The worst enemy of a successful reconstruction remains impatience.
Posted at 11:52
Pierre Dorion had been at the dawn of the previous season by declaring that the Senators were ready to move on to the next stage, barely three years after starting his major project.
The GM of the Senators later admitted his mistake. This summer, however, he raised expectations again, not in words, but in his actions.
He can never be blamed for giving up a seventh overall pick and second- and third-round picks to get one of the NHL’s top scorers, Alex DeBrincat, just 24 years old. Claude Giroux is not a catastrophic hire either even if he will be 35 shortly, since he obtained a contract of only three years.
But Dorion and the Senators are entering a dangerous zone from now on. By suffering a sixth straight loss on Tuesday against the Canucks, Ottawa fell to 30e rank in the overall standings, with a 4-8 record.
The Senators now find themselves seven points behind three teams battling for last playoff berth, but not least, the Lightning, Panthers and Rangers. They must also beat the Sabres, Capitals, Canadiens and Penguins.
Let’s see if Pierre Dorion will panic to try to save a season that he announced was spectacular. The worst idea would be to sacrifice high choices and, or, hopes again, to turn the situation around.
The Senators have already given up their 2022 first-round pick, and their 2021 first-round pick Tyler Boucher, drafted 10th overall, doesn’t hold out much promise.
An important thing to keep in perspective: the arrival of two attacking players was not going to transform a team ranked at 26e overall rank in 2021-22 in National League power.
Anton Forsberg remains a goaltender who, at 29, was never able to make it in the NHL until last year and Cam Talbot, 35, has changed teams five times since 2019.
The defense remains correct at best, despite the arrival of the promising Jake Sanderson, with a top six made up of Thomas Chabot, Artem Zub (injured, replaced by the young Jacob Bernard-Docker, Sanderson, Travis Hamonic, Erik Brannstrom and Nick Holden.
With such a fragile club, the loss of number one center Josh Norris is painful, even though the Senators have depth up front.
Even though the season is young, it is already getting late. None of the five worst teams in the standings at this time in 2021 missed the playoffs by less than 29 points in the end.
Ranking as of November 9, 2021
28-Seattle
6 points from a playoff berth, missed them by 37 points.
29-Chicago
7 points from a playoff berth, missed them by 29 points.
30- Montreal
7 points from a playoff berth, missed them by 45 points.
31- Ottawa
7 points from a playoff berth, missed them by 27 points.
32-Arizona
12 points from a playoff berth, missed them by 40 points.
The Canucks rebounded in the standings in the second half of the season last year, after firing their coach Dec. 5 to replace him with Bruce Boudreau, but ranked 19e overall standings, just three points from a playoff berth as of Nov. 9.
At worst, if Ottawa does not recover, the organization will benefit from another very high draft pick in 2023, in one of the richest vintages of recent decades. It might even be a blessing…
Poor Sean Monahan!
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sean Monahan
Let’s be frank, Sean Monahan was not spoiled on Tuesday night by being placed in the center of Evgeni Dadonov and Jonathan Drouin. The former doesn’t seem to have anything left to give, overwhelmed by the speed of the game. The latter probably doesn’t want to break his bones in the hope of winning battles for the puck and scoring goals.
From his first appearance, against the Wings, Drouin was guilty of a turnover in defensive territory which led to a long and painful presence of the quintet in his zone. Then there was this scramble at the opposing blue line on the power play. Drouin played 10:29 in a numerical tie. The club’s lowest tally, after Slafkovsky (10:02), sent off from the game with just over five minutes to go in the third.
Patience has its limits. Let’s see how much longer we’ll be patient with these two. And if, in the meantime, Rem Pitlick will have had the time, in Laval, to grasp the message from management, clearly dissatisfied with his start to the season and his lack of boldness compared to the previous season…