Your Ottawa Senators battled the Buffalo Sabres for 65 minutes last night and could not beat goalie Ryan Miller. Going into their second shootout of the year, Ottawa fell 1-0 to lose the game and their third in a row. Now having lost eight out of their last ten games, Buffalo has now slipped pass Ottawa in the standings and the Sens now find themselves in the bottom five in the league in terms of points.
Ottawa did see an improvement in their play but they failed to score for the second straight game and have not scored since the first period of the Oilers game for a streak over a 160 minutes. Clouston has to find a combination that can score a goal or the Sens will have no chance to win a game.
There were a few positives from the game that the Senators can build from.
Brian Elliott returned to the net after a one game absence to stop all 31 shots including five in the overtime period. Elliott kept the Sens in the game and knew he had to be perfect as Miller looked like not even a penny could get by him. Elliott seems to have gotten back on track after his rough patch a few weeks ago.
The defence had a bounce back game after being embarrassed by the San Jose Sharks Thursday night. In saying that, they still need to be better as they still allowed over 30 shots.
On the negative side, Ottawa was shutout for the second straight game and didn’t even score in the shootout. Something has got to give here.
Here are the game highlights courtesy of NHL.com.
***Three Stars***
First Star: Ryan Miller – for shutting the door and being superhuman.
Second Star: Brian Elliott – for shutting the Sabres out for 65 minutes.
Third Star: Thomas Vanek – for being all over the ice and a threat every time he touched the puck.
This game showed an improvement from the Sens who had a poor stretch of games. Hopefully they can build off this game. ‘Til next time, GO SENS GO!!!!!
Please visit our NHL Main Page: Too Many Men On The Site.