SENShobo
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Sens Look Lost In Island Loss
by SENShobo on 11/15/08 at 09:57 PM ET
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The score might show the Sens losing 2-3, but the devil is in the details.
For over 110 consecutive minutes, playing against the worst team in the League tonight and Thursday, the Sens failed to score a goal.
The bigger failure was in failing to show up once again, failing to play desperate hockey, and failing to give Brian Murray second thoughts about picking up the phone.
The game started with Ottawa playing how you would hope of a team that reeled off a string of losses, and was staring at the fast-approaching basement of the League’s standings. They hustled for the puck the way they were out hustled on Thursday, they led in shots 15-7 through the first with an 8-1 lead at one point, and generally worked hard (all game stats from NHL.com).
Then the team entered the second half of the first period, and things started to unravel.
After throwing everything they could at Joey MacDonald, the Sens looked frustrated, and the Isles poised. Aside from the faceoff and shot lead, Ottawa would walk away from the first virtually tied with the Isles in every other stat.
The second period brought the pain. By the four minute mark, Sean Bergenheim would get a puck in the net to open the scoring, from hustling into the blue paint. Half a dozen minutes later, Shean Donovan would take a roughing penalty, and like the Hunter blue-paint hustle of the previous game, the Isles would crash the net on the powerplay, and Jon Sim would slip the puck behind Auld. He would wind up shoved down and in the back of the net as the crowd cheered, but it never seemed like a price not worth paying.
Just shy of four minutes into the third, the Sens looked like they were killing a penalty. With a little help from screening bodies, Sean Bergenheim let loose a casual-looking wrister from near the blueline, and right into the corner of the net it went, sailing over Alex Auld’s glove. It wasn’t until midway through the third that the Sens would solve MacDonald.
A pair of penalties to Bill Guerin for high-sticking and Andy Sutton for slashing — the second time he slashed Alfie’s stick in half, but the first time he was called for it — and the Sens had a 5 on 3 for twenty-some seconds. As Guerin raced from the penalty box to get back into the play, Fisher and Alfie would work the puck to Heatley down low, who would finally snap the puck into the Islanders net. With Auld pulled and 90 seconds left in the game, Spezza would notch a tip in goal from Heatley, but that was as close as the Sens got. The door was shut, and the remaining seconds were spent trying to get the puck into the zone, all efforts being futile.
The Sens managed 40 shots on MacDonald, but it has been just their luck to face an incredibly hot hand, one who made some great glove snatches, left few juicy rebounds, and kicked the puck out of harm’s way with an outstretched toe on more than one occasion. In all, the Sens outshot the Islanders 40-31, but when you take blocked and especially missed shots into account, their lead shrinks to a humbling 66-62.
This just is not the Senators team that went to the Cup Finals 16 months ago. Coming out strong and backing off quickly, and only managing less than a full period’s worth of real effort, the team seems to think it has the talent it did post-lockout, when New Jersey beat them in the Conference Final and went on to win the Cup, when they had the talent to lay back for 50 minutes, and then pour on 10 minutes of effort and walk away with two points.
Not anymore. The Sens need to look deep within themselves to find that full-game effort; without it, only more losses will follow. Three straight rough games, two against the Rangers and one more against the Habs, and the Sens might find themselves a changed team before too long. Tonight, the Islanders just plain outworked them, chasing every puck, never letting the Sens have a moment alone with the puck; not the defense carrying it out of the zone, not the forwards trying to work through neutral ice, and not the team working the puck on the powerplay. The Islanders covered the Sens so much they must have felt claustrophobic.
Grit was what the team was supposed to have, but forwards have not been able to get into the blue paint to chip in those ugly goals the team needs to start playing with fire again. You will see the Sens’ top four forwards all walking away with a point or two tonight, but a shutout loss would be a better message to remind them that dying-minute efforts are not enough.
Murray was caught on camera holding his head next to Richardson in the press box, both staring in disbelief at the team’s effort below them. Are the players not as-advertised? Have Murray’s moves failed to clear the locker room of the chemistry-inhibitors? Does Hartsburg have the system but not the authority to get this team performing to the level it should be clear they can?
Tonight’s loss is just the latest chapter in a multi-season long Ottawa collapse. Ottawa sits third last in the League, with just a single extra time loss point separating them from the Panthers and the Blues, who have 1 and 2 games in hand on the Sens, respectively. 0-2 against the League’s (no longer) 30th place team, it’s an utter mystery what’s happened to this team, and what further stars could possibly need to align for things to change. There’s plenty of season and time left for change to take place, but it couldn’t be further removed from the minds of a confused legion of Sens fans, so unfamiliar with what they are seeing.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | SENShobo | Permalink
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