The Ottawa Senators have had a rather jam-packed start to their 84 game season. Last night, they visited the Philadelphia Flyers for their fifth game over the span of eight days, including back-to-back games on Monday and Tuesday. With a banged-up roster and key players absorbing tons of minutes to make up for the absences, it is fair to say that the players could be tired. The exhaustion was surely evident last night. Saturday night’s game at Xfinity Mobile Arena should have been an easy win for the Senators but the Flyers came out hungry to eventually secure their first win of the season.
Despite a surging start to the season with six wins in nine games, the Senators have not played the best hockey as of late. With just one regulation win and two losses in their last five games, their play has been sluggish for the most part and there has been little offensive production. They rank 23rd across the league for goals scored with just 22. Star centre Tim Stützle had five goals in his first five games of the season but has since been cold with just one assist last night. That was his only point in the club’s last three games.
Special teams haven't been very special
One of the most obvious issues coming out of Saturday’s loss is the team’s power-play. With William Eklund and Jake Sanderson both out with injuries, the Senators’ power-play is a complicated experiment. Ottawa has failed to capitalize on 34 of their 39 man-advantage opportunities and their 12.8% conversion rate ranks them 28th in the NHL. In last night’s loss, they were unable to score on two power-plays. To add insult to injury, Flyers forward Matvei Michkov scored the team’s eventual game-winning goal on the power-play.
Senators off-season acquisition André Burakovsky also needs to find his fit on this roster. He has been called upon to fill roster spots after the countless injuries but has yet to show anything works. In just five games played so far, he has no points and just two shots. Last night, he had just 9:14 of ice-time, the lowest so far this season. He was brought in this summer to play primarily in the team’s top-six and has been given ample opportunity to do so, it just isn’t working yet for the 31 year old winger.
With Thomas Chabot now added to the list of injuries for the club and his status unknown, the Senators need to get some much needed rest over the next couple of days before their big game this week when their former captain returns to town. Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson is expected to make his return to the lineup and that should provide some reassurance but the club really could use both of their top defencemen. It definitely doesn’t help that Brady Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers have been on one of the hottest streaks in the league entering this much anticipated matchup.
The Senators will host Tkachuk’s return to the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday night.
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