Now, to the bulk of my thoughts. Ottawa is officially out of my doghouse. They played a full sixty minutes against Florida, and a full sixty minutes against Dallas, and while their efforts were not rewarded by blow out victories, they were rewarded with much needed wins. This can have a fantastic reaction to the players, as not only were their passes better during the Dallas game, but they were starting to get the much needed production from the third and fourth line that was likely one of the top reasons they were struggling.
Yes, goaltending is still a question, but Ray Emery has done enough to deserve his third straight start, and Martin Gerber makes his way to the pine for what should be the remainder of the season in terms of goalie 1 and goalie 1a. There are still a few kinks in Mr. Emery’s game, which will hopefully work themselves out in the coming months pending he takes his practicing seriously, and I fully suspect that if there is any threat again of losing the coveted number 1, he will be grinding away. His lateral movement could still use work, and his rebound control, while being better than average, still needs a great deal of work if Ottawa’s defensemen can trust him to get the puck out of danger.
Defensively, there is no question Ottawa is struggling. Wade Redden has been a no show once again this year, forcing players like Volchenkov, Corvo, and recently Schubert to come up big for the Sens. Call it bad, or call it good, I think it is fairly safe to say Ottawa will have an extra 6.5 million dollars worth of cap room to work with come August. Phillips has been solid, but has shown signs of deterioration without his partner Volchenkov in the lineup. With likely another three weeks off, Volchenkov can only hope that Schubert fills in well.
I think at this point of the year Murray needs to make a decision. Should he trust in his stellar offense to get the job done, and rely on guys like Mike Fisher, Antoine Vermette, and the rookie Nick Foligno to get the secondary scoring needed to win games down the stretch, or is a top six forward really the most important thing on the Senators need list? I personally think if used correctly, the offensive core in Ottawa can break down and wilt any defense in the game. I think the extra money left over needs to be spent on a second line defensemen, to alleviate some of the pressure clearly building on Ottawa’s back end. Once they shore up the position, that can likely allow Vermette and Kelly to start playing more offensive minded games, and really pour on the quality scoring. Everyone saw Vermette’s goal against Dallas. There is no question in my mind, if given enough opportunities, this kid will find out exactly how good he really is, and exploit it on other teams third lines.
