‘Road Kill’ Sens conjure memories of expansion era with awful Western swing
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Over the weekend, we pushed forward our clocks.
Conversely, some fans of the Ottawa Senators felt they were going back in time, to the Senators’ expansion era.
In the early 1990s, the Sens were nicknamed ‘Road Kill’ for their inability to win games away from home. Of course, given the pathetic expansion formula of 1992, Ottawa wasn’t exactly a threat on home ice, either.
And yet they were lovable. The expansion draft was heavily stacked against the Senators — take a look at the riches available to Las Vegas when the Knights entered the league in 2017 compared to Ottawa’s castoffs 32 years ago.
But, Ottawa had an NHL team!
That’s all that mattered. Expectations were so low that when the Senators rose up and punched above their weight, beating the Montreal Canadiens in the 1992 home opener or finally winning that first road game on Long Island on April 10, 1993, it was an occasion that called for Champagne.
“We’re going to Disneyland!” yelled Senators captain Laurie Boschman, mimicking a Stanley Cup-winning expression of that era, as the Sens celebrated their inaugural road win in their 40th road game of their expansion season.
Expectations matter, don’t they?
Those first-year Sens finished 10-70-4 (84-game season then) and were lauded for representing this city with effort and class. They could have lost them all and Ottawa hockey fans would have embraced them, so thrilled was the community at the return of NHL hockey after a 58-year absence.
Our current Senators are 25-33-4 and fans are beside themselves with frustration.
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Admittedly, expectations were out of whack last fall when this group hit the ice, being counted on to at least knock on the door of a playoff spot if not outright knock it down.
After all, the Sens missed out last season by just six points.
Now, Josh Norris was back at centre, after missing nearly all of last season with a shoulder injury.
Jakob Chychrun would be on defence for a full season, after being added last spring.
Joonas Korpisalo was the new starting goaltender.
And yet here we are, talking about a team that is earning its own ‘Road Kill’ moniker.
Not only are the Senators miles out of a playoff spot, they are in the throes of a seven-game losing streak and one incredible run of ineptitude against Western Conference opponents: Fourteen games vs the west and zero victories.
Dec. 14 @ St. Louis L 4-2
Dec. 15 @ Dallas L 5-4
Dec. 17 @ Vegas L 6-3
Dec. 19 @ Arizona L 4-3
Dec. 21 @ Colorado L 6-4
Jan. 2 @ Vancouver L 6-3
Jan. 4 @ Seattle L 4-1
Jan. 6 @ Edmonton L 3-1
Jan. 9 @ Calgary L 6-3
Feb. 17 @ Chicago L 3-2
Feb. 27 @ Nashville L 4-1
March 6 @ Anaheim L 2-1
March 7 @ Los Angeles L 4-3 (OT)
March 9 @ San Jose L 2-1
To say the Senators played poorly in these Western matchups doesn’t cut it. In today’s parity-obsessed, salary-capped world, even the worst teams usually get enough bounces to win at least a quarter of their road games. A lucky bounce here, a save there and you pick up the odd victory. So this streak is quite something. Almost admirable.
Overall, Ottawa is 8-19-2 on the road. They have some impressive wins in their own division — in Toronto, Detroit and Tampa Bay — but give them a time change and they lose their way.
Truth be told, losing road games out West is just one of so many peculiarities with this team.
As new general manager Steve Staios said during a trade deadline Zoom call on Friday, for “stretches of time,” this club can look pretty good.
But their decent play falls apart as though held together by some home-made paste instead of Crazy Glue.
And we’ve become immune to it. Road kill. Ho hum.
That first stretch of Western road losses, from Dec. 14 to 17 against St. Louis, Dallas and Vegas, cost D.J. Smith his job as head coach.
Jacques Martin took over as interim coach and finished off that road trip with further losses in Arizona and Colorado.
At times, Martin seems to have this team back on the rails. There was that nice “stretch,” to borrow from Staios, from late January to mid-February in which the Senators won 7 out of 10 games and players were quietly dreaming of a late push to get in the playoff conversation.
But since Feb. 14?
The Sens have lost 10 of 13 games, a spiral into oblivion.
Centre Josh Norris was lost to injury, adding to the widespread sense of depression.
At 71, Martin can soon wash his hands of this bunch, handing off the coaching duties to a full-time bench boss at the end of the season.
All of us, Martin included, still have to deal with another 20 games to play.
Few fans seem to care about the team showing well, to “carry into next season.”
We know by now there is no such thing as momentum carryover for a team already out of the playoff picture.
Failing and getting a top-five draft pick is the better option, not that the players will want to lose games. That seems to happen naturally.
Something to keep in mind: As bad as those expansion Senators were, within five years they were in the playoffs. Martin, in his first go-around, took over the club in 1996 and had them in the post-season in 1997.
At the moment, fans have been patiently (or increasingly less so) waiting for seven years since they last saw Ottawa playoff hockey, back in 2017.
It’s been a long, tough road … with a bit too much kill on it.
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