This really was a game that could have gone either way.
Through 40 minutes the two teams were dead locked at zero and both goalies had been sharp. Rebounds and second chance opportunities were at a premium in what was a very tight checking defensive-minded hockey game.
But in the third period the Senators just seemed to run out of gas and couldn't get much of anything going. Tim Thomas continued his dominance of Ottawa but the Sens made life pretty easy for him in the third period registering just six shots in the final frame.
For the third time this season the opposition played a perfectly clean game against the Ottawa Senators. Truly baffling that the Bruins were not called for a single penalty in this one although at this point I guess we should be used to this from the officials.
Chara is a great defenceman but I counted at least three instances where he could have been given a penalty.
Ah well. Tough one coming up on Wednesday against Pittsburgh. Hope to have Leclaire and Neil back for that one.
Until tomorrow...
Gold Rush
SensChirp on Twitter
56 comments:
Sloppy game overall by the Sens - can't really blame Elliot when we don't score but wow, tough first goal to give up. Abosolutely ridiculous that we didn't have a PP - I wonder what the NHL record is for games without a PP over an entire season since the lockout?
I thought Kovalev played well although there were a couple of times he could have shot and he passed - can't wait for the Sens to get all their players back and lets see what kind of damage we can do in the second half!
Go Sens GO!
Tonight, I think Boston actually played clean enough to not get a penalty. I thought they were close to taking a too-many men early in the 3rd, but I guess it was too far out of the play for it to count.
Bottom line, Thomas OWNS the Senators. We had better pray that we don't end up meeting these guys in the playoffs while Thomas is still around, because I don't like our chances with him in net. If the Senators were playing against nearly any other team in the league with the effort they put in tonight, they probably would have had 3 or 4.
Nothing to be ashamed of here folks. Senators got beat by a great goaltender and a superb defensive team. The Senators worked hard again, and teams should win games where they only get scored on twice.
I really can't think of anything negative to say. They probably missed Spezza's offense a bit, though I doubt the haters will admit it. I really think that guys like Neil and Donovan would have helped tonight.
Anyways, no reason to get discouraged or to start the random trade talk or the ridiculous fire Murray discussions. The Senators just need to pick themselves up and get ready for PIT on Wednesday. They'll need an effort like tonight's to win on the road.
Go Sens!
Clouston needs to bench Kuba!! Every game I watch him play he makes horrible decisions and passes.
The last two minutes of the game he could not make a clean pass out of the Sens zone.
Not only that but the past three games, he has been on the ice for all goals scored against Ottawa.
When Neil returns, bench Kuba and put Campoli back on D.
So many chances to score tonight, but they shoot the puck wide all the time. Ruutu had two great chances, but wide each time. If the Sens could hit the net more then they could score more goals!
we just SUCK against the B's, there's nothing else that can be said
Another frustrating game to watch. Sens need to play a tight checking game more often. We cant give up points to teams in our own Div. Kuba and Picard are just terrible. Ells played great once again but his D is just plain brutal. Cant see this team making the playoffs, would be nice but i highly doubt it. Next three games are gonna be real tough...lets hope they can keep their heads up and get back in the win column....Go Sens Go
Hey SC - have you heard any comments from the players about the ice conditions at SBP? IT seems the puck is bouncing a lot more this year (for both teams)...just wondering...
boring, sens did not at all play bad but i hate them tight D game
Almost no offensive chances by the Sens. That was a tough game to watch.
Looking forward to getting Neil and Leclaire back!
Any news on foligno? He was playing great before he got injured. We need neil and foligno back as they are really the only two willing to get to the front of the net.
Hey its our good buddy Justin St.Pierre reffing again tonight.....he was the one responsible for the two games in Florida that caused Murray to follow-up with the league to complain about the quality of the officiating. I believe that St.Pierre called a another brutal game last month too. It looks like it may be one ref who has it out for the Sens rather than all of them (I have found the calls to be pretty balanced over the past month)
I know nun of you are going to like what I have to say, but I think Chara ads a lot of confidences to the rest of the team the B’s knew that, he is by far the biggest and strongest in the NHL of all times. And players on his team play better knowing he is in their comer. Its primal, and look what happen to us after he left I am thinking he is the missing link.
