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 |
Special thanks to our friend winterion at Japers' Rink for our icons!