OTTAWA — So, the Columbus Blue Jackets were in town and people were talking about Ottawa’s “trap game.”
To which I replied, slightly tongue in cheek, “you mean trap week.”
Because after the Tuesday visit of the 29th-place Blue Jackets, the Senators would face the 30th-ranked Anaheim Ducks and then the 32nd (and dead last) Chicago Blackhawks.
That is no small feat of scheduling finding three teams sitting below Ottawa to face in succession, considering the Sens are in 28th place in the NHL standings.
And that’s the rub. How can the Senators even be considered to be in a “trap” situation when the concept involves a superior team taking an opponent lightly?
After 50-plus games, the Sens have established themselves among the also-rans, not the contenders in the race to the playoffs.
As former head coach D.J. Smith loved to say, “we’re not in a position to take any team lightly.”
All the more remarkable, then, that after beating Columbus 6-3 on Tuesday to run their win streak to a season-high four games, the Senators did in fact take the Ducks for granted on Thursday night.
On their Eastern Canada swing, Anaheim fell 5-0 to Montreal and 9-2 to the Maple Leafs. But in between? They hung a 5-1 score on the Sens in front of a bewildered home crowd at the Canadian Tire Centre.
All of which was a prelude to the Senators’ Saturday matinee in Chicago against the lowly Blackhawks, losers of eight straight games.
After their run-in with the Ducks, the Sens would not assume anything about Chicago. Ottawa played an energetic road game, took it to the hosts all afternoon, and still came away 3-2 losers.
They were victimized on poor defensive zone coverage as Jason Dickenson buried a rebound past Sens goalie Joonas Korpisalo with just under two minutes to play in the third period.
As so often happens with the Senators, a goaltender with Ottawa connections played the hero in the blue paint. Former Ottawa 67’s star Petr Mrazek stood on his head in this one, stopping 40 of 42 Senators shots. Tim Stützle and Jakob Chychrun scored for Ottawa.
The Sens were the better team. Chicago had the better goalie.
It’s hardly the first time that has happened this season.
“He made some big saves,” interim head coach Jacques Martin said of Mrazek, who trained for years in Ottawa with local goalie coach Tom Dempsey.
“We had a lot of opportunities. We make one mistake and it’s in our net. And that’s the game.”
Korpisalo had a few good stops of his own among the 22 he faced. But the Connor Bedard shot that leaked through his pads for a five-hole goal to tie the game 2-2 at 10:54 of the second period was beyond painful. The Sens outshot the Blackhawks 22-6 in the second, had them reeling in their own zone, and yet they went to the second intermission tied with their hosts.
They were one bad play away from losing. And they made that bad play late in the third, three Ottawa players standing around like they were waiting for a bus, while Dickenson tapped home the winner.
Actually, there was one more horrible play — an earlier undressing of Ottawa’s defence by Bedard, and then the deke of Korpisalo, but the Senators successfully challenged the goal for an offside by Bedard.
Temporarily saved by video review. Ultimately doomed anyway.
On social media, fans were wondering yet again how departing general manager Pierre Dorion could have gotten the goalie personnel so wrong yet again. Korpisalo on a one- or two-year deal would have been one thing. But five years at $4 million per year?
Charlie Brown has two words for it: Good grief.
Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg were supposed to be a step up from Cam Talbot and Forsberg last season — and from any number of tandems since Craig Anderson left in 2020.
Instead of a dream duo, it has been more of a nightmare netshare.
Korpisalo has the worst goals-saved-above-expected number in the NHL at -16.1. His save percentage of .887 also ranks dead last among goalies with 30 or more starts.
Forsberg has a save percentage of .892.
Early in the year, Ottawa’s goalies deserved some slack for the play in front of them. And while there are still breakdowns happening, the Senators’ overall defensive game has tightened under Martin.
Among the many changes that new general manager Steve Staios will be considering into the trade deadline and beyond to the draft and free-agency period, goaltending has to be near the top of the list.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule. Up next are road games against the Tampa Bay Lightning (growly from a 9-2 spanking by Florida) and Florida Panthers, back to back Monday-Tuesday. And then home games versus Dallas and Vegas on Thursday and Saturday. Don’t look now but after those two home games, the Sens only have nine more at the CTC this season.
Hawks’ run vs. Ottawa has legs
Chicago’s bizarre mastery over Ottawa continues. Even in the depth of their rebuild the Blackhawks can still beat the Sens. Saturday’s win was the Hawks’ 11th straight over the Senators, going back more than seven years.
The Senators last win over Chicago came on Dec. 20, 2016.
Fun flashback: Dion Phaneuf scored the game winner in a 4-3 Senators road victory. Kyle Turris had two assists and Bobby Ryan was 1 + 1. Mike Condon got the win and stopped 23 shots, including a penalty-shot attempt by Marcus Kruger.
As Gord Miller noted in Saturday’s broadcast, Barack Obama was the U.S. President, the last time Ottawa beat Chicago.
Oh, and Ottawa’s last win in Chicago BEFORE that December, 2016 game?
It was March 28, 2001. George W. Bush was sworn in as president two months earlier and Jean Chrétien was eight years into his run as Prime Minister.
Jani Hurme recorded the win that night.
Mike Fisher, Marian Hossa, Shawn McEachern, Mike Sillinger and Alexei Yashin scored the Ottawa goals in a 5-2 victory.
And Jacques Martin was the Senators head coach.
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