The Senators need to quickly carve a path back to respectability

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The Ottawa Senators have reached a crossroads in their regular season.

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The Senators can either climb the ladder back towards respectability or dig the deep, dark hole they’ve created for themselves even deeper.

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Sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference with only 28 points in 33 games heading into Thursday’s road game against the Seattle Kraken, the Senators were trying to find a way to atone for Tuesday’s ugly 6-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks to start this five-game trip.

Fourteen points behind the New Jersey Devils for the final wildcard spot in the East, the Senators haven’t even reached the midpoint of the season and they’re already at the stage where it’s now or never to try to save the year in which they were supposed to turn the corner.

There are no more excuses left for this roster, and that will be the next stop for changes because the Senators have tried everything else to right this ship.

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General manager Pierre Dorion was fired in November, coach D.J. Smith was relieved of his duties with assistant Davis Payne on Dec. 18 in Arizona and now the focus has turned squarely on this underachieving group of players.

It was no surprise to see Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, remove the interim tag from his title New Year’s Eve. He’s brought in well-respected TSN analyst Dave Poulin in a senior advisory role and they’ll work with associate general manager Ryan Bowness to help carve out the changes they want to make.

Bowness, who is in his second season with the organization, was out scouting when the announcement was made because the Senators are looking to make changes — big and small.

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This group hasn’t been good enough and isn’t good enough.

The Senators were hoping to get a bump when they installed interim coach Jacques Martin behind the bench for a second go-round with Hall of Fame captain Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant. The club went into the visit in Seattle with a 3-4-0 record since the change, and if that trend continues there’s no chance the Senators make the playoffs.

The decision to make the change has confirmed the issues with this group go far beyond coaching. Now, Staios, Poulin, Bowness and the rest of the hockey operations staff are taking a long, hard look to determine where changes need to be made.

This club badly needs help for its third and fourth lines.

The talk among league executives is Staios has been working the phones trying to find a veteran player who can help the Senators by contributing and providing leadership in the dressing room.

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“Do you know how hard those are to find?” a league executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, asked Thursday.

It’s difficult, but it depends on what you’re wiling to pay.

The club will make one addition when centre Shane Pinto returns from his 41-game suspension Jan. 21 against the Philadelphia Flyers. He didn’t make the road trip because he isn’t allowed to resume skating with the Senators until next Thursday, but will be here when they get home.

Part of the plan before Dorion was fired was to send Pinto to the club’s AHL affiliate in Belleville for conditioning, but that likely won’t happen because the Senators need him and they’ve been allowed access to him so they feel comfortable with the work he’s done to get ready.

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If the Senators can’t start stringing together a few wins on this trip, it means they’ll be sellers — again — before the March 8 trade deadline.

As it stands now, you can expect winger Dominik Kubalik will be moved and there’s talk the club will likely ask Vladimir Tarasenko to waive his “no move” clause at some point in the next two months.

The Senators will have to eat part of Tarasenko’s $5 million U.S. salary to make a trade, but that would sweeten the pot on the assets they receive in return. Defenceman Erik Brannstrom has played a couple games at forward so that doesn’t bode well for his future, either.

One thing we’ve learned about Staios since he arrived in late-September is that he might have good “poker face” but behind the scenes he’s got a lot of moving parts to try to get this club headed in the right direction.

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Since Staois, Poulin and Martin are new here, they have zero issue with making changes. This team is built around Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Pinto.

Has the time come to strike at the core of this team? Anything is possible and every option is on the table.

Defenceman Jakob Chychrun was added to the mix at last year’s NHL trade deadline and the organization needs to decide whether he’s part of the solution sooner rather than later. A contender looking for help might want to have Chychrun for a couple of post-season runs if the Senators don’t plan to re-sign him.

There’s been a lot of movement off the ice since owner Michael Andlauer took over the Senators in September. The next changes will come with the roster and all options are on the table.

BGarrioch@postmedia.com

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