OTTAWA SENATORS: A PROGRESS REPORT

Sixteen games into the NHL season, the Ottawa Senators have been on a roller coaster ride. Win one, lose one, good efforts, not so good efforts. Here's a brief overview of my insights into the season to date.

FORWARDS: The Senators have ample scoring punch in the lineup. Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Milan Michalek have had solid starts to the season. Jason Spezza has played a much more well-rounded game than in the past. Nick Foligno and Chris Neil are working hard and making things happen. On the downside, high priced Alexei Kovalev has been his usual mercurial self, invisible in too many games. He needs to stop making fancy, ineffective plays on the perimeter and use his skating ability to get to the net; he also needs to use his hard, accurate wrist shot more often. Jonathan Cheechoo has struggled mightily, not for lack of effort, but because he has stopped doing what made him so effective in San Jose- going to the net and using his quick release. Peter Regin looks like a player; he checks well and makes smart plays, both offensively and defensively. Ryan Shannon seems to be over his head in the NHL- his speed is of little use when it's not used intelligently.

DEFENSE: The defense has been erratic at best and has made too many critical errors at key points during games. Although Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov (when he's healthy) have been steady, Alexandre Picard, Chris Campoli and Brian Lee have looked lost at times and get caught out of position too often. There have been far too many odd man breaks allowed by pinching defensemen. Erik Karlsson is a work in progress, but the potential is certainly there. Matt Carkner plays hard and uses his size effectively- however, it remains to be seen if he can be a starter over the long haul. Filip Kuba has played too few games to be fairly evaluated.

GOALTENDING: Pascal Leclaire has played well for the most part (other than the occasional weak goal). He has bailed out the defense many times with sparkling saves. Most of the goals he has allowed were either unstoppable shots, deflections or goals resulting from poor play by his defense. Brian Elliot has been an acceptable backup in his few starts.


COACHING: Cory Clouston seems to have communicated his system to the players fairly effectively. He now needs to ensure that they keep with the game plan for a full 60 minutes. There have been too many letdowns once they take the lead (two goal leads spell doom for the Sens), and too much panicking particularly late in the game when the opposition  pressures the defense. The panicking has resulted in too many bad penalties, lost leads and lost games. Fortunately for the Senators, the penalty killing has been excellent. However, the power play has been ineffective and Clouston will have to mix things up a bit to find a successful combination.


MANAGEMENT: Bryan Murray has done a reasonable job building the offense, and managed to obtain adequate compensation in the Dany Heatley deal under very difficult circumstances. The jury is still out on the Kovalev signing. He needs to look at the defense now, the Sens have too many soft, rushing defensemen and could use another big, reliable stay-at-home defenseman to clear the front of the net, augmenting the physical play of Phillps and Volchenkov.


TEAM RATING
Forwards- B
Defense- C-
Goaltending- B+
Coaching- B
Management- B-
As it stands, the team is going to be in a dogfight to make the playoffs unless they clean up their act defensively.