Game Report: Habs Humble Sens 4-1
Your Ottawa Senators battled the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night after winning their last game versus the Rangers. Coming off two strong games, Ottawa had a little more confidence in their game and hoped to translate that into consecutive wins for the first time in a month. Sadly, the Sens didn’t play a full 60 minutes and now have lost nine out of their last 12 games. And to make matters worst, the Sens scoring woes continue as they have only scored 17 goals in their last 12 games.
The only positive that could be taken from this game is that Nick Foligno scored his second goal of the year off a pretty passing play from Jason Spezza. Foligno took the pass in the slot and fired the puck through Carey Price with only nine seconds left in the first period. Hopefully this gets Foligno going.
There are two major negatives from this loss that have been prevalent all season.
The Sens compete level has come into question all season long. At times, the Sens seem like a pee-wee calibre team against a NHL squad. Whether this is coaching or the players effort, Ottawa has been out of games more then they have been in them. The only players shielded from this criticism is Ottawa’s two tenders, Brian Elliott and Pascal Leclaire as these two are the only reason why the Sens aren’t in the NHL basement.
The other concern is team confidence. Every time a goal is scored on the Sens, the team seems to deflate and cannot recover. Maybe its because the team knows they don’t have the horses to score many goals, so when they get down, the players know the hole just got deeper to dig out of. How to fix this is a concern for the whole organization.
Here are the game highlights courtesy of NHL.com.
***Three Stars***
First Star: Brian Gionta – earns it with a goal and an assist.
Second Star: Carey Price – for stopping 27 shots and earning his league leading 17th win.
Third Star: Jeff Halpern– for netting the game winner for the Habs.
The Sens are now tied with the Islanders for the second most loses in the league and only trail the Devils in this category. And with the Sens scoring woes, they are now the 26th ranked offense in the league. With a record of 1-3 in December, Ottawa needs to get points fast as they are starting to fall behind the top eight in the Eastern Conference. Now sitting seven points behind the 8th place Rangers, and with them in town Thursday night, Ottawa needs a victory badly. ‘Til next time, GO SENS GO!!!!!
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