While the Sens have themselves to blame for letting a lead get away, Ottawa was definitely on the short end of the stick again in terms of officiating. As the final buzzer sounded, a furious Paul MacLean unleashed a verbal tirade after going a full 60 minutes without the benefit of a power play.
Despite the loss, the Sens actually outplayed the Bruins for large stretches of this hockey game.
Zdeno Chara scored the game's opening goal and put the Sens in a 1-0 hole for the eighth straight hockey game. In the second period, Turris and Karlsson scored to give the Sens a 3-1 lead and it appeared as though the visiotrs were in complete control of the hockey game.
But there is a reason the Bruins are the defending Champs.
Milan Lucic scored late in the second period to give the Bruins life heading into the final frame. It was a goal that made all the difference for the Bruins as they found that extra gear in the third period.
Brad Marchand scored to even up the game early in the second and then Dennis Seidenberg scored a goal that will be all over the highlight reel for the rest of the season. His shot from centre ice skipped along the way and fooled Craig Anderson to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.
Ottawa's next game comes on Friday night when they host the New York Islanders. Remember we are hosting the first SensChirp Gathering at Local Heroes on Clyde that night. $60 gets you a ticket, food ($15 worth) and transportation to and from the game.
Email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.
- The Sportsnet panel discussed the availability of Tuomo Ruutu during the second intermission and suggested the asking price might be a first round pick and a prospect. I would expect that the Senators are interested in a player like Ruutu but not at that asking price.
- The case for and against fighting has been discussed at length in the hockey world but a game like this shows there is still value in fighting. The fights by Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka were critical moments in that first period and were important for a Sens team that had to show the Bruins they would not be pushed around.
- If the NHL is going to continue to assign Dan O'Rourke to Sens games then I will continue to comment when the Sens don't get calls. Boston did not take a single penalty the entire night despite being one of the most penalized teams in the league. I saw three or four (including a play where Karlsson was hooked) that should have been called in the last 10 minutes.
Yes! And also maybe every single player in the sens locker room should speak up and voice there oppinion to the media, as well as the coach. They can fine all they want but if that were to happen they would look really bad to just fine everyone and do nothing to O'rourke.
proud of our sens for showing emotion out there with fights, playing hard and some frustration.
all i can hope for is that this reoccurring shit gets noticed by other teams too..
While I'm sure this e-mail won't be responded to (besides a generic reply of course), I'd like to make a formal complaint on the state of officiating of the game today, particularily in regards to one Dan O'Rourke and the Ottawa Senators. I watched tonight's game between Boston and Ottawa, and was disgusted by the poor officiating that was made by O'Rourke and his crew. To say that Boston did not perform a single infraction against the NHL guidlelines is wrong, point blank. This is nothing new to O'Rourke, however, as he has constantly made biased calls against the Ottawa team in the past. As a fan of the sport, I will refuse to watch another game, or buy any merchandise until the state of poor officiating is addressed publically to the fans. No other sport in North America is prone to such one-sided officiating as the NHL and I'm frankly tired of it. If the NHL has anything to state in regards to this obvious favouritism, I would love to hear it.
A bit of homerism, but you get the picture :)
Great post..
http://www.nhl.com/ice/feedback.htm
Well said!!!
Even with this whole referee fiasco the past couple of games, I still believe we are going to the playoffs come April...
Frustrating game, but the past is the past now. The Sens are notorious for coming back from losing streaks and turning them into winning one's. I won't put it past them for a second for a comeback turnaround starting this weekend. We've all seen how this team has surprised us.
Remember the beginning of the season?
GO SENS GO Friday couldn't come any sooner.
It is correct to blame the refs for horrible officiating.
Sucks to play with your hands tied but adversity makes you stronger. That's what this years team is all about and why we as fans are having sooo much fun watching.
Let's not whine to loud about refs helping us lose.
We better work on our PK, thou :)
Go Alfie Go
Go Sens Go
payback sucks
Refs will either be honourable or continue to publicly embarass themselves.
You can say same about Dan O'Halloran and Tim Peel.
I also agree with the comments about the officiating in the NHL. Do you what to know what is so funny? This was the third time in the last four games that Dan O'Rourke has officiated an Ottawa Senators game.
I've mentioned this to a few people over the past week. You may or not agree with this, but I basically said that the NHL is ran by a group of people who don't take their job or the sport seriously. A few good examples are:
1. The refs seem to say and do whatever they want knowing they won't get punished.
2. One official on many different occasions have officiated the same team in back to back games.
3. The Scheduling for some teams is a complete farce.
4. Colin Campbell should've been fired or forced to step down from his position in the NHL head office after those phone calls and his personal e-mails about his personal agenda were leaked. Yet he still has a job in the NHL head office.
