Five Biggest Reasons the Senators' Season Has Gone Sideways

Season-destroying poor starts are becoming an annual tradition in Ottawa. Here's a quick glance at the reasons behind it.

The Ottawa Senators 2023-24 season has been a train wreck so far. 

On and off the ice, the team has dealt with a plethora of problems: scandals, fan unrest, and just plain poor play on the ice. 

The Senators are 14-19-0. They have a 3.2% chance of making the playoffs. Don’t fool yourselves. Barring a 2015 Hamburglar-esque run, this team is not making the post-season.

So, what has led to this disastrous season?

Here are the five biggest reasons why this team has gone sideways.

1. Coaching

D.J. Smith’s teams were never able to exceed expectations. In fact, they failed to meet them – sometimes badly. Smith’s record was 131-154-32. To be fair, he only ever had a reasonably talented team in the past two seasons. In both, the team was out of the playoff hunt by November. There was an argument for firing him last season – certainly long before his eventual demise last month. Under Smith, the team had very little structure, was porous on defence, and had terrible special teams.

2. Goaltending

Off-season acquisition Joonas Korpisalo has not stabilized the Senators’ goaltending. Korpisalo is rocking an .889 save percentage this season, and his goaltending partner, Anton Forsberg, is even worse at .883. The Senators rank dead last in NHL team save percentage. Korpisalo’s late gaffe against Vancouver on Tuesday, when he let in a dump-in shot that bounced past him, sums up the Senators' goaltending this season. It's been terrible.

3. Defensive lapses

As bad as the goalies have been, the team’s overall defensive structure has been missing. The Senators are 22nd in expected goals against 5-on-5. At one point, when Smith was still coach, the team had given up double the number of goals in the second period as the first and third periods combined. 

Often this was because of terrible line changes leading to breakaways or odd-man rushes. If you watch a Sens game, you'll notice how often the opposition gets grade A chance after chance. In the season to date, the Senators have given up 17 more high danger shots against than they've created.

4. Best players off to slow starts

This is a young team so its best players are expected to make strides each year. But generally speaking, it hasn't happened. 

Tim Stutzle has just 7 goals this season. Vladimir Tarasenko has 8. After 83 points last year, Brady Tkachuk is currently on pace for 67. Jake Sanderson had a good start but hasn’t taken the offensive leap Sens fans expected. With the exceptions of Drake Batherson, Claude Giroux and Mathieu Joseph (before his injury), most of the big guns are falling short of expectations.

5. Struggling with adversity and giving up goals in bunches

The team has given up goals in bunches numerous times this season. They gave up 3 goals in 1:19 against the Canucks the other night. The Senators have given up 2 or more goals within 4 minutes 17 times in their 33 games this season. Below are the games and times it happened.

This Senators team is on track to miss the playoffs. To become a playoff team any time soon, the Senators must find a way to solve these issues and avoid these ongoing disastrous starts.