What has happened to Kuba ? he was pretty reliable last year. Is playing with Karlsson really hurting his game that much?
ya Kuba played very well when he needed his contract. I think your right about Chara anny 10:43 that is when this team started to fall apart and you can thank BM for that
Our defence gets burned too much I think thats very clear. Poor officiating, but here I come with all the excuses again. I guess all I can Say is it was a very tough loss because I really thought we were gonna win but whatever we have a good chance to beat the penguins although im guessing Leclaire wont be back till Saturday against Buffalo.
Tough loss :(
To Anon at 10:51 PM,
Why can we thank BM for Muckler letting Chara walk?
Also, Ottawa went to the finals after Chara left.
Cmon now...
I'm pretty sure Kuba playing with Karlsson has nothing to do with it, being as most of Kuba's mistakes are brain farts. If anything, Karlsson is making up for some of Kuba's gaffs, which is why he has been seeing the praise he has.
Anon at 10:51,
Why do people keep thinking it was bryan murray who let Chara walk?
To anon @ 10:51...
AGAIN...it was Muckler that signed Redden and let Chara go, NOT Murray!!!! How many times do we have to go over this?
-kw
Hey any news when foligno is due back?
Cheechoo's wrists are weak. Anyone else notice that?
oops sorry
We can fault the D and Elliot on this game as much as we want, but when it comes down to it, the forwards are at as much fault. The forwards did not give Elliot or the D any help.
If we need to worry about anything, it is how we have problems scoring goals. Lots of talent up front, but no consistency.
Alfredsson no goals in 13 games, michalek has been invisible lately. There still seems to be no chemistry at all.
But I cause it may be hard to get good scoring oppurtunities if the D can not get them the puck cleanly.
For one thing I would like to see Clouston to give Kely a chance on the top line, what is the worst that could happen.
Winchester is horrible on face offs, so he should not be on the top line. Hard to get going when you can't win a faceoff.
How many games this year has a team gone without a PP? The sens have 3 now.... what about the rest of the league? Are the sens the anomaly or are they just getting their fair share of them.
I find it hard to believe that a team can go a full 60 minutes without having to kill a PP. Especially a trapping team like Boston. Their style of play is conducive to taking penalties.
I saw several infractions that could easily have been called but for some reason went unnoticed by the officials.
Chirp,
Thanks for pointing out that we went to the Finals without Chara. I'm sick of the Chara excure. We have shown that we can win without him.
As good as Chara is, and he is great, he cannot win by himself. It takes a team. In fact, Chara has yet to take Boston past the second round.
Chara was a loss for us. But he was not carrying our team by himself. He was a piece.
Every single championship team in NHL history has won Stanley without him. It can be done.
Even without Chara, this team should be much better. No excuses.
I can see why Murray wants another top six forward. Everyone, including Alfie wants to play perimeter hockey, nobody goes to the net, and the few times they do they let the reounds pass them by or go through their feet. For a
4th line player Ruttu playing pretty good, but it would be nice if Ottawa could captialize on their breakaways, at least hit the net and make the goaltender beat you. Elliot's a solid backup, he's not the type to win a goaltending dual too bad his teamates couldn't have given at least one goal to work with. I don't mind if they the Sens lose but put on a show that was 2 periods of broken plays with each team managing to find ways not to captialize on their opportunities. I was hoping beating a defensive team like the Wild on Saturday would lead to a better effort, but this team just can't compete with the more phsyical teams.
what you mean kuba? karlsson and picard bot costed us goals!!!! wake up and realize they are both WEAK!!!!
I checked the stats on NHL.com
There have been 6 games played this year where a team did not get a power play opportunity. 3 of them were the Sens not getting a PP. Interesting that this has not happened to 26 teams yet it's happened to the Sens 3x now. What are the odds of THAT?
Ott x3
Edm x1
Mtl x1
Wash x1
annon 11:44 -id say all three are weak , 4 if you include campoli
List of game where a team had no PP chances this year:
San Jose(0) vs Dallas
Ottawa(0) vs Boston
Toronto(0) vs Buffalo
Washington(0) vs Buffalo
Ottawa(0) vs Edmonton
Montreal(0) vs Calgary
Edmonton(0) vs Islanders
Ottawa(0) vs Devils
Interesting that 3 of those games happened tonight.....