There are many more things I can say but it would take too much time. As for the game tonight, I think that our team can beat Boston and it showed tonight. But there a few things the team needs to work on in order to beat them.
This must be Gary bettman's response to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooarT3cn8_o
MUST get at least 3 points
FREEBIRD !
GO SENS GO!
My new tenant is a Leafs fan and he was up visiting with us, so I told him that it was fine if he wanted to watch the Leafs game (since I was busy with the kids anyways). I saw that disallowed goal, and it was a horrible call, even as a Sens fan I couldn't find anything against it. I did have a good laugh at his expense after the blew that 4-1 lead haha.
But you are right, it's not just the Sens, it's league wide... embarrassing officiating :(
Hopefully this disaster will somehow improve the officiating in the future (ie: coaches getting call reviews or something along that path).
1. I thinkt the sens played strong 5-on-5 in the offensive zone.
2. they did not allow a whole whack of chances
3. however, the chances they did allow to the bruins were more than decent. see lucic's goal at the end of the 2nd.
4. I thought the sens PK was not as good as it was before the all-star break.
5. I thought anderson was having a hard time with the puck.
so...maybe the team was a little rusty guys and combined with no PP time for the sens and two Boston goals on the PP with one really bad bounce it made up for a loss.
i think there is a big positive to take from this game and that I think is the sens nearly dominating boston 5-on-5 who btw are the best 5-on-5 team in the league.
so onto the next one, lets start that win streak again. the islanders are the perfect team to put the foot down on and get the confidence rolling again. the team needs a win streak...atleas t a 3 gamer.
also, turris has a crazy crazy shot.
Alfie played like he was the youngest on this team. He was all over the place. Praise Alfie.
Anderson would like to get the last 2 goals back but he did made some steals in this game as well. The Sens allowed way too many 3 on 1 and breakaways.
The refs sucks and the SENS already knows that, let's concentrate on winning games in a hurry before the Laughs catch us back.
Go SENS Go
And to all those who don't want a tough team last night was a perfect example as to why we have a number of tough players on this roster. It's games like that as to why Montreal & Buffalo want to get bigger. You can't just ignore it like Jacques Martin wanted to do & why he constantly lost against Toronto. And it's a preview of what the playoffs are like & who shows up for games like that & who doesn't. Again, the refs just sucked again & should be reprimanded for their bias reffing in a number of games this yr. If the refs didn't like Maclean before last night they are not going to like him any better now.
Officiating has been terrible but remember there are 8-10 games a night and only a few have terrible officiating...
The NHL see's itself as doing a good job here, as long as not ALL games are brutally officiated.
There is a rift for sure between Mclean and some refs, but if he wants to get anywhere he better squash that real fast. Playing vs the refs and the opponents every night is recipe for disaster.
I think this is genious idea and would def take the time (even a sick day if need be) to attend this gathering. Chirp can you help us out with when this douche is reffing a sens game next??
Or have the total opposite effect, but I guess it cant get any worse....can it?
6. Senators (60 points)
Record: 27-19-6
Non-shootout wins: 22
Games remaining: 30 (17 home, 13 away)
Significant injuries: None
Ottawa is far ahead of where any pundit thought it would be at this time of the season and it has stayed relatively free of major injuries. The Senators are four points behind Boston for first in the Northeast Division. However, they've played the most games of any team in the NHL so far (52) and they have four fewer non-shootout wins than the Bruins. Still, the Senators have a favorable schedule over their final 30 games, with 17 at home and only half against teams that currently occupy a playoff position. They do play Boston four more times, however, including Tuesday.
I didn't see the game and have only seen the game winner on the TV but your dislike of Spezza is pretty well known, as is your propensity to only highlight his faults.
I'm surprised that you don't think the game winner was his fault too.
We can't stress enough on the fact that the SENS must find a way to get out of this slump. They don't need miracles to make it but at least play for 500 for the next 29 games and winning games against our division rival.
On a positive note, Anderson usely plays awsome after bad games.
No knock to Anderson, but I still feel he needs to have a few breaks down the stretch. They need a backup who they feel confident with to step in and win a game now and again. Auld isn't that guy, you can see it. While Anderson has been playing his heart out, he's only once been tested to this extent and while he did lead Colorado to the playoffs that year (when they had no business being there) the result wasn't what he would have liked.
Those 6 games were Anderson's only taste of the playoff's at the NHL level and I'd like to have him as fresh as possible, being our #1 goalie, so he has a much better result.
