Checking in on the Belleville Senators

With the Ottawa Senators enjoying a little Christmas Break, now makes a great time to check in on their farm team over in Belleville. In the offseason, Steve Staios seemed to prioritize helping Belleville contend this season. After a second round playoff exit a year ago, he brought in some veteran talent to allow this team to make a playoff push. Let’s dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly so far with the Belleville Senators.

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Belleville’s Spot in the Standings

Belleville has gone 13-8-4 to start the season. That puts them at 30 points, good enough for fifth place in their division. The AHL allows a whole bunch of teams in the playoffs (23 to be exact). All Belleville has to do is finish in the top five in their seven team division to make it. The good news is the team in seventh, the Utica Comets, have stunk this season, with just six wins in 23 games. The bad news is that the four teams at the top of the division are quite strong, sitting at 37-38 points each. That leaves Belleville competing with the Syracuse Crunch for that fifth spot. The Crunch, who are Tampa Bay’s AHL team, currently have one less point than Belleville, with two more games played. If Belleville could end up in the top three of their division, they’d be moved right to the second round of the playoffs, avoiding the best of three series between the fourth and fifth seeds.

Standout Players

Let’s face it, if you’re a standout player in the AHL, you often end up getting NHL opportunities. That’s what has happened for Cole Reinhardt and Zack Ostapchuk. Reinhardt has 16 points in 13 games for Belleville, while Ostapchuk has eight in nine games. It’ll be interesting to see how much time they continue to spend in Belleville. Reinhardt will likely play most of his games in the AHL, but Ostapchuk has worked his way into a regular role with Ottawa as the team’s fourth line centre.

Here are a few other standouts: Angus Crookshank leads the team with 12 goals. Donovan Sebrango has scored 10 points in 22 games, while also leading the team with 37 penalty minutes. Keep in mind he scored just seven points all of last season and even spent a little time in the ECHL. Stephen Halliday had a rough start to the season, but he’s come on strong lately. In his last 11 games he has 11 points. The team’s leading scorer is actually veteran defenseman Jeremy Davies, whose 19 points put him sixth overall amongst AHL d-men. As for the goalies, Leevi Merlainen has led the way, going 7-2-2 with a .901 SV%.

Disappointing Players

Jan Jenik was a player that was in a battle to start the season in Ottawa. Instead, he ended up down in Belleville and has missed most of the year with an injury. The good news is he’s back now, hoping to have a healthier second half. Speaking of players that have missed time with injury, Mads Sogaard has only played in six games because of an early season injury. Next year, his contract becomes a one way deal, which would indicate that the Senators were hoping that he’d be ready to become the team’s backup. Unfortunately, he hasn’t shown nearly enough so far due to both his injury and poor play. He has just a .877 SV% in the six games he’s played.

Another player that has struggled is Tyler Boucher. He has just one goal and two points in 23 games. Oskar Pettersson hasn’t fared a whole lot better, with just three goals and six points in 25 games. Both these guys have fallen off in terms of their standing amongst Senators forward prospects. There was some hope that a change of scenery would get Xavier Bourgault going. The former first round pick of the Edmonton Oilers came to the Senators in a trade for Roby Jarventie. Jarventie’s been hurt almost the whole season, while Bourgault has just nine points in 25 games.