Followers of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators have struggled through the opening few weeks of the season as their beloved team has stumbled from one poor result to the next. The Canadian outfit went into the campaign with high hopes of holding their own in the Eastern Atlantic league this term.
The signs were promising during the off-season, with the world’s best betting sites offering odds and giving the team the respect it deserves. But things haven’t gone according to plan for the team founded in 1992. The Senators are now in danger of dropping off the early pace and could, if their poor run of results continues, find themselves cast adrift at the foot of the pool, almost before they get started.
Fans know Ottawa isn’t the strongest team in the league, but they’ll be appalled to see their favourites struggling. Things need to change, and supporters want to see a reaction from their players. But what seems to be the problem at the Canadian Tire Centre? What have the players shown so far, and how can they improve? We take a detailed look at how the Senators have performed in their opening two matches of the season.
The first round of matches from this NHL campaign was played earlier this month, and it was a poor start for the Senators, who were beaten by the Buffalo Sabres at the Keybank Center. A road trip to Buffalo wasn’t the easiest start the team could have hoped for, and it proved to be a fruitless journey as the players returned empty-handed.
Buffalo were the pre-match favourites heading into that NHL fixture and wasted no time living up to that billing, taking control of the contest from the off. They made their home advantage count to grab a convincing win, and the players deserve credit for the manner of that victory, scoring four goals on what became little more than a warm-up for the bigger and better challenges that lie ahead.
Ottawa had little to show for that journey to Buffalo other than a painful defeat and some harsh lessons learnt. They managed to score just one goal against the Sabres in a match that seemed to give fans more questions than answers. One the fans were in a hurry to forget, but the players didn’t enjoy that luxury. They knew they had to learn from the loss and use that hurt to bounce back stronger.
The improvement everyone connected to Ottawa wanted to see was evident in their next match, but that also ended in defeat, making it two defeats from two games. The Senators were at the Scotia Bank Arena for a fierce derby match against the Toronto Maples Leafs. That fixture was shown live on television, broadcast to millions of sports fans worldwide and those who watched the show were treated to a thriller.
In what was a fiercely contested match involving two sides who were confident they had what it takes to win, it was Toronto that eventually won, but they were made to work hard for the result by an opponent with a new sense of urgency. That match ended 3-2, and the result was a fair reflection of the contest. There were finally some positives for Senators fans to take, even with a lack of points on the board.
What does the future hold for Ottawa and its fans? Will this be another difficult campaign spent watching as mere spectators as the best teams battle for supremacy? Perhaps this poor start will be the tonic needed to bring the squad together and get them pushing in the same direction. In some cases, a poor start can create a siege mentality in a squad, and they improve their performances in response.
It remains to be seen what kind of year it will be for the Senators, but it can’t be denied that they are already showing signs of recovery. Traders working at the top sportsbooks have already seen enough, writing off Ottawa. The teams to watch this term, according to the bookies, are the Colorado Ava
