One of the biggest question marks heading into the 2014-2015 season concerned the Ottawa Senators, and whether or not they would be able to rebound from a weirdly disappointing season one year ago. Trey Quinn Jersey . Last year’s team only missed the post-season by five points, but it never felt that close – a lot was made about the slide in goaltending being a big factor in Ottawa’s regression, but just as vital was Ottawa’s inability to translate possession into goals, or shots on goal, for that matter. Paul MacLean’s had three decent-to-very-good possession teams during his tenure, but all of those teams have had a weird commonality – a sharp distinction between their Shot% (percentage of shots on goal taken by the team) and Corsi% (percentage of all shot attempts taken by the team). In Ottawa’s case, not so much. Shots vs. Corsi Shot% Corsi% 2011-12 50.7% 52.3% 2012-13 52.2% 53.6% 2013-14 49.9% 52.4% A popular theory as to why this disparity exists is that Ottawa struggles far more than their opposition at cleanly exiting the defensive zone. In Ottawa’s case, this makes sense for a variety of reasons. Tyler Dellow – to cite one example – noticed last season that Ottawa blocked an extremely small percentage of shot-attempts relative to the rest of the league. It’s quite possible that Ottawa’s not doing this by design, and that constant turnovers have created a situation where they just are infrequently in position to deter shots on goal against. This season doesn’t look much different than last in that sense. Ottawa’s allowed a whopping 38.07 shots against per 60 at even-strength, better only than Buffalo as of Wednesday afternoon. Part of the massive total is again because Ottawa’s only blocked about 17% of total shot-attempts against; the league average is generally around 25.7%. The only saving grace is that Ottawa’s goaltenders stopped 96.5% of those shots on their three-game road-trip, which allowed them to pick up a pair of victories. So, what you have here is a doubly-concerning problem. Ottawa already plays an extremely high-event game at both ends of the rink. In their end, some of those shot-attempts are materializing into shots, likely because defensive zone exits are an issue. And, a few of those shots – which may ordinarily be blocked in a normal five-on-five setting – are turning into goals against. Getting back to the defensive zone exit issues a bit: I’ve long argued that Ottawa’s biggest problem is that they are way, way too reliant on Erik Karlsson to do just about everything. Hockey analysts have lauded him for years as the most dynamic offensive defenseman, but one of the best parts of his game that really isn’t captured in the publicly-available data is his ability to flee the defensive zone with control. What I did was track zone exits through Ottawa’s first three games, and threw them into the table below. I’ll note that the data only includes performance from the first and second period of each game – I generally omit third periods because they are swamped in score effects and teams radically adjust their pace, structure, and systems late in games. Here, DZ Fail Rate indicates the percentage of times the defender was directly responsible for a turnover in the defensive zone. NZ Fail Rate indicates the percentage of times the defender only succeeded in getting the puck out of the defensive zone. Success rate indicates the percentage of times the defender was responsible for a successful exit -- his team maintaining possession as they rush through the neutral zone. Senators Defensive Zone Exits Defenceman DZ Fail Rate NZ Fail Rate Success Rate Jared Cowen 52.3% 23.8% 23.8% Chris Phillips 23.5% 17.6% 58.8% Cody Ceci 30.4% 34.7% 34.7% Patrick Wiercioch 14.3% 57.1% 28.5% Eric Gryba 35.0% 25.0% 40.0% Erik Karlsson 15.1% 21.2% 63.6% Mark Borowiecki 25.0% 25.0% 50.0% Here are the raw totals: Senators Defensive Zone Exit Totals Defenceman DZ Failures NZ Failures Successful Exits Jared Cowen 11 5 5 Chris Phillips 8 6 20 Cody Ceci 7 8 8 Patrick Wiercioch 1 4 2 Eric Gryba 7 5 8 Erik Karlsson 5 7 21 Mark Borowiecki 3 3 6 If you want to do the quick math here, Ottawa’s defensemen have turned the puck over in the defensive zone 42-times in six periods. 