Senators Ups and Downs Week 10

In a week with 6 possible points, the Senators came away with 3. That's not a good conversion rate. And the worst part is that they should have come away with more. The team carried play for long stretches in losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Toronto Maple Leafs, but was forced to overcome two-goal deficits in each case. and unsurprisingly, that's pretty hard to do. Against Tampa Bay, it was too much to ask. However, against the Florida Panthers and Maple Leafs, the Senators were able to come back. Let's hope they're better at coming back from a sub-par start to the season than they are at coming back in individual games.

Biggest gains: Clarke MacArthur

Not much to say at this point. New linemates, same production. MacArthur has been Ottawa's most consistent player this season, and it's pretty crazy to see him continue to produce no matter who he's playing with. That's a huge asset for head coach Paul MacLean--and one of the few positive tools he's got to work with.

Biggest losses: Matt Kassian

More than anything, we hate piling on guys who are unfairly scapegoated. But Kassian finally drew back into the lineup, and played 1:05 across three shifts. What's the point? Now, we're not advocating a fight, because we also hate fighting for fighting's sake. But if Kassian isn't going to fight, and isn't trusted by his coach to contribute regular fourth-line shifts, we have to ask: Why is he on the team?

Goaltenders	Trend	Notes
Craig Anderson		Finally got a win, but isn't getting much help from his teammates.
Robin Lehner		Lost in both his starts, but isn't getting much help from his teammates.
Defensemen
Mark Borowiecki		Last week we felt BoroCop was reverting to chasing big hits; he was returned to Binghamton this week. Wonder if the coaching staff felt the same way?
Joe Corvo		Corvo is currently playing too well to be removed from the lineup
Jared Cowen		Is starting to play better. Not out of the woods by a long shot, but by the end of the week, Cowen looked competent--and confident enough to jump into some offensive plays.
Eric Gryba		Just not getting the opportunities. Maybe next year if Phillips isn't part of the team?
Erik Karlsson		Karlsson only had a goal and an assist in three games this week, but he had a ridiculous 5 hits against Toronto. That tied Cowen and Greening!
Marc Methot		We want to give him a down arrow for spreading the flu among his teammates when they REALLY don't need it, but we're not that cruel.
Chris Phillips		We'll never be on board with the idea of Phillips on the top power play unit.
Patrick Wiercioch		Scored Ottawa's lone goal against Tampa Bay. Still can get scrambley, though.
Forwards
Cory Conacher		Quickly becoming an afterthought.
Erik Condra		As bad as we thought he was last week, we loved him this week. It helps that he scored two goals.
Derek Grant		Sent back to Binghamton.
Colin Greening		A goal and an assist this week.
Mike Hoffman		Getting chances, but needs to start burying them if he wants to stay in the top six.
Matt Kassian		See "Biggest losses."
Clarke MacArthur		See "Biggest gains."
Milan Michalek		Playing third-line matchups has not helped him score points.
Chris Neil		We'd like him less if the team were having more successful. As it is, Neil's not one of the major problems. He did his job.
Bobby Ryan		Just one goal this week. The team needed more from him.
Z. Smith		Played well, and then marred it by picking up 12 PIMs against Toronto in a game where the Senators could have really used more of his style of play.
Jason Spezza		Three assists and dominant in the faceoff circle.
Kyle Turris		Turris has faded slightly since losing MacArthur as a linemate.
Mika Zibanejad		Two assists for Mika, and also dominant in the faceoff circle, including a perfect 4 for 4 against Toronto. Wish Cowen was having this kind of sophomore season.

Special thanks to our friend winterion at Japer's Rink for our icons!