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SENShobo

Another Loss And Sens Still Searching For Answers

by SENShobo on 10/23/08 at 08:06 AM ET
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Today’s Ottawa Senators stories,

• Sens fall 3-1 to Panthers.
• Vermette, Fisher, and Lee grasping at straws.
• Sens need to find answers for themselves, and the community.

• Sens get the ball rolling too late to avoid winding up in the gutter with another loss (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Senators’ web).

“We don’t like to lose. We hate losing,” said Hartsburg. “Just because I talk and bark for a day, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away.

“We had a bad start and that cost us the game. We were poor in getting the puck out of pressure.”

The Sens showed and saw many things against Florida. They showed how drastically a team can change, going from taking a meager 3 shots in the first to a franchise record 26 in the final period, outshooting Florida 42-21. For much of the game, the Sens were passengers along for the ride. Never tailing the puck closely enough, never following the open man tightly enough, it wound up with many of the same story elements as Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Bruins.

Finally Gerber showed average play as he contributed to the Sens being down 2-0 seven minutes in, not that Picard and Volchenkov’s Florida-springing moves weren’t a key factor as well. Despite shaking up the lines (though the cash line was reunited for the final minutes of the second period), rotating a couple players from the roster, and knowing that it was a jump-less effort that cost them against the Bruins, it took the Sens two periods to start countering the same from the Panthers.

Two periods of being dominated by the Panthers, and the Sens were able to turn things around. I suppose that means that, should the Sens lose one or even both of their next two games, against Anaheim (2-5-0) and Toronto (1-2-3), the Sens might finally be able to find it within themselves what they need to play a solid 60 minutes.

• Vermette and Fisher snakebitten, and Lee’s time in Ottawa bites the dust for a while (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen).

“You can’t get frustrated,” Vermette said after the 3-1 loss. “I don’t think it’s going to help at the end of the day. On the other hand, I think it’s positive that I had some chances. Usually, it’s a sign ... before getting on a roll you get these chances.

“I had two great chances there ... I think it’s going in the right direction.”
....
“When you look at the game overall, I thought we worked pretty hard, especially in the second and third,” said Vermette. “We did little things, smarter and hard. If you look at it, we created chances to score and it’s a good sign. We had a lot of shots (42) overall. It’s positive. As much as the loss was disappointing, we built on something ... we can build on something there.”

Vermette has been given a lot this season. He’s played on the second line, been asked to contribute more offensively rather than always thinking defensively, and has had countless breakaways, yet nothing has come of it since his lone goal and point in Europe. Fisher as well has been given all the opportunities to fill the role of offensive threat, but has mustered nothing thus far. Snakebitten was a word commonly used last season; how long before we can shelve that book?

Lee also felt the pinch of underwhelming performance, with a single assist in five games and not much else shining yet in his performance. Just as he came up from Binghamton to replace Richardson late last season, he went back down yesterday as Richardson drew in. We know he has it in him, we saw it last season, but a little more ice time and focus in the AHL might be some help to Lee. Plus, as a young defenseman, it keeps him from having to bear the brunt and possible negative effects of playing his early career in downward-trending games, not something all rookies get.

• The quiz that is the Senators this season still needs answering, players need to pull together for each other and for the community so tied in to their success (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen).

“We want to be a hard-working team. At the end of last year, we were not that kind of team,” said forward Chris Kelly. “It’s going to take time to get away from those bad habits.”

How much more time will this take? How many more slaps on the wrist? Ever since the days when the Sens had drafted and traded their way into a roster that should have won a Cup, and that could always win a game with less than a period’s worth of effort from the talent-laden team, the Senators seem unable to respond to the necessity of a full game commitment.

Vancouver’s Wellwood was publicly called out by his coach this season for his apparent lack of proper conditioning; could the Senators’ vets have been lulled into their own vision of what’s needed to win a game by their time spent on top of the heap? Nobody looks at a test with far more questions than answers and expects a passing grade to come of it. There’s little but the official lines to go by for now, and what little hope they give, and so all we can do is wait a few more games to see whether the team settles (uncomfortably or not) into a season-long trend of half-efforts, or if the losses, the disappointments, the letdowns, the wasted efforts, and all the mistakes you could think to take an eraser to finally pull the rabbit out of the hat for the Sens.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
 

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