In the third period of Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Anthony Duclair sat stapled to the bench. With The Duke only seeing the ice for one or two shifts through the final frame, D.J. Smith’s message rang clear: it’s time to figure it out.
In fairness to Smith, this isn’t just about scoring. Sure, Duclair hasn’t scored in 16 (!) games now, but droughts happen, especially on a team as bad as the Sens. It’s the fact that despite some really good scoring chances, the entirety of his game has been way off lately.