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Phaneuf said he believed Senators management had been tolerant with this group.

“I think they’ve shown great patience and they’ve given us lots of opportunity to come together and we’re going to try to continue to try to work out way out of it,” Phaneuf said. “We’re not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves because that doesn’t do anybody any good.”

The Senators head into the matchup with the Blue Jackets with only three wins in their past 19 games. They’ve allowed four goals or more 15 times this season, including Tuesday’s 5-1 loss in Boston, and they have only two victories in those 15 games.

“It’s been frustrating in all aspects,” Phaneuf said. “The whole slide, or the whole (six weeks), however you want to say it, we just haven’t been able to grab traction. If we knew and it was that easy of a fix we’d do it.

“Whenever you have this type of adversity and whenever you go through this, there’s only one way to get out of it, and that’s to come together, and you’ve got to work your way out. Maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll be standing here and saying we’re playing much better. But we’ve got to find a way to work to deserve it.

“Right now, we’re in the position we’re at because we deserve to be where we’re at and we haven’t played well enough.”

It’s hard to believe it has to come to this for a team that got within a goal of the 2017 Stanley Cup final. Head coach Guy Boucher will argue this isn’t the same team, but the Senators made minimal roster changes over the offseason, so the reality is that this group, including coaches, has underachieved.

Boucher opted to try to keep the message positive on Thursday and, really, what other choice did he have? Nobody is going to throw in the towel because there’s too much hockey left to be played this season.

“I’m looking forward to (Friday’s) game, I really am,” Boucher said. “Every moment of the day is a chance where we can do so something good, whether to change, keep or grow something.

“I want to have a hard game against a hard team and I’m expecting a hard fight.”

If some of these Senators don’t put up a fight they’ll be packing their bags.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sungarrioch