- HSF
Karlsson was terrible tonight. He needs more time out of the NHL, he's too small to handle 95% of forwards he faces and the slightest bit of pressure on him and he'll cough the puck up. The rest of the team pretty much mailed it in tonight, they had some shots on Thomas but almost all of them were from a safe distance. He had to make one or two tough saves and got lucky once or twice but other than that he didn't have a lot of work. Neither did the refs, they missed about 5 penalties on Chara alone, not to mention two very obvious (at least to the other 19,000+ people in the rink) too many men on the ice calls. I'm not saying the refs would have turned the tide, but it's bordering on incredible that with the way they call the games a team could go 60 minutes without a single call. Maybe I'm just basing it on the way the ref the Sens.
karlsson has been unreal since coming up. he has 1 goal 5 assists in 12 games as a rookie!.. thats 41 points in a full season blown up. i have no issues with this kid he has shown poise and so much speed and talent. he will only get better and more confident as the years go by.. next year we need to pair phillips with cowan as number one. volche with karlsson.. who is actually now 6 0'' 184 lbs. and then third pairing should be carkner with weiroch to start season with 7th guy being Lee. loose picard, loose campoli, trade kuba. and we can invest in that top 6 forward we need.. i.e. Plakanec. or a power forward like malone. with that defensive group. this team is set for now and the future. unbelievably good !
Anon 11:37 nailed it, if you want to play perimeter hockey in a tight checking game like last night....you deserve to lose.
We beat ourselves last night as we largely outplayed the Bruins in the first and second. The wheels seriously fell off in the third and the perimeter play just killed us.
Clouston needs to get some of these pansies to step up!
Derek... I agree it might be time to do away with the Winchester experiment at center, its been tough for that line to get anything going... but Kelly as your answer at faceoffs?
He's the worst on the team dude. most of the year he's been at about 40%
Also I really dislike when people point out Kuba playing with Karlsson as the reason for his sub-par play of late. Lets face it. Watch the game, and count the number of times Karlsson is left high and dry by kuba, when you would expect it to be the other way around. At least Karlsson gets practice on his 2 and 3 on 1's eh?
In brighter news, PASCAL IS BACK
Derek @10:35: Michalek would probably knock you out for saying that. Get your facts straight.
And regarding the "unfair" absence of powerplays once again, well, in case you guys haven't been paying attention, WE SUCK on the PP! We need to win games in all situations and that includes being better on 5-5. Too much cycling the puck, not enough shots on net IMO.
@ Derek,
How can you blame the forwards when the D cant even make a clean pass to an open winger or center. Our breakout has to be the worst in the league, its "slap it againt the boards chip it out to centre to the other team or attempt a 2 line pass that gets tipped on purpose to deny the icing call but nobody is chasing it." Both equate to turnovers all game long.
Now onto Elliot, he did not play great, heb was decent, making saves he is supposed to make. Except of course for the first goal, there should not have been any rebound on that soft shot from the side boards. No excuse!
The defense looked bad all night, panicking in our own zone, making bad passes and not hitting at all.
SM
Anon @ 11:37 nailed it, this is a perimeter team that is scared of getting into traffic. Always has been, really. Neil and Ruutu are about the only guys with some jam on the team.
Alfie looks old out there and we have him for two more years, oy...
Wasn't a bad effor from the team overall; if we place some bodies in front of Thomas we'll win. The Penguins are fairly inconsistent these days and are quite beatable.
Go Sens!
What's that email address to complain to the league about officiating again?
Sorry, but I'm going to use this as an excuse. I don't think it would have won the game, but it could have caused some excitement and possibly a closer game.
I did't pay to watch last night's game, but if I had to fork $200+ to see Justin St-Pierre exercise his hate on the Sens, I'd be PISSED!!!
Frigin' brutal...
I disagree that Bruins played clean hockey. There were several obstructions, hooking, tripping, but no calls by the officials. I can't believe we have two officials on the ice and both of them are blind.
