After an ugly loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, the Ottawa Senators have now lost five of their last six and have slipped to 11th in the East.
At the thirty game mark, the Sens are a respectable 13-13-4 but will have to turn things around in a hurry if they want to stay in the mix in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference.
Defensive miscues have been the biggest issue for MacLean's group over this most recent stretch. Fans love to rip on Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba but the fact is this team misses those two guys big time right now. Without those two veterans on the back end, the Sens are icing an extremely young blueline that has looked overmatched at times the last handful of games.
Kuba is going to be sidelined for the next little while but the team sounds confident Gonchar won't be out long. He is being called day to day right now. The sooner he's back the better.
The Sens have a full day off today and are back to the ice tomorrow at 11:00 AM. You can be sure Paul MacLean will want to work on the Sens defensive zone coverage.
Ottawa is facing a grueling stretch of games through the rest of December which includes a stop in Buffalo on Tuesday and then home games against Boston and Pittsburgh to close out the week.
- Glad the Sens are done with the Vancouver Canucks for this season. There is a reason Mark Recchi called the Canucks the most hated team in the NHL. The antics of Burrows, Lapierre and to a lesser extent Kesler are infuriating to watch. Kinda feel bad for Canucks fans having to defend these three on a nightly basis.
- The Canucks were talking about potential suspension for Nick Foligno after last night's game but there was no indication the hit on Kesler would be reviewed.
- The Sens welcomed back both Matt Carkner and Peter Regin last night although neither really had much of an impact. Carkner played 15:40 and was a +1 while Regin logged just over 12 minutes and registered a single shot on goal. Jared Cowen led all Senators in ice time last night with 25:43 including 6:45 on the penalty kill.
- Happy 39th Birthday to Sens Captain Daniel Alfredsson! Wondering what to get the NHL's longest serving captain? How about a vote for the NHL All Star Game!
