Friday, December 08, 2006
Ottawa Offence Reawakens
Early this season, Ottawa's offence was running last in the NHL. This was quite a shock considering that in 2005/06, their offence lead the league in goals. Things have been fixed. Ottawa now has the second best offence in the NHL with 3.48 goals per game. They are beaten only by Buffalo right now.
As the Ottawa offence has improved so has the team's results. If the season ended right now, Ottawa would hold down the eighth and final playoff spot in the east.
Things changed because the Senators are too talented a team to not score for a long time. Currently nine players have more than 15 points on the team. They are led by Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza with 36 points each. Daniel Alfredsson, Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher, Andrej Meszaros, Joe Corvo, Peter Schaefer and Chris Neil are their other players who have scored better than 15 points. This is the way things work in hockey. When a team is going well, they have lots of players doing well. When they are not (as was the situation in October in Ottawa) nobody looks good. Teams feel pressure to make a move (often out of panic) when many times doing nothing is the smartest move of all. Ottawa has a very good team. Their start this season was an aberration.
As the Ottawa offence has improved so has the team's results. If the season ended right now, Ottawa would hold down the eighth and final playoff spot in the east.
Things changed because the Senators are too talented a team to not score for a long time. Currently nine players have more than 15 points on the team. They are led by Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza with 36 points each. Daniel Alfredsson, Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher, Andrej Meszaros, Joe Corvo, Peter Schaefer and Chris Neil are their other players who have scored better than 15 points. This is the way things work in hockey. When a team is going well, they have lots of players doing well. When they are not (as was the situation in October in Ottawa) nobody looks good. Teams feel pressure to make a move (often out of panic) when many times doing nothing is the smartest move of all. Ottawa has a very good team. Their start this season was an aberration.