Are Ottawa fans like this all the time with ranting after loses ? I am thinking perhaps we as fans of the Sens did not have a break this summer because of the Dany Heatley thing, Our style of hockey has changed from a team with guns fireing all the time to more of a defence team, they are not as much fun to watch and when they lose we all get cranky.
11:44, the first goal was poor rebound control by Elliott, that had nothing to do with Karlsson. Watch the replay, the puck came off Elliott's pads straight to Bergeron, Karlsson took a reaction swipe at it but didn't get it. Not his fault.
10:51, you're that same little kid who posted here all summer about how bad you think Murray is. Go away, please, or stop posting anon.
Obviously Muckler was GM when Chara was let go. However, has anyone considered that Chara maybe DIDN'T WANT to stay in Ottawa? Maybe the person most responsible for Chara leaving was Chara. No one ever talks about what players want. I'm sure that Muckler would have wanted to keep Chara, but Chara probably wanted to leave. Don't blame anyone for it, that's the reality of pro sports. Players come, players go.
You need to get over the fact that Chara doesn't play for the Senators anymore, stop blaming people for it, and move on with the team we have here. Stop crying.
It's even hard to blame Muckler for Chara leaving as all reports had the Big Z hell bent on finding a situation where he was "The Man". Just as Heatley found out (and Chara would have far more deserving than Dany ever could be), that won't and shouldn't happen here in Ottawa until Alfie retires. Any player who thinks they deserve that spotlight more than Alfie is too self-centered to realize how foolish they are being.
Get over Chara leaving ... there is nothing anyone could have done to keep him here.
hm...
i didnt see the game, but from listening to clouston's comments postgame, i think these guys still need to create more jam at the opposition's net. also, no Power plays. dont know if thats a result of refs being assholes or these guys themselves not inviting infractions, although its hard to figure out that with a guy like ruutu we are unable to force the ref's hand. ruutu is pretty capable at inciting all kinds of infractions from the opposition, or the refs just know it now....
dont like the losing streak against boston. its more irritating than a game loss to the leafs. mainly because its so long now, thomas has got 10 straight wins on us. he is by no means having a good year. this was his first win in 6 starts.
want a retribution win against the penguins. please and thank you.
My two cents...
Kuba played great with Phillips, not so great with Karlson. Why not play Kuba Phillips, Volchenkov and Karlson (Volchenkov made Redden a lot of money).
First goal last night, bad rebound, but anyone who has every played a lot of goalie knows that a weak shot right at you dipping the way it was is hard to deflect into a corner and because it was dipping you are weiry to try to catch it and just want to make sure you get your body in front of it. The resulting rebound wasn't that much of a surprise. I think Kuba shouldn't have passed it to Hennessy in the first pass and just flipped the puck out.
Finally, there is no excuse for the Sens not driving the net harder last night, especially against a goalie who has there number. When the Sens get to the front of the net they score goals, otherwise they don't.
Hasn't anyone/everyone ever heard Jason York talk about Chara on Team 1200 (York played with Chara in Boston and talked to him about it). Chara wanted to leave Ottawa so he could be the team leader. The decision wasnt't Chara or Redden it was Chara or Alfredson (not to say they didn't get along but if Chara was to stay and lead the team then you would assume Alfredson would be moved). Like another poster said about Heatley.. some guys just want to be the Alpha Dog.
yea, i agree with the people saying chara isnt that big a deal. i mean yea he is great, but he is not the game-breaker that people are making him to be. either way, boston will still be a second round bust. and the kessel trade will bite boston and toronto equally lol. so be patient guys haha.
these guys need to start going to the net. and thats what every smart team starts to do. sure the sweet passes and cycles work some games and thats all well and dandy, but eventually teams start to figure out the skill plays and they defend against them. however, there is no real defense against hardnosed physical mentality, and there is also no real defense against traffic in front of the net. the top two lines need to get that jam going.
honestly, i think this team just cant wait anymore for Neil, Foligno, and Dono to return. these are three guys who just love the net area and go for it and the game play should improve once they get back soon. Dono is a week away, Neil should be in Wednesday.
i think Murray needs one more top six though who is big,physical and has a bad habit for going to the net.
