Power Rankings: Reality starting to bite overachieving Sens
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| Daniel Alfredsson and the Sens try to keep their season in 'pleasant surprise' territory. (Getty Images) |
The Ottawa Senators picked the wrong time of the year to start playing some of their worst hockey of the season. They enter the week riding a six-game losing streak, including a huge 5-0 loss to the Maple Leafs over the weekend in what might have been the first meaningful Battle of Ontario game in a decade.
A quick look at the standings shows that the Senators are still sitting in a pretty good position, occupying the No. 7 seed with 61 points as of Monday afternoon, three points ahead of the ninth-seeded Washington Capitals.
At this point the Eastern Conference playoff race looks to be down to four teams fighting for what would three spots: Washington, Florida, Ottawa and Toronto. Either the Capitals or Panthers will get in by winning the Southeast Division, which leaves the loser of that race, Toronto and Ottawa, fighting for what could be the last two spots.
There are a couple of factors that could start working against the Senators very soon, if they already haven't.
First is the simple fact that Ottawa has played more games than any team in the league. Toronto and Washington both have three games in hand on the Senators starting the week, and Florida has four. Sooner or later those teams will start to catch up to them as the schedule balances out, which is why the loss to Toronto over the weekend was so damaging. Not only did Ottawa lose two points in the standings, the Leafs didn't even have to give up one of its games in hand to make it happen.
The other factor is that Ottawa has been relying almost entirely on goaltender Craig Anderson in net. For the most part he, like the rest of his teammates, has been a pleasant surprise this season. But he has already appeared in a league-leading (among goalies) 50 games this season, including 22 in a row. That workload, combined with playing behind a team that allows more shots per game than any other team in the league right now, might be starting to wear him down a bit.
There were no expectations for the Senators coming into this season other than for them to be terrible and to get the first overall pick in the draft. Instead, they have managed to hold on to a playoff position longer than anybody could have reasonably expected, which would make it all the more frustrating if they do fall short.
| Power Rankings | |||
| Current | Team | Previous | |
 | 1 | Canucks · Trends | 7 |
| Thanks to a six-game winning streak, the longest current one in the NHL entering the week, the Canucks have taken over the top spot in the Western Conference and are suddenly right back in the race for the President's Trophy. But as we've seen over the years, that doesn't guarantee anything. | |||
 | 2 | Flyers · Trends | 2 |
| Big win in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and you better get used to that matchup because it's probably going to be taking place quite a bit over the next couple of weeks. The Flyers are 12-3-2 over their past 17 games. | |||
 | 3 | Bruins · Trends | 8 |
| After getting a bit of a scare from the Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division race, the Bruins seem to be getting themselves back on track | |||
 | 4 | Rangers · Trends | 5 |
| The No. 1 seed in the East is all but locked up at this point for the Rangers. | |||
 | 5 | Blues · Trends | 3 |
| I think we've mentioned this before, but the most overlooked performance on the Blues this season has to be that of defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. | |||
 | 6 | Blackhawks · Trends | 6 |
| It wasn't the prettiest week for Chicago, only beating Nashville on Saturday night after blowing a four-goal lead, and then losing in a shootout to Minnesota on Sunday. | |||
 | 7 | Predators · Trends | 4 |
| Alexander Radulov looks like he never left the NHL. He's a point-per-game player so far in his return to the Predators lineup. | |||
 | 8 | Penguins · Trends | 1 |
| Suddenly, the team that looked unbeatable for a while looks ... very beatable. It's easy to overlook mistakes or sloppy play when you're beating teams 8-4 and 5-1 but there seems to be a few bad habits that developed out there that need to be broken before the playoffs start. | |||
 | 9 | Kings · Trends | 12 |
| There's just something about this team that makes me think it could do some damage come playoff time. If it gets in. | |||
 | 10 | Devils · Trends | 10 |
| It's official: David Clarkson is a 30-goal scorer. Bet you didn't see that coming at the start of the season. | |||
