Speculation: Could it be that our team is just tired?

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Has he?

He does some good things once in a while but he's prone to mistakes as well. I'd consider him to be "ok" at best.

Thompson is a 4th liner and he's certainly played that way. "Great" and Nate Thompson probably shouldn't be part of the same sentence.

 

[Silencio]

Ottawa stopped being an elite team when they stopped the post-game exercise bike routine.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Shouldn't be tired, extreme lack of effort during the games so no argument there, then the team barely practices so again no argument there. Seems the team has very few guys who actually care about winning, im talking about the types that get kept up at night thinking about losses....Stone seems like the only guy on the squad with that attitude right now, the rest of the guys play the game with a smile on their face and collect a pay cheque.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Thompson's been great

He has fallen from his great play earlier in the season. He doesn't do anything extra ordinary. His role could be filled from within.

 

[Xspyrit]

- Karlsson coming off another major injury, not at the elite level they need him to be (and really struggling defensively)

- MacArthur missing a 3rd season in a row : career likely over (a top-6 forward never replaced)

- Ryan keeps getting injured, hard to produce consistently (injury-prone at this point)

- Anderson is 36 y/o (declining), rolled on a emotional high last season. Condon isn't good enough to help carry the load.

Maybe "playoff hangover" is a factor (like the Pens) but outside of those 4 players, the rest should be okay (even if some were coming off injuries like Brassard, Ceci, etc). Hoffman, Stone and Brassard are producing fine but the team is broken. Boucher has been able to have short term success but again, he is not able to maintain it. He might have tired some players with too much rigidity. Losing Methot (damn expansion) and now Turris (good swap on paper but probably horrible for the team cohesion) was too much to lose suddenly in terms of roles and leadership.

That team proved that they could win last year + playoffs (98 pts despite injuries and adversity and we know what happened in the playoffs). They also had a pretty good start where they were 6th in Pts% and 3rd in GF after 16 games (so we're talking about 120+ games). Then they came back from Sweden with Matt Duchene and the season went downhill.

This is obviously not a "personnel" or talent problem but more a team problem : they are not working well together. A coaching change would have probably sparked them back but at some point, can't change the coach every 1.5 seasons, that's a lot of dead money spent.

 

[Zorf]

What's Erik Condra up to these days? Sens could use some of his elite level stamina.


I don't buy fatigue as a factor. I'm sure the Sweden trip and the jet lag didn't help at all, but you can't pin everything on that.

Turris trade blew up the chemistry of how the team plays on the ice. Duchene was a lost puppy with the system for a good month, and he wasn't at all supported by the team failing to play the system around him.

Oh, and I think other coaches have figured out Boucher's system, so that's also a big problem, especially since Boucher is more stubborn than my 2 yr old daughter and he refuses to change his ways.

 

[Micklebot]

fatigue is one issue, but there is clearly more at play than just that.

 

[4thlineduster]

Elite athletes, most of whom are in their 20s and had several months of recovery time.

No....no logical reason fatigue would be a factor.

 

[Micklebot]

Elite athletes, most of whom are in their 20s and had several months of recovery time.

No....no logical reason fatigue would be a factor.

To be fair, Ottawa has a compressed schedule relative to other teams thanks to the trip to Sweden, and has the most back to backs. They also have a couple key guys (Karlsson and Brassard) that didn't get a typical offseason, as they both had major surgery.

Ottawa is also one of the oldest teams in the league, and have a head coach who insists on shortening the bench more than most, while leaning on his vets.

 

[4thlineduster]

Sure....they may be fatigued from scheduling this season......but to think last years playoff run would contribute to fatigue when they had almost 3 months off? Doubtful.

And while we do have one of the oldest teams in the league...they are still for the most part all in their late 20s. From a physiological standpoint that's a human bodies' prime. So I don't think our "old age" has much to do with it.

Karlsson I truly believe may be more damaged from his injury than has been made public. I love Karlsson, he's my favourite player, but one has to wonder if his serious injuries have brought him to the point where the Karlsson we knew is gone and not coming back?

 

[Micklebot]

Sure....they may be fatigued from scheduling this season......but to think last years playoff run would contribute to fatigue when they had almost 3 months off? Doubtful.

