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Tuesday, November 23, 1999
Senators' goal simple
Offensive boost a key to ending team's three-game slump
If practice makes perfect, the Senators should have no problem scoring Thursday night in Atlanta.
Senators coach Jacques Martin didn't have any fire in his eyes during the club's two-hour workout yesterday at the Corel Centre, but he did crack his whip with a three-day break in the schedule.
Troubled by the club's three-game losing skid and the Senators' inability to put the puck in the net, Martin spent the day with drills that were centred around creating and finishing scoring chances.
The former hasn't been a problem for the Senators. The latter has become a major headache. Twice, Martin stopped practice to read the riot act to players he felt weren't doing the drills properly and he ordered them done again.
"What we're trying to do is drills that we can use to put the puck in the net," said Martin, who had a 75-minute on-ice session and then summoned the players to the gymnasium for another 45 minutes.
"I don't think our confidence is down. I think teams all go through this at some point during the regular season. You're seeing it with the Detroit Red Wings right now. They're scoring plenty of goals, then they lose in Calgary and Edmonton. We just have to keep working."
FAST START FORGOTTEN
The Senators opened the season with the best start in franchise history. But they've have had far too many passengers in the last 10 days and need to start converting on their scoring chances again.
Forwards Andreas Dackell, Joe Juneau and Vaclav Prospal are all being counted on to score goals this season -- especially with Daniel Alfredsson out of the lineup -- and they haven't gotten the job done.
Signed as a free agent last month, Juneau has scored only one goal in 11 games. That's not good enough, because he has been pencilled in as the man who is supposed to fill the hole left by holdout centre Alexei Yashin.
"It's frustrating for everybody when you're not scoring," said Juneau. "When you're in this situation, you can't think too much about it because that's not going to make it any better.
"Of course it's much nicer when the puck goes in for you, but the big thing is the chances are there. When you're creating chances, then sooner or later it is going to go in for you. The big thing is you have to keep working."
Martin and the coaching staff aren't complaining about the effort from the players, but the Senators were hoping to use the games they had in hand on other contenders in the East to tighten their grip on first place.
That hasn't happened. They're hoping the break in the schedule will give the banged up bodies time to rest for back-to-back road games against the Thrashers on Thursday and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
"I don't know how much we have to do better to score goals," said Martin. "The puck is just not going in for us. The big thing for us is to get shots at the net and then get somebody in there for the rebound.
"It's tough because we haven't had Alfredsson and we didn't have (Marian) Hossa in the last game (because of a concussion). I think the injuries caught up with us a little bit. We've just got to capitalize on our chances and that can be the difference in the game."
Martin is of the opinion a little hard work never hurt anybody. He hopes the Senators put the same kind of effort into ending their scoring slump.
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