Lower the pitchforks: Duchene is set to turn it around with Senators

Matt Duchene's inauguration with the Ottawa Senators hasn't gone quite as smoothly as he had likely hoped.

Since being acquired by the Senators, as the catalyst of a three-way trade with the Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators, Duchene's offense has dried up. The 26-year-old has gone pointless with a minus-8 rating in six games - a fact that's been hard to stomach for some Sens fans, especially with Kyle Turris having tallied five points and adding a shootout-winner in six games with the Predators.

All that aside, Duchene still appears to be settling in nicely with his new club - despite the offense - and as far as the play-by-play voice for the Senators on TSN 1200, Dean Brown, is concerned, it's too early to be pushing the panic button.

"He has played well actually, that's the irony," Brown told theScore. "He's actually played very well and had some good chances and just has been unlucky, certainly more than anything else. If you were playing bad and not getting any chances and not really doing the things you need to do, people would probably be more concerned and maybe upset. That really isn't the case, he's played very well since he's been here."

The underlying numbers are quite intriguing. Through his first six games with the Senators, Duchene has thrown 23 shots at the opposition, an average of just under four per game and the same number he put up in 14 games with the Avalanche prior to the trade.

Meanwhile, Duchene's played largely on a line with Bobby Ryan and Ryan Dzingel, and the trio are rocking a Corsi For of 60.78 at 5-on-5. However, the three have just one goal to show for their possession efforts. So is it time for a rejigging of the lines?

"Maybe yes, maybe no. The thing that - well not last night's game in Washington - but the game in New York, Guy Boucher tried 25 different line combinations," said Brown. "So, I suppose you could never say no, but again it’s not like he's played badly and it's not like he hasn't gotten chances with whoever he's played with. It's just one of those things that when it snaps it will snap. I think sometimes in situations people look for immediate answers to their problems and sometimes the solution isn't immediate."

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Of course, as a team, the Senators are playing some of their worst hockey of the season. After rifling off two wins in Stockholm against the Avalanche in Duchene's first two games, Ottawa has gone 0-3-1 in its last four, scoring just five goals while conceding 14.

In fact, the team has averaged just 26.25 shots per game, which means Duchene has actually put up a respectable 12.3 percent of the team's shots over the last four games, and the quality has been there as well.

In his six games with the club, Duchene is averaging 11.95 scoring chances per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, the highest such total on the Senators next to Nick Paul - who has played in only three games - and 5.4 more than Duchene was averaging with the Avalanche.

And while the chances in the offensive end appear to be there, fans and Guy Boucher can rest easy knowing Duchene has been playing strong on the opposite side of the puck as well.

"I think knowing he's on a team where that is an important thing he's put extra emphasis on that," said Brown. "He is very rarely out of position. He's not a guys who's out waiting at center ice banging his stick waiting for a breakaway pass. He's in his own zone, the forwards all leave together, and he's been very responsible."

The team's new center is probably gripping his stick a little tighter these days as both he and the club are becoming more and more desperate for a goal, but he's getting too many chances to continue failing. Things are bound to start going his way.

"I don't know if it's time for them to be concerned, if they think that he is that terrible of a player and not worth keeping then I guess that would make them concerned," said Brown. "I think he's kind of the same as this team's been right now, he's a good player that's going through a tough stretch. They're a good team that's going through a bad stretch. Every team goes through slumps and they're going through one right now. He's got a personal one going, but I'm not sure fans should be all that concerned about."