from Ken Warren at the Ottawa Citizen,

What matters is that the Ottawa Senators’ losing streak is at six games, their longest in almost four years. (They were outplayed, sometimes badly, in the other four defeats). Worse still, picking up but one point over that stretch in the modern NHL, with points for overtime and shootout losses, is devastating.

It seems so early to talk about this, but to reach 95 points — the entry spot for the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference last season — the Senators need 73 points in their final 60 games. That’s 35-22-3, 34-21-5 or 33-20-7....

It’s no coincidence that captain Erik Karlsson’s personal pointless streak is at six games, the same length as the Senators’ slide. The last time Karlsson went so long without a point was his rookie season of 2009-10, when he went eight games without hitting the scoresheet. “We can do whatever we want and feel good about ourselves, but it’s results that we want,” Karlsson said. “We’ve got to pay the price a little bit more. I feel like we’re playing a little bit too much on the outside. If we don’t play the best hockey than we possibly can, we’re not going to put ourselves in situations to win games.”

more