Ottawa Senators Listless In 4-2 Loss To Panthers

One day after losing to the dreadful Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators were lacking far too often in a 4-2 loss to the Panthers at home. Florida is now just a single point back of the Senators for 9th place in the Eastern Conference, though Ottawa still has a game in hand. Meanwhile, Boston won in overtime against Carolina, giving them a 3 point cushion over the Senators while having played one more game. Ottawa now face a major uphill battle to make the playoffs.

GAME RECAP

Right off the bat, the Senators didn’t look right. They seemed to be chasing the puck as the Panthers piled on the shots. They managed 14 on Craig Anderson in the first period alone to go with 22 shot attempts. The Senators did manage to get chances, actually producing 2 more shot attempts than Florida in the first, but only 9 hit the net. Most of those attempts came after the opening five minutes, where the Senators produced just 2 attempts. Still, tied 0-0 after the first, despite a pair of interference penalties by Alex Chiasson that negated two Senators powerplays, it wasn’t all bad. 

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That didn’t last. Florida once again outshot Ottawa in the second, 14-7. The Panthers also took over in total shot attempts, and managed 28 in the second period to the Senators’ 18. This time, Florida managed to capitalize. Jaromir Jagr, that ageless wonder, scored on the powerplay at 7:46 of the second after Eric Gryba took a penalty for interference. The Senators ended up taking 5 interference penalties on the night along with 2 other minors, and it proved costly. Gryba was off again, for roughing this time, when Jussi Jokinen scored at 15:49 of the period. At the end of 40 minutes, the Senators found themselves behind 2-0.

The third period opened with a bit of a push-back from the Senators, as you would expect from a team down in the third with their playoff hopes on the line. They were rewarded for it as Erik Karlsson unleashed a bullet from the point on the powerplay that beat Florida goalie Dan Ellis at 4:43 of the period. It was Karlsson’s 20th goal of the season, and the second time he has accomplished that feat in a many seasons. Too bad Jagr would make Ottawa look silly at 13:57 when he faked a shot and went around the Ottawa net for a wrap-around goal.

The Senators would push back a bit as Mike Hoffman, who had several chances all night, made an incredible feed to Jean-Gabriel Pageau to make close the gap to 3-2 at 17:39 of the third. Ottawa would then get a powerplay in the dying few minutes and pull Anderson for a 6-on-4 powerplay, but former Maple Leaf David Bolland would ice the game with an empty-netter at 19:04. It was just Bolland’s 5th goal with the Panthers, and Florida’s first short-handed goal of the campaign. When the final whistle blew, the Senators had been outshot 37-27, though were only down 64-62 in attempts. On Star Wars night at the Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa was far more like the Star Wars prequels: a major disappointment that was painful to watch and most would prefer to forget about.

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

• Hoffman was inexplicably on the fourth line for most of the night alongside David Legwand  and Chiasson while Colin Greening took his usual spot with Bobby Ryan and Mika Zibanejad. Greening contributed about as much as you’d expect from a regular healthy scratch whose only goal of the season didn’t actually make it into the net. But he’s big and a nice guy, so they have to play him I guess?
• Coach Dave Cameron was looking very much like Paul MacLean with his lineup choices. Greening with Ryan and Zibanejad. Taking Erik Condra off Pageau and Curtis Lazar‘s line. Scratching Patrick Wiercioch after a single bad game against the Leafs in favour of Jared Cowen, who was average at best for a span of 2-3 months before reverting back to a player who looks perpetually lost in the defensive zone. Keeping Gryba in too. But hey, Cowen and Gryba are also big, and they hit! So they must be defensively good even though whenever they’re on the ice, sometimes together, the puck is far more often in the Senators’ own end because they can’t retrieve it consistently to save their lives. They’re the classic case of big hitters who are chasing the play instead of using hitting effectively to separate opponents from the puck.
• That Jagr goal in the second period was nice, and he made Marc Methot, one of Ottawa’s better defenceman who can also hit and hit effectively, look bad on it. Hey, remember earlier in the season when the anti-Wiercioch crowd blasted #46 for not just knocking Jagr to the ice in the corner like anyone should simply be able to? Good times.
• Senators fans need to quit it with throwing stuff on the ice. It was amusing when they were winning, but it grew old, and doing it when the team is losing is just tacky. I don’t think it was opposing fans either, despite the TSN play-by-play crew suggesting that could possibly happen.
• Too often the bigger guns like Zibanejad, Ryan, Kyle Turris, and Mark Stone were quiet tonight. They were hardly alone in that regard, but when so many of the top guys aren’t going, it’s going to be difficult to win.
• Legwand last scored a powerplay goal on February 14th. Before that, he hadn’t had one since December 13th. 5 of his team-leading 6 powerplay goals came in the first 2 months of the season, but since then he’s been ice-cold. Why does he continue to get put out there when the Sens have the man-advantage, often on the top unit?
• Some of the calls against Ottawa were really weak tonight, but there were some non-calls that Florida had a right to be upset about. Fact of the matter is, the Senators were out of position too often, and the Panthers took advantage. However, I will admit that the level of inconsistency from NHL referees the last several seasons in maddening. The league desperately needs to look at this. Hopefully some of the proposed changes for next year can help, but I’d prefer another boot-camp for refs like they had following the 2004-05 lock out.

UP NEXT

The Senators head to Detroit for yet another must-win game to keep their diminished playoff hopes alive. Puck drops at 7:30 pm. Thanks for reading, and may the force be with you.