Danny McCloskey
Everything was going perfectly for the Senators this afternoon. They were up 2-0 against the Lightning as the Islanders, who are also pushing for the last playoff spot, were down 2-0 to the Panthers. Flash forward a couple hours later and everything had fallen apart. The Senators gave up four unanswered goals to lose 4-2, while the Islanders scored five straight to win 5-2. Let’s dive into the details on the crucial Senators loss.
Green Goes with Reimer
In a peculiar choice, Travis Green opted to start James Reimer in net. Reimer, if you recall, started Monday’s game against the Rangers. He also started on March 19th against the Islanders. Put it altogether, and we’ve see Reimer start three of the last six games. Keep in mind that he was only signed by the Senators in January, as a bit of a desperation move. It’s not as though he’s been lights out, either, with an .884 SV% heading into today.
He essentially played as well as you’d expect, saving 23 of the 27 shots he faced. This is not to put this loss solely on Reimer. The Senators need to do a better job of finishing off teams, and scoring on high quality chances. We’ll get to that later. The problem is that every game is huge. Linus Ullmark makes $8.25 million per season. The Senators don’t play again until Tuesday. He should have started today’s game. If the worry is that Ullmark can’t handle that type of workload, that’s a problem in itself. The Senators have two back-to-backs in their remaining games. Those are the only two games Reimer should play. Otherwise, why is Ullmark one of the ten highest paid goalies in the NHL?
Lack of Finishing Yet Again
The other night against the Red Wings, Tim Stützle had a late breakaway with a chance to put the Senators up 4-2, essentially icing the game. He couldn’t finish, making for a tense last couple of minutes. In their last game against the Penguins, the Senators had a ton of high quality chances to put the game away in overtime. Those came from the likes of Stützle, Tkachuk, and Batherson. Once again, they could not finish. Today, both Stützle and Tkachuk had great chances on breakaways to add to the Senators lead, and once again could not finish.
To compare the Senators to teams that are highly likely to make the playoffs, when the Canadiens were up 3-2 on the Hurricanes the other night, Ivan Demidov scored on his breakaway, putting the game away. Today, it was Jake Guentzel sealing the win on a breakaway late in the third for the Lightning.
This is not a new issue for the Senators. They generate a ton of great chances, but don’t score on nearly enough of them. How many breakways have they failed to convert on this year, especially Stützle?
Additional Notes
One thing’s for sure, don’t count on any other team to help the Senators out. It seems as though the East is destined to have a few teams with 95+ points on the outside looking in. Keep in mind that the Canadiens and Devils made the playoffs last season with 91 points.
Jake Sanderson can’t come back soon enough. As great as he is offensively, it’s his defensive zone play that is missed the most. He could always be counted on to win that key battle and work the puck out of the zone. Also, without him, the Senators played today with five right shot d-men compared to just the one lefty. That lefty of course is Kleven, who once again played huge minutes today at over 27 minutes. The Senators will stay in Florida the next few days, playing a massive game on Tuesday against the Panthers.
