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Senators’ defensive woes continue

Image (1) Kuba-thumb-200x300-6615.jpg for post 113

Flip Kuba doesn’t practice, could miss third straight game.

The Ottawa Senators were one of the few teams that I thought would make a serious push to acquire veteran defensive help at the trade deadline. Some maneuvering would be needed, considering how tight the Sens are against the cap, but if they are serious about making a focused push into the playoffs and beyond, there’s no question they would need more defensive help.

The Senators have allowed 187 goals this season; certainly not that far off the pace from Pittsburgh and Washington above them in the standings. Yet they are 4th-best in the NHL in shots allowed per game, while 20th in goals-against average. The goaltending and defense isn’t bad necessarily, but the Senators’ overall offense is not good enough to keep up with the Eastern conference powers.

If they had hoped to make some noise in the postseason, some form of help would be needed to get a young defensive corps shored up. Well, they added Andy Sutton. And Erik Karlsson is coming on strong.

But now the team is faced with the possibility of Filip Kuba missing significant time. He’s missed the past two games and doesn’t look likely for tomorrow’s game either. In those two games, the Senators have been outscored 8-2 and the goaltending has been atrocious. Would Kuba’s presence have helped? Tough to say, especially considering the fact that the Senators have not allowed less than three goals in a game since February 3rd, and that was against Buffalo.

It’s not entirely out of the question for the Senators to be able to continue winning without having added defensive help; heck they were finding some way to do it before the Olympic break. But to add Andy Sutton and say “Yep, we’re good to go for the playoffs” is a bit ignorant. Especially when you lose Kuba for the next week or so.

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