Chara wanted to be a captain so he left. At the time I admit I thought "well, Redden is a better fit for the new NHL". I was wrong of course, but can't really throw stones at Mucks for letting Chara go when I essentially agreed at the time. Chara has done a great job of adjusting to the "new" game - kudos to him. I still boo him but only because it gets Ottawa fans actually making some noice during play.
Man it is PAINFUL to lose when you have obnoxious Bruin fans in "our barn". Most are classy enough to simply cheer on their team, but some are just brutal with no respect at all.
What is the harm of giving Kelly the chance on top line. He is signe for a couple more years for over two million. Clouston may as well see if he can start producing on the top line and make him worth the money they are paying him.
When I said Michalek wasn't producing, I wasn't lying.
He is playing with Alfie and both have not done much in terms of production lately. I like michalek, he works hard out there, but he and Alfie have not seemed to create any chemistry out there.
We need the top line scoring on consitency and we are not getting it. After a good start for Michalek he has slowed down.
Michalek 1 point in last seven.
Alfredsson 1 point in last four and one goal in last 12 games.
There is no chemistry there. How long before something is done about it.
Give these lines a shot
Alfredsson-Fisher-Cheechoo
Michalek-Kelly-Kovalev
Ruutu-Regin-Neil
Shannon-Winchester-Hennessy
Phillips-Karlsson
Volchenkov-Kuba
Picard-Carkner
Kuba and Karlsson are not playing well so seperate them and put them with someone who will hold them accountable. What is the point of having on shut down pairing when we have two other pairings that can't play good D.
Tough loss, bit probably saw it coming. The Senators are also no where near 100%. Even though we tend to lose to Boston, we are never blown out, and it is always close. I take comfort in that.
How come you don't have Yashin in the poll? I mean, you have friggin Heatley, and Yashin was a far more exciting player to watch (when he wasn't sitting ou) than heatley'll ever be.
pg
It was a close game. Ottawa played well enough to win they just didn't bury their chances. They were a step behind on a regular basis but that's what happens when you play the tail end of three in four nights.
The officiating was brutal. They absolutely ignored obvious penalties. There were 3-4 easy calls where a guy had his free arm completed wrapped around the Ottawa player for 10 seconds or more through the neutral zone. Just pathetic. The call against Karlsson was ridiculous. Karlsson poked the puck and the guy flat out jumped wildly to the right (the ref was right behind him and SAW the guy jump) and called the penalty against us. It was the same Ref every single time calling it against Ottawa. They even ignored too many men on the ice penalties twice against Boston and it was obvious. The bias is clearly there gentlemen. I have no idea why, but it's most certainly there.
That being said Ottawa would have probably drawn a few penalties if they had let themselves fall down when the free arm/hook was on them. They were doing a good job of drawing penalties by remembering to fall down when they get all wrapped up by a free arm or hook lately but they seemed to forget last night. I think if they had let themselves hit the ice when they got wrapped up they would have got a few calls. Its the most obvious thing and officials have difficulty not calling it when its that obvious. They are biased but they don't want to appear so - meaning they have to call it when the player falls down from the hook or hold.
What a boring game. Everyone's always trashing the Devils for playing the style of hockey we're seeing more and more frequently from the sens. The difference is that NJ (and Boston) are actually able to do it properly and win. We just seem to lose more often than not when we play the "watching paint dry" style we played yesterday. I'd always rather lose 6-4 than 2-0.
"How come you don't have Yashin in the poll? I mean, you have friggin Heatley, and Yashin was a far more exciting player to watch (when he wasn't sitting ou) than heatley'll ever be.
pg"
You Sir should be draged behind a woodshed and shot in the head!!!
Simply......wow!
SM
Wow! I didn't know Yorkie posted under so many pseudonyms!
10:58,
Yeah, I was actually listening to Team 1200 when Yorkie talked about it several times. HE NEVER SAID HE TALKED TO HIM ABOUT IT!!! All he ever said was 'he just knew.' Stop trying to rewrite history to your version.
For 7.5 Million Chara would have stayed, thats all he wanted was money.
But we gave it to the wrong guy!
SM
Pretty hypocritical when any Euro tries to maximize his value he's money hungry, while when a Canadian does it he's deemed as worth it.
Did Ottawa have a party the night before???? All the players on the ice were asleep! we needed the energy of Neil for that one!
Post a Comment