It was bound to happen.
With the Sens rolling along the way they have been lately, they were due for a bad game. And last night's 2-0 loss at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets was certainly a bad game.
The Jets broke the ice 49 seconds into the hockey game and never really looked back.
An Ottawa offence that had been red hot as of late suddenly dried up on a night where the Sens were shutout for the first time this season. Ottawa could only muster up 11 shots through 40 minutes and just couldn't get anything going against a stingy Winnipeg Jets team.
The Sens had chances to get back into the game in the third but were denied 14 times by Chris Mason and a couple times by the post. Never want to make excuses but this game had trap written all over it. After big wins in Pittsburgh, New York and Montreal, Ottawa just didn't have any jump in what looked like a winnable game on paper.
The loss, combined with a Bruins win in Florida, means the Sens now sit three points back of the division leaders. Boston has five games in hand.
Certainly won't be any time for the Sens to dwell on this loss though as they are right back in action tonight, when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ottawa has a seven point lead over their provincial rivals but the Leafs have three games in hand.
Needless to say, another huge game for the Senators. Game day post coming in a little bit.
- Obviously not many positives to be taken from a game like this one but you had to love the response to Evander Kane's cheap shot on Erik Karlsson. When a guy takes a run at your best player, you have to respond, and Chris Neil and Matt Carkner did exactly that. That's why this year's Sens team is so much different than last year. They play as a team.
Make us proud boys!!!
Hope we see a different and better motivated team in Toronto vs those pesky Maple Leafs.
Reason that Lee did not play with Phillips was because he had a lower body injury. He was not a healthy scratch.
Will he play if he travelled with the team ??
How about Andre Petersson being called up ?
Will he play in lieu of Daugavins , or is he just a spare
in case of injury to a player on the roster ??
Last night was ugly, the first game in a while I've been tempted to stop watching.
Didn't help that the stream quality was pretty fierce.
(recently moved to new york, a few hours away and pro hockey is all but dead)
I was pissed off at their lack of energy, poor passing, no shots etc. I wanted to turn the TV off.
Then I remembered... the voices of the 'experts'... we were to be last place and are rebuilding.
That eased my mind a bit. we have been spoiled and as Chirp said, it was bound to happen. Glad it was to the Jets and hope it won't be again tonight... losing to the Leafs won't be as easy to swallow.
Back to the game boys - GO SENS GO!
No wonder the Jets are losing, if someone beats the trap and gets a couple of goals then they are done!
Too bad there wasn't a way to get rid of it...
http://www.senatorsextra.com/main/melnyk-senators-talk-trades
I hope we have our wheels tonight, would be great to separate our standings by 9 points from the Laughs.
Really stoked to see Petersson play, hope it is tonight.
He is one of the players I have most wanted to see up with the sens this year.
But I hope someone runs over Kessel and Lupul
I think it actually might help if we have a couple of these games from time to time just to keep management in check. If we are sitting too high in the standings I don't want Murray and the boys trading away the future because they think we are "almost there".
This time in 2014 we'll be glad we lost some games this year and next year to help us become a better team by then.
And yes - LOVED the hit by Alfie that sort of opened the door for Neil and Carkner to respond as well. Too bad Kane's gloves seem to have been too small (maybe he borrowed from his sister?) so that he couldn't get them off to fight like a man.
@Sandy - you made a comment in the last post, I expect it'll get missed now. But I agree with you, I don't think Ottawa should bother selling the farm for a rental this year, regardless of the expectations. I had thought about it more and more and I think it's just better to let our Sens go as far as they can if they make it, with who got them there. Just making the playoffs would be a big win in the organizations mind. It'll mean much more to the guys who actually skated 82 games to make it happen, then to bring in a hired gun, leaving someone on the shelf. We are rebuilding and the experience these guys get will mean wonders 2 and 3 years down the road. And if we really need players, it doesn't look like Bingo is making the playoffs, so we can bring up a few of those guys prior to the deadline and keep them in the roster.
Yep with Lee not traveling with the team it sounds like Borowiecki will be recalled as well.
Will they be playing or sitting tonight?
TBD. Yet to hear from MacLean. Will know shortly.
Unless it's for another D coming back or if we somehow feel that Borowiecki is ready (which would be odd without a call up to test it out first).
I might have missed it if someone responded yesterday, but any update on Regin or Winchester?
Haha yeah that would be amazing, stuff of dreams tho! :)
We can't afford another $7M man, let alone a $8.7M one - not if we expect to have any scoring balance on the team.
If we somehow traded for Malkin we'd need to let Karlsson walk, or Cowen etc.
No thanks.
Hax you need to chill man, I'm sure the sequel to the dream involves a 1st and Kuba for Malkin and Malkin taking a pay cut.
LOL
Lee is hurt
Not sure I agree that the Jets played the trap. What they did was a good job of taking away our time and space in all three zones.
And like you said in an erlier post, the Sens lacked major energy (Spezza forgot the concept of backchecking..) , lazy passes all night (passes in the skates), players holding on to the puck too long (Gonchar getting called for offsides in the offensive zone 2-3 times), and a ridiculous amount of shots from the point blocked not even half way to the net (Karlsson made tons of bad shooting decisions..)
Let's hope they can put this game behind them cause boy that was a stinker.
Go Sens Go
The strangest part is a actually had a dream about getting malkin too! Except we traded Anderson and michalek
Man, thats so freakin weird! must be a sign
Some talk right now speculates this could be due to a potential trade happening in TO, both Schenn and Kadri have been considered the players they would use, along with MacArthur. But each player had a different team as a potential trader, so I'd guess this is just to stir up the pot.