As a bookend to "Five Ottawa Senators Who Pleasantly Surprised Us in 2023," here are the five players who haven't lived up to expectations...yet.
With the Senators in 29th place, the season’s pleasant surprises need to be recognized (and we did that here a couple of days ago), but those of whom more was expected also need to be called out.
For the Senators to climb back into the race and make good use of their games in hand, not only do they need those pleasant surprises to continue, but they also need these five guys to find their games.
DOMINIK KUBALIK
As the only live body to come over in the Alex DeBrincat trade, to say his impact hasn’t met expectations would be an understatement.
After an impressive pre-season, it looked like he might take the sting off losing out on a perennial 30+ goal scorer.
Instead, he started the season without a point in the first seven games.
Nine points in the next 22 games have been encouraging, but he has not resembled the 30-goal scorer he was in Chicago. And his minus 13 is an eyesore.
There's plenty of time to make up for a slow start, but it has to start now.
JOONAS KORPISALO
At times, he has looked like exactly what the Senators faithful had hoped for. What he lacks is consistency.
The recent five-game road trip was a microcosm of his season.
He played four of the five games, and he was the best player in the losses to St. Louis and Arizona. He acquitted himself very well against Colorado and was the weak link against Vegas.
Even in the games where he played well, there was at least one goal in every game that he would have wanted back.
Starting goalies on playoff teams need to be better.
He has proven he can be the difference and is on pace for 53 starts. If he can’t seriously reduce allowing those stoppable goals, it won’t be good enough for the Sens to get back into the hunt.
ANTON FORSBERG
He is the backup goalie equivalent of Joonas Korpisalo. He has shown that he can be really good, and he has also shown how he ended up on the waiver wire before coming to Ottawa.
Like Korpisalo, consistency is lacking here. There needs to be a smaller gap between his A game and his C game.
His season-ending injury last year doesn’t seem to be an issue. When he's on, he's good enough to give the Senators a chance to win.
MARK KASTELIC
After signing a two-year, one-way extension last year, recording 11 points in 65 games and putting up 102 penalty minutes, there was reason to believe the Senators had an up and coming fourth line player who could play big.
Such has not been the case this season.
Kastelic recorded his first point against Colorado and finally scored his first goal of the season on New Year's Eve against Buffalo.
He was sidelined with a high ankle sprain and missed a good chunk of the season. However, he wasn’t producing before the injury either.
Kastelic seems to have found some chemistry on the fourth line with Jiri Smejkal and Parker Kelly. And maybe Erik Brannstrom, if that experiment continues. One can only hope it will lead to more production in the second half. His faceoff skills in a penalty killing role would be helpful as well.
EGOR SOKOLOV
There were hopes of Sokolov cracking the lineup to start the season. An underwhelming training camp in which he failed to score, along with a lacklustre start to the AHL season, has led to him being supplanted by Roby Jarventie, Angus Crookshank and Jiri Smejkal on the depth chart.
At 23, it’s big players like Nick Paul who remind us not to give up on players too quickly. However, after making the AHL all-star game last season, 15 points in 28 AHL games this season is not going to cut it. This is especially true when you're a minus 12.
No one on this list should be written off, but with a new year upon us, it's time to get rolling.