We know, Torts, we know. (Photo: Screenshot from Senators post-game interview/ BlueshirtsUnited.com)
Soooooo… the losing streak in Montreal continues. Injuries aren’t an excuse but as much as the team wants to say they’re not a reason for the current streak of rotten luck, when you lose anchor players, you lose momentum. Look at the players who aren’t on the ice: Asham, Del Zotto, and Nash are out and there are injury “concerns” for Girardi and McDonagh (who left in the second period last night after a nasty boarding by Pacioretty). They’re key team members. As strong as our rookies are (and they’re pretty good), they can’t run the team, as we’ve seen the last two games. Who is going to step up and be the warm little center everyone else rallies around?
Let’s take a look at what’s coming up:
Tuesday brings us some new faces: The Winnipeg Jets (7-9-1). The Jets are number 12 in the Eastern Conference right now and will be taking on the number four New Jersey Devils tonight. The Jets have trouble with letting goals in, as evidenced in their loss against the Flyers, where they let go of a 3-1 lead by letting in 4 unanswered Flyers goals. Their penalty kill is also weak; they are last in the League in the kill. Evander Kane is having a strong season with points in six straight games, but injuries have plagued the Jets’ defensemen. Funny, a lot of these critiques sound really, really familiar…
Thursday brings the Lightning (9-7-1) for the last time in the regular season. Since the last time we saw the Lighting, they’ve jumped up to number three in the East. How did that happen? Well, they beat some key teams in the Southeast: Carolina and Florida. They also racked up a win against the Maple Leafs to bring them up to a total of 19 points. Kind of makes you wonder at the standings calculations when one team with 19 points is number three because they lead their division (Tampa Bay) and another team with 19 points drops to eighth because they’re in a strong division (Philadelphia). Just saying, you’d still have a team from each division in the playoff running if you ranked by points alone. The Lightning will be facing off against the Penguins (12-6-0) in Pittsburgh tonight and then will take on the Sabres in Tampa Bay on Tuesday before heading up to New York. Speaking of the Sabres…
And on Sunday we see some strangers: the Buffalo Sabres (6-12-1). That’s a terrible record and the team is currently in 15th in the East (out of 15 teams, a.k.a. at the bottom of the standings). The Sabres announced this week that head coach Lindy Ruff had been “relieved of duties” and that Ron Rolston, head coach of their AHL feeder team, would be interim coach. The consensus seems to be that the Sabres aren’t working hard enough to win. They started the season with wins against the Flyers and the Leafs before racking up four straight losses. The Sabres have been consistently inconsistent: two of their six wins have been against the Bruins (10-2-2); they’ve beat teams early in the season, only to lose to them later (the Islanders); they’ve been beaten by teams early in the season and then rally against them later in the season (the Habs). It’s sad, because Thomas Vanek is currently leading the league in goals scored and points, but as hockey fans know, one player can’t bootstrap a whole team to victory. With a big change in coaching, we could see a different team on the ice, or we could see more inconsistent playing. Who knows?