And while we do have one of the oldest teams in the league...they are still for the most part all in their late 20s. From a physiological standpoint that's a human bodies' prime. So I don't think our "old age" has much to do with it.

Karlsson I truly believe may be more damaged from his injury than has been made public. I love Karlsson, he's my favourite player, but one has to wonder if his serious injuries have brought him to the point where the Karlsson we knew is gone and not coming back?

Idk, teams that go deep in the playoffs often have playoff fatigue cited as part of the reason they slide in the standing the next season. The list of guys playing hurt through that run was pretty long too, so while they did have 2-3 months to recuperate, I think it's the fact that a chunk of that 2-3 months gets eaten up by first getting healthy.

Karlsson clearly wouldn't have come into the season at his regular fitness level. He wasn't walking most of the offseason little lone doing his cardio or what not. Same is probably true of Brassard who wasn't ready till just before the season started.

Like I said though, it's at most just one part of the equation, not the entire explanation, and it may be compounded by the compressed schedule, and all the back to backs.

 

[4thlineduster]

I think this team has the perfect storm this year.

Lot of injuries late last year, franchise player with a serious injury that required surgery, compressed schedule, trip to Sweden, coach who is too stubborn to change what isn't working, an potential locker room chemistry issues thst seems to exist since Turris was traded.

I'd list Melnyk but that's not unique to this season

 

[tony d]

Getting rid of Methot and Turris hurt this team big time. I think if we still had 1 or both we'd be in a playoff spot right now. Be sad to go from a lucky bounce away from a cup final berth to being a terrible team this year but here we are.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

She said I don't believe you're tryin' to find no job
I seen you today you was standin' on a corner leaning up against a post
I said but I'm tired

 

[Tuna99]

The fans are tired on the BS around the team and the team doesn’t have the will to win.

I was at the Boston game, it was pathetic. The GASL of the Ottawa Senators was zero.

If they are tired, it’s because they are weak.

 

[otown]

Tired alright.....tired of hiring new coaches every 2 years, tired of trading quality players and getting fleeced, tired of new systems, tired of paying 3rd and 4th liners more than the going rate, tired of not letting the prospects show their stuff in the bigs, tired of multi million dollar players not living up to their contracts, tired of getting just one shot on a power play, tired of perimeter play....just plain tired this season! But there is always hope and the potential of a high draft pick this year!!

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Has he?

He does some good things once in a while but he's prone to mistakes as well. I'd consider him to be "ok" at best.

From a 4th liner, hard to ask for much more I'd say.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

Aww... poor little guys are so sweepy

 

[DylanSensFan]

Idk, teams that go deep in the playoffs often have playoff fatigue cited as part of the reason they slide in the standing the next season. The list of guys playing hurt through that run was pretty long too, so while they did have 2-3 months to recuperate, I think it's the fact that a chunk of that 2-3 months gets eaten up by first getting healthy.

Karlsson clearly wouldn't have come into the season at his regular fitness level. He wasn't walking most of the offseason little lone doing his cardio or what not. Same is probably true of Brassard who wasn't ready till just before the season started.

Like I said though, it's at most just one part of the equation, not the entire explanation, and it may be compounded by the compressed schedule, and all the back to backs.

He sure was getting his wife pregnant though.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

No the boys just aren't playing for one another anymore. Last playoffs the team was extremely motivated with the unexpected return of MacArthur (particularly Ryan who I believe has motivation issues), seeing their captain play on one leg and dominate while doing so, Nicole Anderson's battle with cancer.

That was a very tight group of players who all went out there to win for each other. They put their bodies on the line for the chance to win every night. The chemistry in the room has taken a big hit with losing Methot, MacArthur, and Turris. The players just lost their motivation this year. I'm a firm believer in attitude reflects leadership, the team will only play as good as their leaders. Karlsson deserves a lot of the blame for this abysmal season, enough so to make me question his leadership abilities (I doubt the Sens would ever have such a drastic fall from grace under Alfie), but he doesn't deserve all of it. Methot, MacArthur, and Turris were all leaders in that dressing room, losing them hurts big time.

 

[Rondo Hatton]

bad owner and poor fan support is the issue. The team is in a downward spiral and only relocation to Quebec City will get them out of the funk