Why It's Probably Too Early For Ottawa Senators Fans To Flip Out

There's already plenty of angst in Ottawa after the Senators 6-7 start.

After the Senators went to New York last week, played an excellent road game against the Rangers, and then blanked the Seattle Kraken the next night, the dialogue was that maybe they had turned a corner. Maybe they've finally figured things out.

It was probably too early to make that declaration.

Two games later, after a pair of losses to teams with sub-500 records, the dialogue seems to be 'Same old Senators. Here we go again.'

It's probably too early to make that declaration as well.

If the Senators had made no changes at all to last season's squad, then they'd be the same old Senators. But they made as many changes as any team in the NHL. They swapped out the coaching staff, and brought in a top goalie, and half of last night's roster wasn't here last year.

No, not everything has changed. But it still feels like we're getting upset with a new girlfriend for something an ex-girlfriend did.

The new bodies include veterans who've won, who are here to help prevent this team from wallowing or falling into the multiple soul-crushing, season-annihilating losing skids they had last season (three losing slides of five, six and seven games).

It's probably too early to be criticizing head coach Travis Green after just 13 games. He's got a team where a lot of the older guys are the new guys. And the young guys are the old guard. Creating a new world order in that locker room will take some time.

Green also has to get the young returning core to consistently play the right way. The kids have a lot of bad habits to break, including the mental sins of getting both too high and too low, and we all knew that's wasn't going to happen overnight. 

No one says it's easy to keep the bleak past from seeping into every evaluation of the season so far, but Green has no affiliation with D.J. Smith or how he handled this team for five seasons. None of the residue of Smith's tactics should fall on him. And, by the way, you're just lashing out if you're really that upset over which below-average right-shot defenceman Green chooses for his bottom-pairing.

There are still six months left and 69 games left to play. We knew there were going to be bumps.

Injuries have slowed Linus Ullmark and Artem Zub, who should get back to up to speed soon.

Shane Pinto and David Perron will be back soon to bolster the top nine.

And the sample size is still woefully small. For example, the Sens should have beaten Vegas and the Rangers. Just those two wins alone would put them in second place in the division. 

Sens fans have every right to feel how they want to feel, and if rage, frustration, or disgust after only 13 games is how you want to feel, then have at it.

But it's probably too early.

Read full coverage of the Ottawa Senators at The Hockey News.