{"id":36962,"date":"2018-10-18T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T13:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=36962"},"modified":"2018-10-18T10:04:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T14:04:32","slug":"craig-anderson-leading-ottawa-senators-with-solid-goaltending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/10\/18\/craig-anderson-leading-ottawa-senators-with-solid-goaltending\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Anderson Leading Ottawa Senators With Solid Goaltending"},"content":{"rendered":"

While only five games in, Ottawa Senators<\/a><\/strong> goaltender Craig Anderson<\/a><\/strong> has been red hot in the start of his 16th season in the NHL. With the young blueline the 37-year-old has in front of him, he’s stood his ground in between the pipes for his team.<\/p>\n

Craig Anderson Should Be The Least Of the Ottawa Senators Worries<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Heading into this season, many people were skeptical of Anderson still being the starter for the Sens. Anderson has quickly silenced the critics with his stellar performances early on. In the five games he’s started for the Sens, Craig Anderson has posted a 3-1-1 record and a .925 SV%. While his goals against average sits at 3.02, which is fairly high, there is an explanation for this.<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, the Sens back-end is incredibly young. Four of Ottawa’s six defenders on their active roster are 25 or under. Dylan DeMelo<\/a><\/strong> who has been superb<\/a> for the Senators, Thomas Chabot<\/a><\/strong>, Maxime Lajoie<\/a><\/strong> and Ben Harpur<\/a><\/strong>. With a youthful blue-line like that Anderson can only do so much to hold his end of the bargain. And he most certainly has up until this point.\u00a0The Senators have yet to finish a game where their opponents\u00a0have under 30 shots on them.<\/p>\n

Craig Anderson Has Been Busy Early On<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Anderson has been a busy man in his crease. The net-minder is tied with Minnesota Wild<\/a> goalie Devan Dubnyk<\/a><\/strong> for most shots faced so far in the NHL with 199. Anderson has saved 184 of them, which puts him second in the NHL for most saves made. Anderson is fifth among NHL goalies in save percentage who have played at least five games so far this year. He is quickly realizing his surroundings on the blue-line and is determined to be a helping hand for the youth in front of him.<\/p>\n

While not having a choice but to be solid for his team, his backup Mike Condon<\/a><\/strong> is not giving him much security either after a horrible season debut. Condon let in six goals and the Ottawa Senators ultimately fell 6-3 to the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anderson, Senators Need To Continue To Play Solid Hockey<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While this is all very encouraging and music to Sens fans ears, the season is still in its opening stages. Unless a miracle falls upon the Ottawa Senators, Anderson’s numbers will come down to earth eventually. Whether he can be consistent or not is the important question in all of this. No Senators fans are expecting their goaltender to have a Vezina\u00a0season, but an average one would go a long way for the team.<\/p>\n

The defence has been pretty solid for the most part also. While allowing a handful of shots against, the youngsters have bought into the system. Now it’s all about having consistency and not losing steam as the season continues to roll on. The Senators had and still have concerns about this year, but their starting goalie surely isn’t one of them for the time being.<\/p>\n

Main Photo
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>