Sens at Land's End

The Emperor is displeased.
A win today would have vaulted the Sens over the Panthers in the standings and kept them ahead of the Leafs. Apparently, the Sens thought that would just make things too easy.

The Bad Beginning. It was a terrible start for Ottawa as Florida completely dominated the first five minutes of the game, making the Sens look totally pathetic. Throughout the game, the Panthers’ defense seemed to be up and involved in every play. “You’d better be aware of Florida’s backside,” said Gary. It was almost like they were mocking us with their active D.

Now That’s What I Call Crashing the Net. The Sens were very lucky to get the first goal after an interesting effort from Jesse Winchester, Nick Foligno, and Chris Kelly. Winchester stole the puck from a Panthers player near the Florida blueline and gave it to Foligno, who went for a shot on goal. All three forwards went to the net, Winchester actually ending up inside it, and Kelly managed to sweep the puck in. The play was reviewed, but the official called it “a good hockey goal.” Literally, that’s what he said. Whatever they want to call it, it was just nice to see this line — especially Kelly — produce something.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better! Every time the Sens scored, the Panthers came back with a quick goal. Every time. Their first goal came 3:55 after Kelly’s. Their second goal came 1:20 after Ottawa’s second (a nice one from Dany Heatley off a Florida turnover). Their third goal? 1:38 after Ottawa’s third (scored by the still very hot Jason Spezza — today named the NHL’s third star of the week — standing at the side of the net to get a Daniel Alfredsson rebound). Man, that was annoying.

Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. I don’t think Alex Auld will want to remember this one. He looked good at times, but was not particularly sharp on any of Florida’s goals. The second goal was flukey: Auld seemed to think he had caught the puck in his glove but it bounced out and the Panthers were able to put it in the net. The overtime goal, scored with just nine seconds to go in the extra period, seemed to freeze him somehow.

Indefensible. Of course, Auld didn’t get a whole lot of help from his buddies who were supposed to be defending him. In fact I’m not so sure they’re still his friends right now. Antoine Vermette failed to clear the puck during a penalty kill to lead to Florida’s third goal (scored by one Jay Bouwmeester). In overtime, it was an attempted blind pass by Filip Kuba that led to the shot that beat Auld.

Power Failure. Ottawa had a 90 second five-on-three power play in the second period and failed to score. I think that’s enough said about that.

All in all, it was a stupid and annoying loss.

On Wednesday, the Sens travel to Chicago to face the Blackhawks, who beat Phoenix 7-1 last night. The Sens will have to be significantly more “on” than they were today if they hope to compete with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, and the rest of the Hawks. The upside for Sens fans, I suppose, is that they get the chance to watch all these young stars play … if they get TSN2, which is the Canadian broadcaster for the game.

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