themselves in a good position. From my standpoint, win or lose, I just want to see that they care and that they aren't going to throw in the towel because of a couple of injuries, regardless of who they are affecting. They still have 20 players in the lineup, and even if they aren't the 20 strongest players that they could have, that is no reason to just give up.