Your Ottawa Senators ended their four game road trip with another blow-out loss to the St. Louis Blues. Goalie Brian Elliott was shelled once again for five goals as the Sens went 1 – 3 away from home. The team played a good first period, but the wheels fell of in the second as the Blues scored three goals in a 86 second span to take complete control of the game. The Sens have now lost three in a row and four of their last five, and now find themselves sitting outside the playoff picture.
As it has been the common trend in Senators games as of late, here are the few positives.
Mike Fisher finally broke out of his eight game pointless streak to notch his fifth goal of the season. Taking a great pass from Alfie, Fisher broke in and drove hard to the net to put a back hand up high. Fisher also had a team high four shots on net, which Fish needs to do to be productive. Fisher averaged only one shot per game during his eight game pointless streak which prolonged his dry patch. Hopefully this sparks Fisher’s productivity as he has been streaky this season.
Jesse Winchester continued is solid play as of late with his physical play and a goal Friday night. Playing just over nine minutes, Winchester is making the most of his ice time and has been one of the best Senators lately.
There were three major concerns in this game:
Ottawa’s offense has failed to give their team any support in the last five games. Ottawa’s forwards have scored a total of eight goals in the last five games for an average of 1.6 goals per game. When you score under two goals a game, you force your goalie to be perfect just to give the team a shot to win. Secondary scoring has been an issue all season long, and with the big guns coming up empty as of late, Ottawa is no offensive threat at all. Against the Blues, when they picked up the tempo, Ottawa had no response.
Ottawa’s defence has had its struggles all season long. It looked like it was starting to come together when Ottawa went on its four game winning streak, but it has since then looked abysmal. None of the defencemen have lived up to expectations and have on most nights, left the goalies to fend for themselves. Averaging 28.8 shots against each game, Ottawa spends way too much time in their own end. Against the Blues, Ottawa’s defence had no communication and got pushed around.
Goaltending was the only bright spot Ottawa had at the beginning of the season. But as of late, it has been ugly as Elliott seems to have lost his mojo and Leclaire isn’t trusted on the ice. Against the Blues, Elliott was strong until an 86 second brain fart in the second period that saw three goals in the back of the net.
As you can see, Ottawa has trouble in all three areas of the game. This is a recipe for disaster and the Sens need to right the ship to get back on track. Discipline has also been a problem of late as Ottawa took seven penalties against the Blues and allowed two powerplay goals.
Here are the game highlights from NHL.com.
***Three Stars***
First Star: Brad Boyes – earns it with a goal and an assist and for sparking the Blues run.
Second Star: Alex Pietrangelo – earns it with two assists and a team high 23:03 minutes in ice time.
Third Star: Ty Conklin – earns it with 20 saves and his first win of the season.
On the bright side, this game marks the end of Ottawa’s terrible four game road trip. Ottawa now plays five games in the next eight days with the Los Angeles Kings up first. With the standings so tight, Ottawa needs to keeps pace in the Eastern Conference to ensure they don’t fall too far behind. With Ottawa now 4-6-1 on the road, maybe the confines of the ScotiaBank Place will give them better luck. ‘Til next time, GO SENS GO!!!!!
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