Senators Now Chasing Instead of Chased

Well, nobody said it was going to be easy.

While hockey prognosticators across the board continue to state with confidence that the Ottawa Senators will be playoff bound come the middle of April, doubt is starting to creep in.

That’s what a five-game losing streak can do to you.

And not only a five-game losing streak, but a streak that produced absolutely zero points. No overtime losses, no ‘loser’ points during that stretch.

Zilch.

Meantime, the rest of the herd is making things uncomfortably tight.

In fact, that precious final wild-card slotting that Ottawa enjoyed owning for the last while now belongs to the Columbus Blue Jackets (two points ahead).

The Detroit Red Wings are a rejuvenated bunch as well. Under new coach Todd McLellan, the Wings are a lusty 9-2 since mid-January and now sit four points clear of Ottawa for the second wild-card spot.

Ottawa, Detroit and Columbus have all played 58 games meaning the final 24 for each club promise to be playoff-esque.

And don’t sleep on the New York Rangers. The Broadway bunch under-achieved in a big way through the fall and into the winter months but now is planted in a tie with Ottawa. New York’s hammered out a 5-2 mark in its last seven.

Boston’s playing hit-and-miss hockey. Even with the misses, the Bruins have managed to crawl into a points tie with the Senators (Ottawa has a game in hand).

And while we’re rolling merrily along with this, might have to mention that both Philadelphia and Montreal (long thought dead in the water) are at Ottawa’s back door, just three points behind.

If my math works, that’s seven teams clamoring for two spots.

Funny to note that just a couple of weeks ago this corner of your page was writing about how close the Senators were to the top-level teams. Yup, at one point Ottawa was within a couple of points of Florida and Toronto for the Atlantic Division lead.

That ship has sailed.

As have the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jon Cooper’s not only a terrific national team coach, but he’s also pretty decent at the NHL level. Cooper’s Lightning are on a tidy six-game string of wins and look like a post-season lock.

Ottawa’s Serenity Prayer is getting a workout to be sure.

The latest clunk to its faith came Wednesday night against the Winnipeg Jets, the NHL’s top team at this point. While going without three of its top six forwards, Ottawa did the expected, dropping a 4-1 decision. The Senators were game; Winnipeg simply was better.

All were saying the right things to reporters afterwards.

“I thought it was a good step in the right direction,” said winger David Perron to Postmedia.

Coach Travis Green? “You’re always disappointed when you lose but I thought it was a step in the right direction . . . We found our legs a little and we found our legs a little bit.”

And Thomas Chabot?

“There are positives to take . . .”

Positives are wonderful if they’re dishing out participation ribbons. This is big-boy stuff though and the only thing, particularly at this juncture, that matters is points.

The Jets got ‘em and the Senators are back to re-group mode.

Chabot summed it up – “We’ve got to figure out a way very quickly to get out of this.”

Ottawa gets another nice stretch of time off to do just that. San Jose coasts into town Saturday night for what now can be labelled as an essential game. The Sharks are in rebuild (as opposed to ‘re-group) mode. The schedule then gets testy next week as the Senators travel to Washington on Monday. The Caps lead the way in the Eastern Conference with 84 points, a full 10 ahead of second-place Toronto.

Ottawa is in Chicago, always a tough place to play despite the standings, on Wednesday. The Rangers check into the Canadian Tire Centre next Saturday for an afternoon tilt, with Detroit to follow on March 10^th.

OTTAWA SENATORS WEEK AHEAD:

Saturday, March 1: San Jose at Ottawa (7 pm)

Monday, March 3: Ottawa at Washington (6:30 pm)

Wednesday, March 5: Ottawa at Chicago (7:30 pm)

thegrossgame@yahoo.com

Photo: Courtesy CBC