BAD TO THE BONE? Maybe this is who and what the Ottawa Senators really are

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It has to be both confusing and frustrating for stoic Jacques Martin, who does a good job of concealing his emotions through the worst of times.

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The coach says he can see the potential, he has a vision of what he believes the Ottawa Senators can be.

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But maybe he’s wrong, maybe the team just isn’t capable of doing what he thinks it can do. Maybe what we see on the good nights isn’t real. Maybe it’s prestidigitation, an illusion that tricks fans into thinking happy days are here again, that it’s finally the end of so many years of mediocrity.

Maybe, as they say, it is what it is and they are who and what they really are: A below-middling NHL team. Again.

A team with inadequate goaltending. A team that doesn’t play well enough away from the puck or with the puck, a team that doesn’t forecheck or backcheck well enough. A team that can’t regularly execute the coach’s X’s and O’s. A team that has too many brainfarts, makes too many mistakes. A team that is fragile and looks broken at times. 

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“Our mental state has to change,” Martin told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson following a Wednesday practice in Seattle as the Senators prepare to play the Kraken Thursday. “We have to want to pay the price and bring it every night. It can’t be one game on, one game off.”

In the first half of this NHL season, the Senators have fired a general manager (Pierre Dorion), a head coach (D.J. Smith) and an assistant coach (Davis Payne). There’s not much left to fire.

There are positives: Owner Michael Andlauer is a breath of fresh air. The management thinktank of general manager Steve Staios, senior VP of hockey operations Dave Poulin and associate GM Ryan Bowness will figure it out as they sort through the mess that was inherited.

High on their to-do list will be roster re-construction, stop trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

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Don’t expect a teardown, at least not yet. The return to the lineup of injured winger Mathieu Joseph (the target date is Jan. 9 vs. Calgary) and suspended centre Shane Pinto in the coming weeks will provide a boost. But can it be enough?

First things first, though — Tuesday night’s 6-3 loss in Vancouver, where the Senators embarrassingly fell behind 5-0 in the first period before waking up and outplaying the Canucks for the final 40 minutes.

“It was a lesson learned about how hard you have to compete, how hard you have to play,” Martin told Wilson after the game.

“It was a bad first period,” defenceman Thomas Chabot said. “The rest of the game, you could take positives. The way we played in the second and third period, we were better (than the Canucks). But you have to do that for three periods in the NHL. We’re here to win.”

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Shaky goaltending again was a problem. Anton Forsberg let in four first-period goals before getting yanked. Joonas Korpisalo was better, but that bouncing puck that got past him 13 seconds after Ottawa had cut the score to 5-3 late in the third period is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

You can’t win in the NHL if your goalies don’t stop the puck enough. To be fair, it’s not like their support system is at its best. But weak goals have become too much of a thing.

Win some, lose some, right? Except, through 33 games, the Senators are losing more than they win, more than their fan base expects.

With 14 wins, the Senators are the worst team in the Eastern Conference, though with significant games in hand, you’d expect they would catch Columbus, Buffalo and Montreal.

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Maybe. You can never assume anything with this team. You get a dominant 5-1 win over Buffalo on Sunday, then you get a stinker Tuesday.

One step ahead, one step back. Another step ahead. Two steps back. For a team that has playoff expectations, the math doesn’t work.

“We win one game, then we revert back to where the team was before,” Martin said. “They have to decide what they want to be. It’s not like there are a lot of first-year kids on this team, they’ve been here. You get to a point in your season or your career where you can’t look at excuses anymore, you have to look at yourself.

“I think we’re a better team than our record shows and I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks that. When your best player is a 36-year-old (Claude Giroux), a lot of guys should look in the mirror. We have to give more on a regular basis. It’s not one period, it’s not one game. We need to learn to compete hard every night.”

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“It’s all about us as players and us as a team,” Chabot said. “Now is the time to turn it around and make it happen.”

Against the Kraken, maybe the Senators can draw on their final two periods against Vancouver. Maybe.

“The good thing about hockey is you get another chance to play 24 or 48 hours later,” Chabot said.

“It’s very frustrating right now, but I believe in this group,” Giroux said. “We have the potential to win 10 in a row if we (play hard) for a whole game. If we get consistency, I strongly believe we can get on a roll.”

Potential is one thing. But the Senators need to figure it out. Soon. Before it’s too late, if it’s not already.

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