The Ottawa Senators sit at 20-16-5 at the halfway mark of the season, putting them four points out of a Wild Card spot. Comparatively, they were 20-18-3 at the halfway point last season. That’s right when they upped their play, going 10-2-1 in a 13 game stretch to vault themselves into a playoff spot. Let’s hope the same can happen this season. As for the here and now, it’s time to hand out grades to all the players. Let’s dive into details.
READ MORE: Midseason Review of the Top 10 Sens Prospects
Forwards
Tim Stützle: A
Stützle is likely the Senators MVP at the halfway point. He leads them in pretty well all the main offensive categories, including goals, assists, and points. He is now being used on the penalty kill, averages nearly two hits per game, and has won 55% of his faceoffs.
Drake Batherson: A
Batherson’s career high in goals is 28. His career high in points is 68. Despite missing the first three games of the season, he is on pace to break his career high in both those categories, with a chance to finish over a point a game for the first time in his career.
Shane Pinto: B+
If not for an injury that kept Pinto out of the lineup for ten games, he’d likely be the third Sens forward to earn an A for his first half of the season. I thought so highly of how he was playing that I made his case to be included on USA’s Olympic team in early December. He’s one of the Sens leading goal scorers while also being an integral defensive forward as well. There’s a good chance he surpasses his career high of 21 goals, set last season.
Michael Amadio: B
It’s important to consider Amadio’s role. He’s asked to be a shut down forward, put out there against other teams top lines. At 5 on 5, Amadio starts in the offensive zone 21% of the time, while starting in the defensive zone 38% of the time. Despite that, he’s still on pace for a career high in points, looking to eclipse the 30 point mark for the first time in his career.
Claude Giroux: B
Giroux isn’t the same goal scorer that he was when he arrived in Ottawa a few years ago. He still does plenty to help the team, though. He’s one of the best faceoff men in the league at 65%. He’s fourth among Sens forwards in points, on pace for 50+ for the season.
David Perron: B
At the halfway point last season, here were David Perron’s stats: 9 games, 0 points. A year later, Perron sits tied for fifth in points among Sens forwards, despite playing under 14 minutes per game. Sure, he lacks speed, but he has done a good job playing a heavy game and winning his share of battles.
Dylan Cozens: B
Cozens leads the Senators in power play goals and points. He leads the team in hits as well. His goal scoring and even strength production leave something to be desired, though. After scoring six goals in his first nine games, he’s scored just six in the next 32.
Nick Cousins: B-
Cousins is the lowest paid Senator on the team. He’s supposed to be an annoying fourth liner to play against that chips in here and there offensively. That’s essentially what he’s been.
Brady Tkachuk: B-
It’s tough to grade Tkachuk, given that he missed 20 games with an injury. When healthy, his production has been solid. His physicality hasn’t been quite as noticeable this season, though. We’re used to watching him lead this team to battle with his intensity. That needs to happen a little more in the second half.
Fabian Zetterlund: C+
Early season Zetterlund probably deserved a D, scoring just one goal in the first 20 games. More recently, he’s been deserving of a B, having scored nine goals in his last 21. You can’t ignore the early season struggles, but the good news is that Zetterlund is trending up.
Lars Eller: C
Eller is essentially the opposite of Zetterlund. He started the season strong, playing good defensive hockey while chipping in offensively with six points in his first 12 games. Then, his offensive game completely disappeared, being held pointless in 16 straight. He’s now been out for almost a month with an injury.
Ridly Greig: C
Greig finished last season with 22 points in his last 41 games, all the while playing great defensively. His strong defensive play has continued, but his lack of offense has been disappointing, as have some bad penalties. He’s on pace for less goals and points than a year ago. The good news is that it was last January that Greig’s game took off. Maybe that will happen again.
Kurtis MacDermid: C-
Technically, MacDermid is doing what he’s asked to. He sparingly draws into the lineup, and he’s supposed to fight when inserted. He’s tied for fifth in the NHL in fights with five. The problem is, he’s not trusted to play more than four minutes a game, making him a total nothing when in the lineup outside of a quick fight. The other issue is how boring his fights are.
Stephen Halliday, Olle Lycksell, Hayden Hodgson: Incomplete
I haven’t quite seen enough of these guys to give them an official grade. Halliday is trending up, though, being trusted for more minutes lately and scoring four points in his last six games.
Defense
Jake Sanderson: A
Sanderson is to the defense what Stützle is to the forwards. He’s asked to do absolutely everything for the Senators, and he succeeds far more often than not. He has a chance at 60 points this season, an amount only accomplished by Erik Karlsson (six times) and Norm MacIver amongst Senators d-men.
Artem Zub: B+
Zub spent much of last season’s first half injured. It hurt the Senators, and it hurt Jake Sanderson. This season, he gives the Senators 20 or so minutes of solid hockey night after night, as well as a consistent partner for Sanderson. He’s also chipped in offensively, scoring just one point less than he did all of last season.
Thomas Chabot: B
Last season, Chabot scored 0.56 points per game and averaged around 23 minutes/game. This season, Chabot has scored 0.58 points per game and has averaged over 22 minutes/game. All that to say, he’s been pretty well that same player this year as last season, which was viewed as one of his best years as a Senator. The problem of course, is that Chabot missed 15 games due to injury this year.
Jordan Spence: B-
Spence lacks in size and physicality, making him a less than ideal third pairing d-man in the minds of some. That seems to include Travis Green, who made Spence a healthy scratch in the early going this year. While Spence’s weaknesses have been evident at times, his strengths have been on display plenty as well. His 14 even strength points ranks second among Sens d-men, just four behind Sanderson. His on-ice even-strength goal differential is +9, first among Sens d-men.
Nikolas Matinpalo: C+
Matinpalo was signed to a cheap contract to be a 6th/7th defenseman. That’s essentially what he’s been. He’s not overly noticeable, which isn’t always a bad thing. There are times when you’d want more from him, whether that means chipping in more offensively, or playing more physically.
Tyler Kleven: C
Kleven is in a similar spot as Greig. He finished last year so well that the expectation was for his game to improve even further this year. Instead, his game has fallen off a bit. He struggled with an increased role when Chabot was out. He needs to be better with the puck on his stick.
Nick Jensen: C-
Jensen was recently a healthy scratch, which shows how his game has fallen off from the first half of last season when he was one of the Senators best players. It’s not a lack of effort, but Jensen just seems to be a step too slow, a little bit out of position, and making the wrong play with the puck too often this season. Needless to say, offseason hip-surgery for a 35 year old is tough to come back from.
Goalies
Linus Ullmark: D
Of the 65 goalies who have played at least 10 games this season, Ullmark ranks 52nd with an .881 SV%. He has given up three goals or more in 16 of his 28 starts, including eight games allowing four goals or more. If those bad games come with just as many good games, that makes them easier to deal with. The problem is, there have been very few games where Ullmark has been one of the Senators best players.
Leevi Merilainen: D
Merilainen has an even worse save percentage, at just .869. That ranks him 61st of the 65 goalies with 10 or more games played. The year started poorly for Merilainen, with a tough preseason followed by a brutal first regular season game. He was then sent to the AHL to find his game. He hasn’t exactly figured things out, giving up three or more goals in 9 of his 13 starts.
