You often hear coaches talk about the concept of a trap game and this was certainly one of those for the Ottawa Senators.
With the Habs struggling lately, it seemed pretty clear that MacLean's group just didn't have the level of focus required to pick up what would have been an important two points. With the exception of a couple of guys, the Sens didn't have the legs to skate with a more hungry Habs team.
While it's hard to isolate a negative on a night where the Sens struggled as a team, this was definitely a rough game for defenceman Erik Karlsson. He didn't look nearly as sharp as he has at times this season and finished the night a -3 in just under 24 minutes of ice time.
Milan Michalek returned from a concussion and I thought he looked fairly comfortable, logging over 20 minutes and registering an assist on a second period goal by Jason Spezza. Having Michalek back and contributing will help stabilize the Sens top six forwards.
Obviously wasn't pretty for the Sens but they won't have much time to dwell on what went wrong as the club will host their annual skills competitions tomorrow at SBP. That event kicks off at 1:00 PM tomorrow.
To close on a positive note, the reviews seem excellent for the new scoreboard which made its debut tonight. Aside from a minor glitch where the board shut off with a minute to play, it sounded like fans really enjoyed the new addition. Can't wait to see that thing in person!
Will have updates up on tomorrow's skills competition as they become available.
this is what bad goaltending can do.. basically throws off and ultimately slows down the thinking process of the entire team.
Time to hit practice, work off the eggnog/fruit cake, come back next game to show us what they are made out of; a bunch of energetic youth who want a win.
I had to turn off the game after the first, couldn't stomach it :(
Pretty painful to watch the Habs with with 15,000 Habs fan in the building, but the most annoying fans were still a handful of Leaf fans - who wears their Phaneuf jersey to a Habs/Sens game? Douchebags!
i kinda thought they'd pull anderson after the third goal, Sens looked great in he first five minutes but a couple of soft quick goals killed them.
score board is definitely impressive but the top line of the netting in the ends cuts off part of the picture especially because its black, slightly annoying but not sure there is an easy fix.
ridiculous amount of habs fans at the game ughhh.
He's much better this year and good for him. In reality though, tonight was a flashback to last year; pre-anderson .
They'll shake it with time.
However, I watched the 2nd and 3rd and although we had a few chances, I never thought we made them work hard. Not a lot of scoring chances/sustain ed pressure/puck possession/fore checking etc, so it's tough to say the team didn't deserve the loss (looking at you, moe)
Could have been Tampa vs Detroit (NFL) and a leafs fan would still wear their jersey. I even saw a Leafs jersey in a picture accompanying an article about the last pope's death.
To a Leafs fan, any occasion is suitable.
He owes us one now
Reimer got pulled in the Laughs Loss which is nice to see
Cunneyworth was a good Senator, glad we could help him out.
Yeah, he looked awesome tonight standing straight up on two goals from Detroit. And losing his last two starts...
Never underestimate Hitchcock's system and the way it makes average goalies look good (see: Leclaire, Mason).
Elliott is streaky at best, a choke artist at worst.
Crappy game by Anderson nonetheless, too bad considering how stellar he was against Carolina.
Oh well.
Sens will be better next game.
Also, Congrats to the Anglo coach in Montreal. I wonder what the french press will complain about in this one.
The scoreboard fared better than the team - they shut off with 58 minutes to play.
Didn't deserve that length of a contract.
No Anderson did not help us win this game, but please people look at the goals and where they are scored from. Our D did not do much to help either
The Leblanc goal was the only really bad goal.
Eller should never have been able to skate into slot like that and get such a great angle. Any other d-man would have put him on his ass, but he just skated in on Karlsson like it was a breakaway and he wasn't even there givin him excellent angles on Andy.
Plakanec batted out of mid air, a third was off a deflection to a Mtl player with an open net.
C'mon people, the past 10 years we have had some very shoddy goaltending, but Anderson is a very big part of us being in playoff contention.
Some of this has to go on our D as well.
Andy will be back to form on Friday!
I agree - Anderson perhaps should/could have stop the Eller goal... but to me the blame should rest on the D. Most were tips or the D leaving men wide open.
Also, blame the refs on the 3rd goal... should have been a blatant penalty behind the Montreal net for holding the stick, instead they skate down and score.
Not saying Ottawa should have won, Montreal was the better team... but:
A) Not all Anderson's fault, mostly D's fault.
B) Ref's missed call led to a 3rd quick goal and deflation of the team.
Lastly, please everyone stop bitching and moaning about losing games. We are rebuilding and in a year where everyone pegged us for the bottom, we are proving them wrong. We are going to have growing pains.
We will bounce back - GO SENS GO!!!
Get'em next time boys!
Go sens
Next!!!
On to the next one!
Agree with both of your comments, on the lack of emotion
from certain players, but really the whole team let us down.
Do not wish, to ever see a lineup like the one last night.
There just is "no chemistry " with Michalek on Line 1 with Spezza and Alfredsson, period !!
Michalek and Alfredsson must be on different lines to balance out the scoring threat, but can still play together on Power Play !
Michalek has most of his 19 goals :Greening- Spezza - Michalek. That is where he is most efficient.
So, on Line 2, we could have : Foligno - Turris - Alfredsson.
At any rate, I trust that MacLean will revamp all the lines
to become most efficient, and score many goals.
