Ups and Downs: Week 16

Ottawa went 2-2-0 in four games last week. Fittingly, it was quite the up-and-down week as they suffered arguably their worst loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday and had their most impressive win against the New York Rangers Sunday afternoon.

Biggest Gains: Mika Zibanejad

It's been an uneventful season for Zibanejad. His defensive play has been lackluster and his play with the puck has been average, especially for a top-six forward. But he had four points in four games last week, and things are definitely on the upswing for the 22-year-old.

Biggest Losses: No One

After the game in New Jersey and the Islanders matchup at home, it would've been easy to pick a player on the decline at week's end. But Craig Anderson was phenomenal on Sunday and earned himself a shutout and a win. The week wasn't great, not even close, but the win yesterday really brought everyone back to even.

Goaltenders	Trend	Notes
Craig Anderson		Anderson was god awful in New Jersey, letting in 4 goals on 7 shots, but with an impressive shutout agains the Rangers, there's no question faith was restored in the Senators' No. 1.
Andrew Hammond		He didn't really have a lot of help this week with appearances against the Islanders and Devils, but for the most part, Hammond stood his ground.
Defensemen
Mark Borowiecki		Borowiecki got to wear an "A" on Sunday and also has had the privilege of playing with fellow letter-wearing defenseman Erik Karlsson the past few games. Though overall play is kind of increasing, he's still taking bd penalties.
Jared Cowen		After being a healthy scratch for quite some time, Cowen came back and hasn't been a burden. He played quite well against the Rangers, carting an assist on Bobby Ryan's game-winner.
Fredrik Claesson		Sent back to Binghamton.
Erik Karlsson		This might've been one of the most impressive stretch of games for Karlsson in the last few months. With five points in four games, the Swedish sensation was also one of the Senators' best possession driver, as usual.
Chris Phillips		Who?
Marc Methot		Still injured.
Cody Ceci		Sens fans, media and columnists are split on Ceci. Some think he's Ottawa's third best defenseman, but the numbers say he's been arguably their worst. I don't know.
Patrick Wiercioch		Relatively his regular self last week. No complaints.
Chris Wideman		Same as Wiercioch.
Forwards
Mark Stone		Contrary to popular belief, Mark Stone has not been bad. He has not been average. He has been his normal, possession-driving, chance-creating, defensively sound self. The only player more snakebitten than himself may be Kyle Turris. Stone is one of the Senators's best players night in and night out. They just aren't going in right now.
Kyle Turris		Turris, for the firs time in his career in Ottawa, was unable to appear in three of the four games.
Shane Prince		The 23-year-old should have 20 points by now, but because of an unimaginable number of posts hit by him and teammates, he stands at half that. Prince continues to be one of the main reasons the fourth line has been so affective this season, and he's still proving why.
Zack Smith		Rather quiet this week, Smith's highlight same in San Jose when he scored a beautiful shootout goal to tie the game in the third period. Ottawa would win the game thanks to his efforts, but the rest of the week less than impressive.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau		Pageau has been all over the place this season, partially because he never has regular linemates, but frankly, his play wasn't up to par this week. An empty-net shorthanded goal (his league leading fifth) against the Rangers would be the high note of the past seven days for the Ottawa native.
Chris Neil		No complaints. If we're not talking about his penalty totals, that's what Chris Neil has delivered this season. He was on the positive side of that last week. With McCormick and Prince, the trio are a fine fourth line.
Max McCormick		Max McCormick is a fireball, and I mean that in the most positive way. If he can learn to control his emotions, which it looks like he's been doing a better job of that, he can be an NHL player. Last week showed he could hang around in the big leagues.
Mike Hoffman		With two goals and an assist in four games, Hoffman was an important reason to why the Senators didn't come out below .500 last week.
Bobby Ryan		Production wise, Ryan has been the Senators most consistent forwards. On Sunday, his offensive abilities earned Ottawa a win and a certain family a new puppy.
Mika Zibanejad		See biggest gains.
Clarke MacArthur		Get well soon, Clarke.
Matt Puempel		He didn't do enough to make an impact, and was quite weak on the puck, but Puempel has scored at every level he's played at, so we'll have to give him a fair shake. Performance: to be determined.
Alex Chiasson		Ever since being a healthy scratch, Chiasson has been better than he was through the first half of the season, but it's not a big enough improvement to earn him a green arrow.
Curtis Lazar		Lazar was very average this week. Very average.
Milan Michalek		Michalek blocked a shot with his hand against the Islanders and is out long term.

Who was the Senators' best player last week?