Is The Senators’ Season Over Before It Even Begins?
The Ottawa Senators are preparing to start the season with several notables questionable for the opening day lineup.
The prognosticators have the Ottawa Senators missing the playoffs, or at best as a wild card team, for the 2017–18 season. This is after losing the Eastern Conference finals in the eleventh hour of a Game Seven. On the face of it, this appears to be the typical lack of respect for a non-original six team that plays in the shadows of the hyped-up media centres of Montreal and Toronto.
However, as training camp starts up, it appears they might be right.
Erik Karlsson has been touted as the 3rd best player in the world after Crosby and McDavid, but Karlsson still can’t even wear shoes! Part of a tendon in his foot was surgically replaced with a tendon from a cadaver. The Senator’s captain does not expect to start the season, and he is not going to be able to just jump in to the lineup at peak form once he finally heals. It may be a few months before the Senators get their best player back on top of his game.
Second line centre Derick Brassard’s surgically repaired shoulder may not even be cleared for contact before October 6th, that’s the day after the first game of the season. Sophomore winger Ryan Dzingel is coming off wrist surgery, they are relying on him to get 15–25 goals. Defenseman Marc Borowiecki is still feeling the effects of a high ankle sprain that kept him out of the playoffs. Clark MacArthur was not cleared to play by team doctors and is expected to miss training camp, and perhaps part or all of the season. It could be anything from concussion issues to neck or back injuries. These are five injuries to keep an eye on, they could flare up at anytime this season, and that isn’t even counting top prospect Colin White’s broken wrist he suffered in a preseason tilt against Toronto.
Depth is going to be an issue throughout the season if the injuries start to pile up. The Senators depth on the blue line is promising but very inexperienced. At forward they are even thinner outside of the starting 4 lines. Lucky for the Sens, at least in my opinion, they have an average or better 2nd line and a dominant 3rd line that could easily plug holes higher in the line-up. This would create a very week 4th line and would essentially force Boucher to roll 3 lines.
The Senators have to learn from their mistakes. Thomas Chabot, Logan Brown and the aforementioned Colin White are the top prospects. It is going to be very tempting for GM Pierre Dorion to insert them into the line up to fill holes. Chabot and White in particular seem like they are playing at a high enough level to crack the line up, but this is not a road the Senators has explored with good results.
Remember Curtis Lazar? He was shoehorned into the roster as a first round pick and ended up not playing enough minutes in a role that would develop him to his full potential. His lack of offence and the lack of trust from the coach destroyed his confidence. The result was Lazar requesting a trade last season. He landed in Calgary, essential being traded for a second round pick, Ottawa also swapped depth defenceman Michael Kostka for Jyrki Jokipakka in the same deal. Jokipakka left as a free agent at the end of the season.
The final player missing is Marc Methot, who was lost in the expansion draft. He is nominally being replaced by Johnny Oduya, who some would say a mere warm body by comparison. It is no wonder that Ottawa is not very high in the power rankings. I wouldn’t be too excited about this season if I were looking at the Ottawa Senators roster through the bright lights of Toronto and Montreal, or from the far off lands of the Western Conference.
Predictions
All that said, those who have been watching the Ottawa Senators closely for the last year know better. Guy Boucher’s defensive system and his potential improvements to the offence (like a decent power play) may help the team hit the ground running, with or without the members of the team who are still on the mend. With any luck the Senators will survive, and maybe even thrive, in the first few months of the season. Once the squad is back at full strength, it will be business as usual, shutting down the opposition’s offence and capitalizing on the other teams mistakes.
Expect a tight race among the top teams in the Atlantic Division. The victor will likely be the healthiest team with the strongest goaltending. Not a very bold prediction, but this leads me to expect the Sens will finish 2nd or 3rd in the division and make the playoffs, leaving the two wild card positions to be squabbled over by the Leafs, Hurricanes, Rangers, Islanders, Flyers, Bruins and maybe even the Sabres.
Oliver Johnston is a hockey and baseball contributor for TheOcho.ca.