38 more times, they’ve only done enough to clear the zone. A lot of times, this sort of play only temporarily buys time – it’s obviously better than a clean defensive zone turnover, but there’s a good chance the opposition is going to collect the puck with structure and rush right back into the zone. So, that’s 80 dead plays of varying failure that can be directly attributed to the blue-line in just 137 five-on-five minutes. The group as a whole is again disappointing – most noticeably that of Jared Cowen, who has already become a regular fixture in the press box. There’s a separately obvious issue that the team just places way too much burden on Erik Karlsson to get them out of the danger areas on the back-end. Let’s, as a third exercise, look at Ottawa defenders and Erik Karlsson separately here. Karlsson vs. Rest of Sens Defence Defenceman DZ Fail Rate NZ Fail Rate Success Rate Ottawa defenders 31.6% 26.4% 42.0% Erik Karlsson 15.1% 21.2% 63.6% The turnover rates are astounding. And let’s remember here that the ‘Ottawa defenders’ group is being buoyed by an improbably sharp start from Chris Phillips. Phillips was fantastic at taking some of the pressure off of Karlsson on the team’s inaugural road trip, but it’s impossible to expect that to continue – there are simply too many miles on the Phillips vehicle, and he’s far better suited at this point in his career in a second or third-pairing role. Phillips might turn in a decent season, but at some point, his numbers will inevitably turn downward. This is precisely why Ottawa needs significant (and rapid) improvement from young defenders Patrick Wiercioch and Cody Ceci – both of whom are expected to log decent minutes this season. If that improvement doesn’t materialize, Ottawa could again be on the outside looking in come playoff time. Troy Apke Jersey . Rosbergs time of 1 minute, 33.185 seconds at the Bahrain International Circuit was a quarter of a second faster than Hamilton, who had to abandon his final flying lap after running wide at the first corner. Tim Settle Jersey .Lets go back to the Avs, who have become one of the funnest teams to watch in this years playoffs. http://www.cheapwashingtonredskinsjerseys.com/ .com) - Australian Open champion Li Na, former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova and former world No.EDMONTON -- The Phoenix Coyotes almost gassed a game by believing it was in the bag. Mike Ribeiro had a goal and an assist as Phoenix held on to snap a two-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. Mikkel Boedker, Radim Vrbata and Derek Morris also scored for the Coyotes (24-18-9) who ended a five-game losing skid on the road. Phoenix was comfortably in front 4-0 early in the second period when the tables suddenly turned and they found themselves hanging on for dear life to collect the two points. "They kept coming and we let them back into it," said Coyotes captain Shane Doan. "There is a little bit of (taking foot off the gas) and the fact that you have to get that next one. We talked about getting that fourth one, we got the fourth one and then we kind of eased up. We have to keep going. We cant afford to do that." Coyotes coach Dave Tippet said his team was fortunate its lead wasnt erased altogether. "Once the score got up 4-0, we made a couple of mistakes, we let them back in the game and made it tight," he said. "I thought we played well for 30 minutes and for the next 30 minutes we hung on. "Coming out of the third period with a lead like that on the road, you should really salt that game away. Its not that we took our foot of the gas, its the puck mistakes, the penalties, those kind of things. Things that real good teams dont do, and those are still things that are a work in progress for our group." Matt Hendricks, David Perron and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins responded for the Oilers (15-32-6), who have now lost six in a row for the second time this season and have had five losing streaks go five games or longer. The Oilers are just three points ahead of last-place Buffalo and only have two wins in their last 13 games. "Its been a common theme this year, our consistency," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We might play good for the first period and then sag in the second and play good in the third. We have to find a way to stop doing that. We are killing ourselves with efforts like that, not