Spezza and Kovalev Under Pressure

The Senators arrived back home this week after a tough road trip where they went 1-3-1. They lost to Boston, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Phoenix before winning 4-3 in a shootout against Anaheim Sunday night. They then dropped a home game against Montreal on Tuesday, but followed it up with a win against

A Better Week

It was a better week for the Ottawa Senators, who followed up an exciting shootout loss on Saturday to the New York Rangers with two wins over the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The win over the Leafs on Tuesday was big, if only for the fact that it was the type of game they must win if they want to be considered a playoff contender. It certainly wasn’t their best game of the season, but with a little help from their goaltending they were able to eke out a win. All in all, the offense had a decent number of chances, the team showed a little toughness and grit (four fights in the game), and most importantly they got that big game out of Pascal Leclaire.

As I mentioned last week, the Senators were looking to be coming down with another case of goaltender controversitis this season, as Leclaire has struggled to find consistency. After a solid game from Brian Elliott in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers, people were starting to ask whether he would once again become the number one goalie by default.

Despite Elliott’s big game against the Rangers, I thought Cory Clouston made the right decision going back to Leclaire for the Toronto game. He made a statement that needed to be made, in that Leclaire is the team’s number one goalie, and should be given the opportunity to prove himself. Seeing as this was the case, it was crucial that Leclaire get the win on Tuesday, lest the questioning begin to increase in volume.

He looked a little shaky at times, occasionally losing sight of the puck, but Leclaire made the huge saves that he needed to make. While Mike Fisher was the game’s number one star, it was Leclaire who stole this one from the Leafs. He held fast in the third period, when the Sens started to let off the gas and allowed the Leafs to unleash a flurry of shots. The final shot count was 32-21 in favour of the Leafs, including a 15-4 advantage in the third.

Leclaire followed this performance up with another solid game against the injury-depleted Penguins. He helped maintain a 2-1 lead, in what had been a fairly tight game, into the third period where the Senators blew the game wide open. He only let in a second goal to Evgeni Malkin on the power play late in the third, when the game was already over.

The game also featured a six goal offensive outburst not generally seen from the Sens this season, especially considering the goal scorers. Chris Kelly finally got his first of the season on a nice snapshot on a breakaway, while Matt Carkner and Jonathan Cheechoo both got their second goals of the season. Even defensive defenseman Chris Phillips got in on the action, potting his second and third goals of the season, including the one that finally chased Marc-Andre Fleury from the net.

This explosion of offense from a few unlikely sources was timely, as the Sens will need a little help while they are without the services of winger Alex Kovalev. He left quickly after the Pittsburgh game to fly back to Russia as a result of the death of his mother in law. The trio of Kovalev, along with Mike Fisher (5 points in 2 games) and Nick Foligno (2 points in 2 games), have been the Sens’ best line of late.

Fisher himself has arguably been the team’s best player so far this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing minutes on the top line when the Sens take on the division leading Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Overall, the game against the Sabres should be a good indicator of whether this team can translate a good week into a good month, or just another week in an up and down year.

Things Getting Hot in the Crease in Ottawa

The Ottawa Senators find themselves in dangerous waters these days, having lost six of their past nine game and facing a variety of concerns about their play. After their 5-1 loss to Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, one particular issue seemed to emerge centered on starting goaltender Pascal Leclaire’s growing habit of letting in soft goals.

It’s an entirely new concern for Ottawa fans, who have grown accustomed to solid and consistent play from Senators goaltenders over the past decade.

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In case anyone out there was unable to discern my tone, I was being sarcastic. If there’s anything Ottawa Senators fans know it’s goalie controversies. From Dominik Hasek’s Olympic groin injury, to the hard-partying antics of Ray Emery, to the woes of a certain anthropomorphic piece of Swiss cheese named Martin Gerber, goaltending problems have been the dominant storyline in Ottawa for some time now.

Pascal Leclaire was supposed to represent a new beginning for the Senators in the crease, one where the skilled young Quebecois goalie could provide the solid foundation from which to rebuilt the team. Instead, we’re already starting to hear unfortunate comparisons to another Senator goalie from La Belle Province, Patrick Lalime. Leclaire’s statistics aren’t in any way the worst they could be (nor were Lalime’s, but that nagging habit of giving up deflating goals seems uncomfortably familiar. Several of the goals against him in the Flyers game would fall under this category, while the tying goal in the Edmonton game scored by Gilbert Brule was not one that an NHL goalie should be letting in.

Of course, there is always the possibility that this entire situation is merely an early season slump blown out of proportion. His statistics are not great, but they’re certainly not Vesa Toskala bad. I know this fact has been cited ad nauseum, but this is a goalie who had nine shutouts in 54 games for Columbus two seasons ago. It’s hard to imagine that a young goalie with a skill-set like Leclaire has already peaked. Hope springs eternal

On the positive side of things, a few players who had been slumping this year look to have a turned a corner of sorts in the game against the Oilers. Jonathan Cheechoo scored his first goal of the season, and against Philadelphia he played more like the Cheechoo of old, even hitting the crossbar on a nice shot in the first period. Meanwhile Ryan Shannon got his first point of the season against Edmonton on a nice behind the back pass to set up Nick Foligno on the second goal. Even Alex Kovalev looked more inspired than usual, earning a hard-working assist on Cheechoo’s goal as well as scoring a sweet goal in the shootout.

Nonetheless, the Senators are going to need a lot more than a few solid individual performances. They may not want to admit it, but it appears as though the determining factor in whether or not this team can make the playoffs or not will be goaltending. It’s up to Pascal Leclaire to prove he’s up to the task, otherwise we may have another season of Brian Elliott backstopping the Senators to another 11th place finish.