Dropping The Puck: The Ottawa Senators

The final team that I will be looking at in the "Dropping The Puck" series is the Ottawa Senators! The Senators have noticeably missed the presence of Daniel Alferedsson since he decided to go to Detroit as a free agent this past summer.  The major attempt that the team made to fill the hole that "Alffy" left was the acquisition of Bobby Ryan from Anaheim, Ryan has had a decent season being second on the team with 26 points in 29 games but those aren't the makings of an "Alffy" type season by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I wouldn't consider this series of events to be a disappointment as there are two other major problems that the Senators have to look at in Karlsson and Anderson.  Karlsson has brought the same problem to the Senators that Subban has brought to Montreal in that he leads the team in points and as I have stated previously, I feel this is a much bigger negative than it is a positive.  The next bone of contention is definitely Anderson, here's a goalie that was arguably in the Vezina conversation last year with the way that he put the team on his back, even took them to the first round of the playoffs, his save percentage this year has dropped to an abysmal 0.897 after his amazing 0.941 last year it has just been unacceptable for the team's success and in some ways has killed them.  The Sens are not a playoff team, just like the other Canadian teams that I have covered in this series and it will be a few years before we see the Cup here in Canada. 

Dropping The Puck: Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have finally started to work within the expectations that people have set for them since the Phil Kessel trade that saw Tyler Seguin go to Boston a few years back.  The expectation after the trade was lofty to say the least in that he was expected to carry the team to the promise land, heck even take them to a Stanley Cup in a very short period of time.  As ridiculous as this sounds, Leafs' fans quickly bought into the insanity and Kessel has definitly had his fair share of media woes as a result.  After years of painful seasons for the Leafs they finally have a team that in my opinion can be a contender, I realize that they are currently sitting 5th in their division, but with only a few points separating first and last in the ever strong Atlantic Division, the Leafs are the dark horse, both Kessel and Van Riemsdyk sitting at around the point per game mark and Johnathan Bernier fighting Reimer for a spot in the net each night the Leafs will be a contender throughout the course of the season.  I even believe that it's possible for them to be playoff contenders, I don't think that this is the year that they will hit the Cup but with strength finally emerging up front, the competition in the net and Dion Phaneuf finally being a real captain they are the team that I would keep an eye on in the Atlantic.