 | 11 | Red Wings · Trends | 11 |
| Since the start of March, the Red Wings have won only five games, and only two of them were against playoff teams. And one of those playoff teams was arguably the worst playoff team, Florida, and that came in a shootout Sunday. | |||
 | 12 | Senators · Trends | 14 |
| The Senators were supposed to be one of the worst teams in the NHL when the season began, and now they're officially in the playoffs. Heck of a job by first-year coach Paul MacLean, and some big seasons from players like Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and, of course, Erik Karlsson. | |||
 | 13 | Capitals · Trends | 16 |
| The most exciting player in the shootout right now is ... Matt Hendricks?! And not only is he embarrassing goalies across the league, he's also helping the Capitals pick up some important extra points in the tiebreaking skills competition during the stretch run. | |||
 | 14 | Sharks · Trends | 17 |
| The amazing thing is the Sharks still have complete control of their own destiny. Their remaining three games this week aren't going to be easy, of course, but they still hold all the cards. | |||
 | 15 | Coyotes · Trends | 19 |
| Mike Smith is on yet another shutout streak entering the week, stopping 82 shots in back-to-back shutouts against San Jose and Anaheim. | |||
 | 16 | Stars · Trends | 9 |
| They're still very much in the playoff race, but the remaining schedule is not going to be kind to the Stars with games against San Jose, St. Louis and Nashville remaining. | |||
 | 17 | Sabres · Trends | 15 |
| Two straight losses in regulation over the weekend aren't going to help, especially a 4-3 loss in Toronto on Saturday. That could be a costly one. A very costly one. | |||
 | 18 | Panthers · Trends | 13 |
| The Panthers have lost six of their past seven. Those losses were against Carolina, Edmonton, the Islanders, Minnesota, Columbus and Detroit. Other than the Red Wings, that's a rough stretch of games. The only win over that stretch was a shootout win at Montreal. And they've still been outscored by more than 20 goals this season. | |||
 | 19 | Avalanche · Trends | 18 |
| In terms of points, the Avalanche enter the week in relatively good shape, only two points behind the Sharks for the eighth seed. The problem is the Avalanche have already played 80 games and every team they're competing with still has at least one game in hand. | |||
 | 20 | Lightning · Trends | 21 |
| Steven Stamkos has four more games to get four goals to reach the 60-goal mark for the season. With Tampa Bay mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, you have to think they're going to get him the puck. A lot. | |||
 | 21 | Jets · Trends | 20 |
| Winnipeg's return to the NHL has offered a lot of excitement and some good times, but the season is going to end without a trip to the playoffs. | |||
 | 22 | Hurricanes · Trends | 22 |
| Jeff Skinner saw a slight decline in his production during his second NHL season, but still a solid performance for the young winter. | |||
 | 23 | Islanders · Trends | 25 |
| Two impressive performances to beat the Penguins in back-to-back games, both by scores of 5-3. | |||
 | 24 | Wild · Trends | 29 |
| At least they didn't pack it in down the stretch, winning three consecutive games against playoff teams by knocking off Florida, Los Angeles and Chicago. Sure, all three wins came in a shootout or overtime, but that's still three more wins than I expected them to get during that stretch. | |||
 | 25 | Ducks · Trends | 24 |
| We hope that Teemu Selanne is back for yet another season. Forty-one years old and the leading scorer on the team. | |||
 | 26 | Flames · Trends | 23 |
| Winning only two of their past 10 games and losing three in a row has officially pushed the Flames playoff drought to three years. | |||
 | 27 | Maple Leafs · Trends | 26 |
| When they beat Buffalo on Saturday night, the Maple Leafs won on their home ice for the first time since Feb. 6. | |||
 | 28 | Blue Jackets · Trends | 30 |
| Their second three-game winning streak of the month included wins over Detroit, Florida and St. Louis. And all three wins came with Allen York in net. | |||
 | 29 | Oilers · Trends | 28 |
| The lowlight of the week was trying to call up Magnus Paajarvi from the American Hockey League only to realize they had already used their four post-trade deadline callups and had to send him back down. It's not a huge deal, but it is kind of embarrassing. | |||
 | 30 | Canadiens · Trends | 27 |
| A pretty forgettable season in Montreal has resulted in a complete house cleaning throughout the year. | |||