Last night's loss doesn't bother me "too much". It was a blow-out and it sucked, but I have a feeling they'll bounce back. What has me personally concerned is our powerplay :(. Is it just me or does anyone else cringe when we get a powerplay? I keep thinking: "crap! they're gonna get a short-hander on us! I don't have the year stats on short-handed goals against, it just seems like its happened way too often in the last few games I've watched. I'm not sure who coaches the powerplay, but its kinda scary :(
No, I'm not bashing the sens because they lost (I'm overall pleasantly surprised at how well they are doing this year), I'm bashing them as they let yet another short-handed goal this game.
Another thing I didn't like were the lines. I think our top 6 will be most effective would be if it looked like this:
Greening-Spezza-Michalek
Foligno-Turris-Alfie
That way we get our first line that worked so well before MM9 got injured back together. And we also get the Foligno-Alfie chemistry with a true second line centre! Just a thought...
Anyways, terrible game last night, but I think our sens will bounce back on friday
GO SENS GO!
Agree with you on line combinations to be more productive.
MacLean could even change it to : Foligno - Spezza - Michalek.
And also we would then have : Greening - Turris - Alfrdesson
When Michalek was out for 2 weeks, there was chemistry between Spezza - Alfredsson, and none when Michalek was back and teamed with Spezza - Alfredsson !
Hopefully the excess eggnog will wear off by Friday.
Looking forward to the Ottawa/Calgary game on Friday. I can't wait to see the new scoreboard. :)
Last night was the worst game I think I've ever seen Karlsson play. He was horrible in all 3 zones.
Foligno-Turris-Alfie.
I really like Alfy, but him being on the second line gives us alot more depth.
As for Anderson last game he was left hung out to dry.
Also, not having Phillips in there did affect the team. There is a reason Murray re-signed him and it wasnt just to teach the young guns.
with New Jersey AND Washington losing 2 nights ago, this would have been a huge win for Ottawa.. we basically gave Montreal the game.
Every time the habs touched the puck all I could think was "wow, what a horrible, non-cohesive team.... wow, did they just score against us.. WTF"
Games like last night are the difference between playoff and non playoff teams.
Stone is so good that i think that when Huberdeaus entry contract is up ottawa should get him just so that Stone could do well with him. Also try to get Johansen in the mix.
He was not stellar last night.. but I don't think he had a lot of help.
Inconsistency will plague this young re-building team this year. Too bad... a win and they would have been ahead of the Leafs..
Was at Sens Skills today... really like the new scoreboard. There was a guy in his Leaf duds there today... why?
Greening broke his own record for fastest skater. Spezza went 4 for 4 in accuracy shooting and won the hardest shot with 103.6 MPH. That's unreal. Why the hell does he not shoot more? Condra won the shootout..
What amazed me as well was the puck control relay... Butler went through the whole course with one hand on his stick...
yes one hand on stick... almost as if the puck was stuck to his stick... tongue in cheek, that was funny Sandy
Yes! Can't wait find out who we are chasing from the desert now...
(in case some didn't get it....Sarcasm Alert!)
Zibanejad has been impressive!
I can see the following line combination as of next year :
Michalek - Spezza - Stone
He will also no doubt be on the Power Play !!
GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!!
Yes
Possibly in a few years - let's not get crazy here Rob.
And what happened to Daugavins? Is it just that he gets so few minutes or has he sort of fallen off?
Agree on both counts. Butler was one of the few out there that had speed, generated chances and came back to support the D.
And Daugavins and Condra's time did go down. Probably as a result of Smith and Neil`s ice time going up. Had I been the coach, I would have reduced Spezza and Michalek`s time...
They were nowhere near where they should have been last night...
He will be just as good, right off the bat, as Skinner was at 18, and in the All Star Game last year !
No way this guy vegetates in Junior or AHL leagues !
No way that I am getting crazy, just reality Hax !!
I want what your smoking!
Well that really sucks.
ZK will be traded at the deadline - he's not part of the "rebuild", he's a solid part to help us transition and wait for the younger guys to be ready.
He's improved a great deal, but he is no Skinner (yet anyway).
@ Hax,
Maybe you are more reserved about Stone, while I'm too
excited after seeing him in 2 games.
Why do you think Zibanejad will be traded, when we picked him over Couturier who is already in NHL ?
He can play both Centre and Wing , as well as Power Play !!
I don't think Zibby will be traded.
As for Stone, I think he will eventually be great but I think his skating still needs work. He's a steal at 178th of course and if he was in this year's draft he might go first round, but I don't see him as better than Stamkos or something where he can just start on the top line and skip the AHL altogether.
A scoring touch is an asset for sure. It would even be considered rare even at the NHL level. but unless you can position yourself to score at the speed of today's game, that means next to nothing. That is to say that the number one asset a player needs, above a pure scoring touch, is NHL speed.
Look at Corey Locke. The guys was (is) a pure talent, but the skating was just never there, and so he never made an impact in any of his call ups. We could all name a player or two who had junior level domination but never made the big leagues, simply based on skating and speed alone.
That's the difference between a Skinner, a Stamkos,a Tavares versus a Stone, or a Locke. Fortunately for Stone though, he's still young, can still improve his skating, and in time he will be an NHLer. Next year though? That's far fetched...