Ottawa Senators Fall 3-0 to Anaheim Ducks

The skid is turning into a downhill tumble.

Nothing is going right for the Ottawa Senators.

The team travelled to Anaheim for the West coast road trip, with the Sens looking to pick up a win following a dreadful loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. This was supposed to be a ‘scheduled win’ — the Ducks had just arrived from playing 65 minutes of hockey the previous night, on the road. This is also against a team playing Chris Wagner as their second line centre, while also running with their backup goalie.

The tired and injury-depleted Ducks were still too much for the Senators to handle, as they shutout Ottawa 3-0.

Even before the game started, things were looking bleak. Guy Boucher teased the possibility of scratching Cody Ceci, then decided to send Fredrik Claesson to the press box instead. Say what you will about Claesson’s one point in 24 games, but there’s no way he’s been visibly worse than all three of Harpur, Ceci and Oduya.

Ottawa had a decent first period, as has been the recent trend, only to let us down later. The power play was showing signs of life, directing everything towards Anaheim’s net. A Zack Smith giveaway led to a shorthanded 3-on-1 for the Ducks, although first intermission arrived with a blank scoreboard.

The second period is where the game slipped away, as the Sens’ uninspiring offence mixed with incoherent defence gave Anaheim the two points on a silver platter. First was Adam Henrique, who was acquired by the Ducks last week for Sami Vatanen. It was his first in the Anaheim uniform, as Dion Phaneuf failed to box him out in front of Craig Anderson.

The score became 2-0 shortly after, as.... well... just see for yourself.

Oduya freezes, while Ceci forgets that his body may be a more effective blocking tool than his stick. It was a nice move by Kase, although much more could’ve been done to prevent this from happening.

The Senators put up a resilient fight in the third period..... is what you’d expect from a team down two goals and facing a roster that was clearly short of breath. Very little effort was shown on either end, as the two teams finished the night with a combined 51 shots on goal — only two above of Winnipeg’s single total against Ottawa last game.

The last minute push amounted to nothing, as they deserved, with Henrique scoring his second on an empty net.

Notable Performances

  • Another shutout means another game without a point for Erik Karlsson, extending the longest drought of his career to ten games. Fortunately he was looking a lot better tonight, making all the elite rushes and stretch passes we’ve been missing for the last few weeks.
  • Ryan Dzingel was Ottawa’s best forward, and by quite a wide margin.
  • Individually, it’s alright to have Smith, Burrows, Pyatt, Thompson and Dumont in your lineup. But all of them together has made for an offensive black hole.
  • Guy Boucher is on the hot seat, and playing Dumont next to Hoffman isn’t helping his case. His decision to scratch Claesson was also very odd.
  • It’s been almost a month since Craig Anderson’s last win (November 11th). He wasn’t particularly good or bad tonight, but we need him to steal us a game or ten if we have any chance of making the playoffs.
  • Oduya + Ceci = disaster. Neither deserves to play against Los Angeles tomorrow after their tumultuous performance./

Game Flow

Heat Map

Up Next

If you aren’t tired of watching the Sens yet, they’ll be back tomorrow with another late game against the Los Angeles Kings. Start time is 10:30pm eastern.


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