Ottawa Senators Season Post-Mortem - Part 2 - The Regular Season

With the Heatley ordeal finally behind them, the Senators broke training camp with an overhauled roster and a sense of renewed optimism. Previously labelled a one line team, the Sens now boasted secondary scoring depth in the form of Alex Kovalev, Milan Michalek and former 56 goal scorer Jonathan Cheechoo. The acquisition of injured goaltender Pascal Leclaire at the trade deadline in exchange for Antoine Vermette promised to provide the best goaltending the Senators have had this side of Dominik Hasek. 2008 first round draft pick, diminutive offensive defensemen Erik Karlsson, made the team. And in the feel good story of the year, so did hulking 28 year old rookie defenseman Matt Carkner who had spent his entire career to that point in the AHL.

The season began well enough – after dropping their opener against the Rangers, the Sens responded with three straight wins. But, in a sign of things to come, the team lost D Filip Kuba and F Ryan Shannon to injury in the second game of the season. By the end of the year, all of Alfredsson, Spezza, Michalek, Kovalev, Neil, Foligno, Kuba, Volchenkov and Leclaire had sustained serious injuries, some of them (Michalek, Foligno, Kuba, Leclaire) multiple times, the most bizarre of which was the broken cheekbone suffered by Pascal Leclaire while sitting on the bench as the back-up. In the meantime, Mike Fisher and newcomer Milan Michalek jockeyed for the team goal scoring lead, while linemates Alex Kovalev and Jason Spezza (respectively) couldn’t buy one. Spezza went an incredible 17 games before finally potting his first.

Erik Karlsson, while showing flashes of the offensive skill that made him the 15th overall pick in the draft, proved unable to handle the load in the defensive zone and was dispatched to the AHL at the end of Oct. Most observers expected it to be a season long assignment, with Karlsson perhaps returning to the roster for the playoffs should the Sens make it. But EK had other ideas. After scoring at a PPG clip in the minors, Karlsson was recalled to the big club one month to the day after being sent down. Nobody could have predicted how quickly he was able to transform his game. He learned how to use his quickness on defense to compensate for a lack size, and his confidence in rushing the puck and controlling it in the offensive zone became a key cog in the Senator’s attack from that point forward.

But as the injuries mounted, so did their toll on the team. In the absence of Alfredsson, Spezza and Michalek, Alex Kovalev finally awoke from his season long slumber and (along with the emergence of rookie Peter Regin) carried the team, culminating in a four goal performance against the Flyers. But there was only so far he could take them. Following a five game losing streak in Jan., the team had gradually sunk to 10th place in the Eastern Conference, roughly where most pre-season prognosticators predicted they would finish.

By then, second year goalie Brian Elliott had assumed the mantle of #1 from the perpetually injured Leclaire. In what was looming as a 6th consecutive loss, a tilt against the Rangers at MSG, Elliott came down with the flu. With Leclaire already on the shelf, the team made a game day call to its AHL affiliate in Binghamton NY summoning journeyman netminder Mike Brodeur to NYC. Brodeur not only made it in time to start, he pitched a 2-0 shutout to end the losing streak, with Alex Kovalev once again keying the offense. The return of captain Daniel Alfredsson (1G, 2A) in the next game sparked the Sens to a 4-2 win over the Habs in Montreal, with Mike Brodeur once again solid in relief of the still ailing Elliott. One by one, the injured returned to the lineup – Alfredsson, Michalek, Spezza, Nick Foligno – and propelled the Sens to a team record 11 game winning streak as the Olympic break approached. And they didn’t feast on bottom feeders either, knocking off a who’s who of the league’s best (Chi, NJ, Pit, Buf, Van).

The Senators suddenly found themselves sitting in 5th place with a realistic shot at catching the NE division leading Sabres for 3rd. With the playoffs now looking like a near certainty, GM Bryan Murray didn’t take long to act, shipping underachieving D Alex Picard and a 2nd round pick to Carolina for F Matt Cullen, and assigning struggling winger Jonathan Cheechoo to the minors to create a roster spot. Cullen struggled to find his groove as a Senator while the team cooled off towards the Olympic break with a mediocre 3-2 record. Worst of all was that they lost Nick Foligno (broken leg) and Erik Karlsson (separated shoulder) in the process. In that respect, the break couldn’t have come at a better time but, as it turned out, the Sens lost their mojo.

Despite adding bruising 6’6” 245 lb. defenseman Andy Sutton at the trade deadline, the Sens struggled mightily post Olympics, dropping eight of their first nine games including their last five in a row. Their once comfortable lead in the middle of the Eastern Conference pack had all but evaporated, and the playoffs were again in potential jeopardy. But in what was becoming typical Senators fashion, they followed the five game losing streak by reeling off six wins in a row. That solidified their position in the standings and they proceeded to sputter their way down the stretch towards the playoffs, ultimately finishing 5th – good enough for a first round playoff date with the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.