playing a full game." Added Oilers winger Ryan Jones, who collected his 100th NHL point on the night: "Its almost like we put ourselves in a situation where we have nothing to lose and thats when we start playing. "We have to come out like that right from the start, obviously." Edmonton head coach Dallas Eakins was pleased with how his team came back, but wished they hadnt been in that situation in the first place. "When you get down in a game like that, it can go one way or another," he said. "The guys can dig their heels in and fight for each other or the game can go really badly. Our guys hung in with it. It was great to see, but it is also disappointing how you can lose a game by playing poorly for three minutes." The Coyotes started the scoring 14 minutes into the spirited first period as Antoine Vermette made a cross-ice pass to send Boeedker in with some steam, beating Oilers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov with a well-placed wrist shot to the top corner. Greg Stroman Jersey. It was Boedkers 15th goal of the season. Phoenix took a two-goal lead with three minutes left in the opening period after some quick passing allowed Martin Hanzal to put it in front to Vrbata and he rifled it home for a power-play goal. Just over a minute later, it was 3-0 Phoenix, as some shoddy defensive play allowed the puck to squirt back toward the blue-line. Morris skated in and got all of his weight behind a shot that beat Bryzgalov to the glove side. Mike Smith was as busy as Bryzgalov in the Phoenix net, as both goalies faced 15 shots apiece in the first period. The Coyotes kept coming with another goal three minutes into the second period as a shot that was going wide was deftly tipped into Edmontons net by Ribeiro. Edmonton finally got on the board with seven minutes left in the second period as Hendricks redirected Ryan Joness shot past Smith for his first goal in his fourth game as an Oiler since coming over in a trade with Nashville. The Oilers made it a 4-2 game 1:50 into the third as Perron picked a puck up off the side boards and made a couple of nice moves to get past the Phoenix defenders before lifting a backhand shot top shelf past Smith. It was Perrons team-leading 19th goal of the season. Edmonton then cut the lead to a single goal eight minutes into the third as Jordan Eberle drew the defence to him before sending a nice backhand pass to a trailing Nugent-Hopkins, who sent a quick shot into the Coyotes net. The Oilers continued to press and had several good opportunities late in the game but couldnt get the equalizer. "We talked about after the first that they had the firepower to come back in the game," Vrbata said. "They almost did. We have to learn from that. Even at 4-0 the game is not over, you have to play until the end." Both teams return to action on Sunday as the Oilers play host to the Nashville Predators and the Coyotes travel to Vancouver to play the Canucks. Notes: It was the fourth of five games between the two teams, with the Coyotes having won the first three, including a comeback for a 4-3 overtime win in Phoenix on New Years Eve. The Coyotes entered the game with four straight wins over the Oilers, and having won nine of the last 11 encounters between the two teams overall. They had also won seven of their last eight in Edmontona Oilers captain Andrew Ference left the game with a head injury and did not returna. Edmonton winger Nail Yakupov returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with a head injury. Fellow Russian Anton Belov also drew back into the lineup to take the place of veteran Nick Schultz... Oilers forward Ales Hemsky remained out with an ankle injurya Coyotes centre Martin Hanzal (lower body) and defenceman David Schlemko (upper body) were both back on the ice for Phoenix after missing Wednesdays game against Calgary. Cheap Nuggets Jerseys Cheap Timberwolves Jerseys Cheap Thunder Jerseys Cheap Blazers Jerseys Cheap Jazz Jerseys Cheap Warriors Jerseys Cheap Clippers Jerseys Cheap Lakers Jerseys Cheap Suns Jerseys Cheap Kings Jerseys Cheap Mavericks Jerseys Cheap Rockets Jerseys Cheap Grizzlies Jerseys Cheap Pelicans Jerseys Cheap Spurs Jerseys Cheap Thunder Jerseys Cheap 76ers Jerseys Cheap Knicks Jerseys Cheap Raptors Jerseys Cheap Pistons Jerseys Cheap Team USA Basketball Jerseys ' ' '