Ottawa Senators Ups and Downs: Week 9

It wasn’t a good week for the Sens, and it shows in the lack of positives

It was not a good week for the Senators. They followed up an 8-5 loss to the Penguins last week by beating the Sharks just barely, then losing to the Ducks and Kings by a combined seven goals. The California road trip is often tough, but yikes. This was not good.

Biggest Gains: Erik Karlsson

I gave a grand total of one up-arrow below. Karlsson has re-taken his place as top scorer among defencemen. He also showed he is the best defenceman in the world, taking on Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, and... Cam Fowler?? (just ask Randy Carlyle) and more than holding his own.

Biggest Losses: Bobby Ryan

He got an assist this week, but he managed one shot on goal total in three games playing top-six minutes. That’s just not good enough. It’s never a good look when the best shots an NHL forward takes are at Adnan on Twitter.

Goaltenders Trend Notes
Craig Anderson Wishing all the best to Nicholle and him
Mike Condon
Great against the Sharks, awful against the Kings and Ducks
Andrew Hammond
At least he got to play, for the first time since Halloween
Defensemen

Mark Borowiecki Threw out a dumb hit, gave up a huge powerplay, got suspended
Cody Ceci Still gets walked all over more often than not
Fredrik Claesson
Didn't play
Andreas Englund
Played almost 17 minutes against the Ducks once the game was out of hand
Erik Karlsson See Biggest Gains
Marc Methot The team needed him back, and hopefully he'll be back to playing more than 20 minutes per game soon
Dion Phaneuf
Nothing special about his week
Chris Wideman
I really like his play, but this week he didn't really stand out
Forwards

Derick Brassard
Got caved against the Sharks' big line, but fine the rest of the week
Ryan Dzingel
Hey, he got a goal!
Mike Hoffman Whichever line he's on is probably the top line
Chris Kelly
Your fourth line is supposed to be dependable for a few minutes per game, but he really hasn't been
Curtis Lazar
Can't say I noticed he was injured
Clarke MacArthur Hi Clarke
Chris Neil Hit 1000 games, and got into a fight, somehow only his fourth of the season
Jean-Gabriel Pageau Back to third-line centre, back to not being too impressive
Tom Pyatt
Fair comment: Pyatt was perfectly decent this week
Buddy Robinson
Yes, he played this week
Bobby Ryan See Biggest Losses
Zack Smith Just like Pyatt, had a pretty good week. Unlike Pyatt, I expect that of Smith
Mark Stone Whichever line he's on is definitely the top line
Kyle Turris This week wasn't great for him, probably because his wingers change every five minutes
Phil Varone
Hope you weren't expecting anything big. At least he looks better than McCormick or Robinson

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