Mar 30, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Frazer McLaren is shoved by Ottawa Senators right wing Chris Neil (25) in the third period at Scotiabank Place. The Leafs defeated the Senators 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t usually get angry over Senators’ losses.  As (what I think anyways) a level-headed fan who likes to analyze the game while still enjoying it, I like to delve into the why’s rather than the what’s.

And I can’t understand why Randy Carlyle had Frazer McLaren and Colton Orr out in the last minute and a half of a 4-0 game.  The guys who played 5:32 and 4:16 respectively had no business whatsoever to be on the ice at that point of the game except to intimidate and possibly start to stir up stuff.

In my mind, Carlyle tried to send a message to the Senators that were already beaten down and just playing out the string.  With Ottawa having last change, Paul MacLean had no choice but to send out Chris Neil, Matt Kassian and Zack Smith to answer the Toronto line, and the stupidity that happened with just under a minute left was the obvious result.  Three guys who don’t have much to do with the actual playing of the game beefing up their penalty minute totals along with Neil, who spent the entire shift chasing McLaren around trying to get him to fight.

So in my mind, why does Carlyle throw out his tough guys and then have them back down from a challenge?  If it was just to piss of the Senators, then I guess it was mission accomplished.    It at least pissed off one Sens fan.

I relayed my anger towards Carlyle’s actions to a friend, (who also happens to be a Leafs fan) and he said “Who are they supposed to put out?  Not time to put out the stars”.  A I responded that there were plenty of non-star players on the roster that could play the last two shifts of the game without loading up a goon squad.  He then responded “Nuclear deterrent…You have last change, your building, 4-0, make sure nothing happens.”   This angered me even more, because Ottawa had long ago given up any hope and were playing out the string already thinking about the 7 game, 2 week marathon road trip they were about to embark upon.  So I responded that his thinking was “backwards.  Toronto put their guys out first, trying to send a message.  Ottawa had no choice but to respond with their guys. “  To which he responded “Toronto can’t take the chance on who Ottawa was putting out”.  I have now told him we are dropping the gloves when I see him on Tuesday.

So who is right?  Am I wrong, or is he?  Let me know, I can take it.  Either way, in my mind, that last minute changed the Battle of Ontario back to what it was, and the Leafs are back up to public enemy #1 in my book.  And my respect for Randy Carlyle has fallen close to the Pat Quinn level. I would have more respect if he had put those players out, but had answered the initial challenge.  They definitely weren’t out there to score the 5-0 goal.  You would think that the former teammates would have a little more respect for each other than that.

So what is the “code” for that situation?

Mar 6, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Maple Leafs center Jay McClement (11) celebrates his goal against the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

GAME RECAP

Maple Leafs Tyler Bozak was coming into tonight’s game into a little bit of a slump. As history has shown us, the Ottawa Senators are the perfect remedy for the Leafs center. He opened the scoring after a nice outlet pass from the Leafs defensive zone to James van Riemsdyk who he passed to Phil Kessel deep in the Sens zone. Kessel made the Sens pay by then passing it to Bozak to make it 1-0 Leafs. To continue the Leafs goal scoring it was Jay McClement who got a pass from Nikolai Kulemin that he teed up for McClement to make the lead 2-0. This goal was scored less than a minute after the first.

When the second period opened up the Sens seemed to play better but it was the Leafs who added to their lead as JVR sat in the slot and received a nice pass from Phil Kessel, Bozak also added an assist. Then over a minute after the Leafs lead grew to 3, the ref raised his arm as the Sens got out the extra attacker. Ottawa manged to get the puck deep in the Leafs zone, in which Mika Zibanejad capitalized on the delayed penalty and brought the Sens within 2. Mika’s goal was assisted by Erik Condra and Sergei Gonchar.

Just like the 2nd period Ottawa came out to play. It was fianlly Zack Smith‘s time to celebrate a goal, his first of the season, as the Sens were within striking distance to tie the game. But the Leafs weren’t done scoring yet as Bishop allowed two more goals. One on a Leafs power play from Kessel and the other was a bad goal from Nazem Kadri. the Sens weren’t ready to quit, as the captain Daniel Alfredsson scored on a pass from Smith, to make the score 5-3. With Big Ben pulled the Sens managed to pull within 1 as Colin Greening goal but that’s how the game ended as the Senators were on the losing end of this one. Final was 5-4.

OBSERVATIONS

• Considering the injury he sustained during a game warm-up, Milan Michalek looked quite good. Almost looked like he didn’t miss a second. He was skating real well and created some chances and also managed to put his name on the score sheet. Good first game back!
• Tonight we seen Bishop have one of his worst starts but also seen Smith play what probably was his best game all season. Guess we’ll take the bad with the good, as long as Bishop returns to form.
• It wasn’t only Smith buzzing around tonight, Phil Kessel continued to terrorize the Senators as he was all over the ice tonight controlling the pace of the game.
• Let’s hope Dave Dziurzynski  will recover well from that Mike Tyson like knockout from Frazer McLaren. It was reported not long after that he sustained a concussion, which I think everyone seen coming.
• Greening continues to play well since his benching scoring once again tonight.

SENSHOT’S PLAYER OF THE GAME

I have decided to chose a Sen and Leaf for this. Lets go with Zack Smith and Phil Kessel. Both of these players were the best players for their respective clubs, both created chances and scored in tonight’s tilt.

UP NEXT

The Sens Will now travel to New York City to take on their playoff opponents from last year, the New York Rangers. The Sens always seem to play well under the bright lights of MSG and will hope to keep this trend up on Friday night at 7 PM. Game will be broadcast on TSN.