Burakovsky And Ersson Address Their Very Slow Starts In Ottawa

While the Ottawa Senators are off to a fine 8-4 start, they continue to wait on a couple of their Swedish reinforcements to find their games.

Veteran winger Andre Burakovsky was supposed to pick up some of the offensive slack after the departure of Brady Tkachuk. And goalie Samuel Ersson was meant to provide better support as Linus Ullmark's backup.

GM Steve Staios bought low on both players, securing their services for a fifth and sixth draft pick, hoping there's more there than meets the statistical eye.

Burakovsky ended last season in Chicago with 4 points in his last 36 games. So far with the Senators this season, he has 0 points in six games, and his time has been nine minutes and change the last two games with a healthy scratch on Wednesday in between.

No player wants to be ranked behind the backup goalie in points. But after Jonas Johansson's assist on Saturday night, that's exactly where Burakovsky finds himself.

Burakovsky addressed his slow start earlier this week.

"I think it's been a little bit harder than I expected, to adjust to the way we want to play," Burakovsky said. "I think as of now, I'm trying to focus so much on doing the right thing in our system that my instincts are maybe slipping a little bit.

"But I'm trying to find a way to contribute both ways, do the things I'm good at, and then also do what we're supposed to system-wise: forechecking, hunting, and making good plays."

"I think coming to a new team, it takes a little bit of time to adjust and feel 100 percent comfortable on those things. I mean, I will find it. And I'm working hard every day to find a rhythm and find a balance between my game and our system."

Six games is far too early to panic, but based on ice time and his healthy scratch on Wednesday night, it's clear that Travis Green already has his concerns.

The same might be said of Ersson.

When Ullmark was hurt on Wednesday, Ersson got only one start, a 6-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks. With no concerns about rest, Green immediately turned to Johansson, his third string goalie from Belleville on Saturday. Ersson is 0-3 in five appearances with a 4.59 goals against and an .835 save percentage.

After the loss, Ersson scrummed it up with reporters who asked their questions with the natural assumption that it would be him, the club's main backup, who would be getting a good long run of starts with Ullmark being out for at least two weeks.

"You want to play, but I've obviously got to play a whole lot better. It's not been good, not nearly good enough. So yeah, it sucks. I mean, the guys are fighting like crazy, so you want to play for them and try to help the team. So I've just got to be better."

With Johansson providing the first win by a Sens backup all season, it's fair to wonder if he'll get the net again Tuesday to open a five game road trip out West.

At the end of last season, Staios said one of his regrets was not providing enough support behind Ullmark. The veteran goalie is off to a fantastic start, but hoping that he will stay healthy is no longer realistic.

Ersson wasn't brought to Ottawa because of his stats in Philadelphia, that's for certain. He was brought here for the same reason Burakovsky was. Because the Sens' pro scouts believed they were better than their stats appear.

It's far too early to slap the microphone like Dennis Green and declare that the two players are who we thought they were. The trouble is that, more often than not, when two player are made available to you for such low prices (a fifth rounder and a sixth rounder), there's usually a good explanation for it. 

Staios opted for the road less-travelled, and only time will tell if he was right to do so.

But like Jerry Seinfeld once said, "Sometimes the road less travelled is less travelled for a reason."

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa