Ottawa Senators: A Good Team Playing Badly

There are a number of excuses that could be raised to soften the blow of the Senators' poor start, but you won't read them here.

Seriously, why bother?

Every team encounters adversity throughout a season, but they don't all fail to overcome it as the Senators have.

There have also been a number of quotes from players, coaches and management, all saying the right things—but the words never seem to translate into much improvement on the ice, where it truly matters.

But, the recent words from Mike Fisher appear to say it all:

“When everything’s going well, you just go out and play and you don’t worry about the X’s and O’s,” Fisher said.

“It seems like you’re always ready. We've got to get back to having that winning feeling and just going out to play and having a little bit of fun. We all know how to play the game. It’s just a matter of doing it together and doing it as a unit.”

This is what the Senators have not been doing: just playing the game.

To date there has been far too much backing off, far too much waiting for someone else to fill the gap, to receive the puck or to retrieve the puck.  It's not laziness or a lack of skill, it's an issue of confidence.

The Senators just have to commit to doing what they know how to do: play the game.  Stop re-thinking every play or backing off in fear of losing a puck battle.

When the Sens dominated the Sabres, they did it by committing to every puck battle with both feet, all in.

When they lost to Montreal, they backed off of every puck battle, instead peeling off to try to play defence.

This is supposed to be a puck pressure team, but instead of applying pressure, they're taking the pressure off of their opposition and playing without confidence.

It will come, but with every loss the pressure only mounts and the opportunities shrink.