We all know the odds of another Goalie coming our way isn't good, so I'd expect to see Auld get a few games going forward. As hot as the NYI's have been, I think Auld will get that start and a Win by Auld should trigger a better peformance in Anderson against the Leafs. ;)
The Stache has put our A.F.T burners on the team again and we are going to fly!!!
9MM has to find some ammo and soon... Spezza is reverting back to his old ways and needs a slap!
The Big Rig was in 10th gear last night!!
Fuck the refs, fuck Bettman! GO SENS GO!!!
PS-Melnyck should step in as this reffing is hurting his product....
Well its only a matter of time with Spezza, we win he's a God, we lose he's a bum. Its just the way our fanbase is.
I'm more worried, well not worried as I know it balances out but Karlsson defensive play is terrible, I guess thank God he puts up points but in the playoffs, those miscues and turnovers are amplified 10x and usually bites you in the ass.
Yeah he has been fairly bad lately... It may be over confidence in his takeaway ability, there's a few times yesterday where if he just put his body in the way he could have stopped them, but he lets them go right around him and if he misses the stick check he's screwed... He needs to learn better positioning, sort of how Lidstrom hardly ever really hits people, but he's just always in the way...
Spezza can take the blame for the Lucic goal as he tried to make an impossible pass from behind Thomas' net. That usely creates 3 on 2 breaks. But he was not be blame for the other 3 goals. get real please.
500, that's what they need to play for the rest of the season. Go SENS Go
Indeed, simple stick checks only get you so far, physicality usually takes over deep in the playoffs and I cant see Karlsson winning any physical matchups.
He is otherwise THE best offensive D-man in the League, bar none.
EEEEEEEEEEYORE !
It's true, give the guy a break, he's literally a one-man-line...
neither Michalek or Greening are playmakers. Meaning Spezza not only has to make the plays for those two, but if he wants to score a goal, he pretty much has to do it himself.
lets give this guy some support
Exactly!
How much do you want to bet he does the Leaf game this Saturday?
But the issue is -- O'Rourke has done, I believe, 4 out of the last 5 Sens games... SJ, Ana, LA, Bos...
Refs are human and are going to make mistakes. But with O'Rourke.. he has certainly crossed the line. The league keeps putting him in Sens games -- does it make you question league integrity?
The problem is that if O'Rourke was scheduled to do Sens games and was pulled from doing them it would be be seen as admitting that there was some doubt over the integrity of that individual or their ability to call a fair game - and that isn't going to happen.
It's easier to do nothing and deny that there was ever a problem than react to a perceived problem and claim that the perception isn't the case.
How common is it to have the same ref/refs do multiple games in a row for one team? I seem to remember a couple of games back to back.. but 4 out of 5?
No wonder the Sens are growing frustrated with him. The mistakes he is making are too many for fans not to be concerned with his preceived bias?
Apparently McLean was bag skating the players after practice today... is he taking his frustration out on them? But letting up in that 3rd period really cost them that game...
stand up for ourselves in our barn!
Sandy there are 2 refs, the other one didnt call anything either, cant put the blame on 1 ref.
Maybe Boston did play a clean game, it happens sometimes.
This is harsh, but not entirely untrue... He has been a great player for us, but his better days are sadly behind us.
The hit from behind on Condra was CLEAN? The slash on Neil was CLEAN? The trip on Alfie was CLEAN?
Maybe the other ref was waiting for O'Rourke to call the penalty and when he didn't it was too late. O'Rourke was the senior ref.
He is mad at McLean and he is making him play... there is no other explanation for it... You can't miss that many calls over 3 or 4 games..
have to agree here,
the NHL is the only professional league where you here comments like
"don't get on the refs bad side"
"Thats an even up call"
"there putting the whistles away"
What we are really admitting here is that the Refs will purposely make biased and wrong calls.
Think about this, so if the refs have other motivating factors, then they can change the outcome of a game... so lets say they bet on proline, or even worse make large vegas bets... will this not influence them for their own purposes.
Or that they will allow the refs to make calls depending on which team the NHL prefers to move on, vs those that are not economically better for the NHL...
And we the fans just sit by and make statements like
"must be on their bad side"
"they decided to put the whistles away"
"That was just a make up call"
When really they are changing the outcome for their own purposes
I really think that the NHL is really treading on dangerous waters, by encouraging such atrocious reffing.
And if they do not make them more accountable, and/or get more replay reviews, so that we take these brutal bias calls out of the game, then the NHL is more like the WWF than the NHL!