Singin’ the Saturday Blues: Devils 3, Senators 2

Again, a missed oppurtunity on a beautful Saturday night as the Ottawa Senators coughed up a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils. For me, this is becoming too familiar. Remember Boston and Nashville fellas? Those two games with this one have been exactly the same. Too much penalties=heartbreaking loss.

Milan Michalek gave Ottawa the lead and Brian Lee’s amazing individual effort meant a 2-0 lead for Ottawa with 3 minutes left in the 2nd period. Then, things went down the toilet. Peter Regin’s hooking penalty lead to a goal on the NJ PP by Zach Parise. Jesse Winchetser’s elbowing penalty lead to a 2-2 tie by David Clarkson. Then,  Chris Campoli took a delay of game penalty which led to an Andy Greene goal yet again on the PP, as Jersey came back to win it. Noticeables tonight were Jason Spezza (strong puck pursuit and nice shots), Milan Michalek (goal plus some real hard work), Alex Kovalev (huge defensive game for AK27) and Brian Lee (finally?). I didn’t like a couple of player’s games, including Jesse Winchester in his season debut, Chris Campoli for his defensive unawareness, and Jonathan Cheechoo for whatever’s wrong with him. It just seems like Ottawa should have won this game but their discipline really hit them hard. The last games have been tough for Sens fans after a promising start and the team needs to show they can back up their amazing 5-on-5 play with some good non-penalty taking.

Speaking of Cheech, what’s wrong with this dude? I haven’t called him out in fear of sounding to concerned, but he’s gotta get it going on. It seems like he’s trying but the results aren’t coming. For one I think he does look well with Peter Regin. Those two feed off of each other and Cheech is getting to those rebounds. But he’s just not feeling it and it while Milan
Michalek is lighting it up, Jonathan Cheechoo is struggling mightily.

So next up is the Edmonton Oilers. We usually have a win against these guys, but the team really needs to eek one out on Tuesday. I would imagine Shean Donovan back in, because the club hasn’t done very well without him in the lineup. Till then though, on another disappointing Saturday.