Ottawa Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios held court in front of assembled media on Saturday morning before the Senators took the ice for morning skate ahead of a meeting with the Winnipeg Jets.
Staios touched on a number of topics, including the team’s expectations entering the year, parity across the league, the team’s goaltending, the NHL’s trade market, and more across the better part of half an hour. He stressed that there is optimism among the group that they have a good young team that is nearing a contention window.
On expectations being different following a playoff berth
Last season at the 39-game mark, the Senators were 19-17-3, good for 41 points, placing them just a single point outside of the last wild card spot in the East. This year, the Senators are 19-15-5, holding two more points than a year ago but standing second last in the Eastern Conference — though only three points out of a wild card spot, still.
“Could we be five points better, watching our team play?” pondered Staios. “Over 82 games, you hope that would level out over a full 82. You hope that we’d get back to the level that we were at last year from a point total perspective. But you can’t get wrapped up in looking at the standings. We have to stay focused on what we do on the day-to-day… we’re not where we want to be from a point total perspective, but we’re not far off.”
Staios also noted that the expectations that come following a playoff berth are inevitable, calling them well-earned. “Teams aren’t taking us lightly now, and we have higher expectations for ourselves,” said Staios.
“What are the expectations for our group? We talked about taking a step last year, we want to take another step this year. We’re building towards wanting to be a contending team, and this is certainly part of the process. Expectations are certainly different this year… do we want to be better than [where we are in the standings], of course, we’re always striving to be better. I watch our team, and I look at it objectively, and there’s a lot to like about the way we’re playing.”
On parity in the East, and how that affects the trade market
“I think the margins are tighter than they’ve ever been, and we’ve got to be up for the challenge,” said Staios about the much-discussed parity in the league, especially the Eastern Conference.
Staios agreed with the sentiment that because all 16 teams in the East are over .500, there are very few sellers in the league as it stands. With an Olympic trade freeze coming on Feb. 4 and lasting until Feb. 22, that will mean that the market will be open for just 12 days leading up to the March 6 trade deadline.
“Typically, when you see a little bit more of a divide, you see you have teams that are looking to recoup some assets and move on. It’ll be interesting for sure. Even heading into the holiday freeze, there had been some dialogue, but I sense that a lot of teams are sort of just in the middle right now, trying to evaluate where their group is.”
On the team’s goaltending situation
Staios didn’t offer comment on Linus Ullmark’s leave of absence other than putting the organization’s full support behind the netminder and adding that they continue to have full confidence in him. He would not comment on any timeline for return.
After a rocky start, he noted that Ullmark had a 5-2-1 record in nine December games with a goals against average of 2.62 and a save percentage of .895. “The optimism comes from over the last month or so, [the goalies] have played to expectations,” said Staios.
Staios put his faith behind Meriläinen, Hunter Shepard, and Mads Søgaard in Ullmark’s absence. “They’re all good goaltenders,” said Staios, noting that Shepard and Søgaard just haven’t had much opportunity to prove it in the NHL.
“It’s amazing, with the goaltending position, you can talk to any team in the league and it’s under the microscope. You can have players that go through stretches that they don’t have a good month, or a good ten games or whatever it might be and obviously the focus is on goaltending. But we have full faith in the goaltending.”
On areas for improvement
Along with goaltending, Staios didn’t hold back about pointing to the team’s special teams — particularly the penalty kill — as areas for improvement heading into the second half of the season.
“Yes, and I think that’s pretty clear,” answered Staios when asked if it would be fairly easy to make the playoffs with second-half improvement from the goaltending and penalty kill. “We live in reality. When we look at it, we watch it, we look at the numbers, and we have faith that both can improve.”
The penalty ranks 31st in the league at 71.6 per cent heading into Saturday night’s game against the Jets. That would stand as the worst single-season mark ever for the team. Staios said that all things are being discussed to improve the kill but gave a full vote of confidence to the entire coaching staff and their focus on improving it.
“They recognize that it’s an area that needs to improve. There’s no panic in it, we go through a process where to try and find ways. Personnel, who’s playing where, defence pairings and how we deploy them. All of that comes into play. From a structure perspective, I think most of the league plays the same way we do. Now we just have to execute better. We live in reality, our penalty kill hasn’t been good enough,” admitted Staios.
“But it’s not like there hasn’t been adjustments along the way. We’ve seen a little bit of improvement in that area. You don’t want to make it a thing as well. I think the players that go out there for the penalty kill take a ton of pride in it. I’m hoping with some of the adjustments that we’ve made and some confidence, we get on the other side of it.”
On messaging to the team heading into the second half of the season
“It feels like the emphasis on each and every game now this year has never [before] been highlighted with the parity that we have. Improvement in some of the areas, the margins are very tight, so make sure you’re prepared for every game. Condensed schedule, so look after yourself,” said Staios.
“We’ve taken a lot of time on rest and recovery as well in a year like this. Those are the margins, and we’re looking at every single detail to make sure we’re prepared.”
