Theory proven: There's no 'D' in 'Senators'

After Friday's game, I wrote on the blog that a similarly poor defensive effort wouldn't be enough to defeat a good team, or even the Boston Bruins. I must be some kind of sorcerer, because the Sens put in the same kind of lame effort against Boston and they lost 4-2.

The strange tandem of Jason Smith and Filip Kuba again hit the ice and surrendered the first goal of the game. Those two should find new partners immediately. On the other side of the defensive coin, I found that Brian Lee and Alex Picard rarely screwed the pooch.

Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov have not been their normal dependable selves so far this season. I've seen Phillips struggle to keep up with opposing forwards on a couple of occasions this year. He's got a -3 rating this season and Volchenkov is a team-worst -4. Not a good sign. (Who leads the team in that category, you ask? None other than #37, M-C-Ammer at +3.)

The defenders regularly stranded Martin Gerber and did not do a good job of sweeping rebounds of of harm's way (and that's a huge part of playing D in front of Gerber!).

Nick Foligno continues to impress this season with a fantastic goal to tie the game at 1 against the Bruins. If he continues to improve, I see him adding some grit to the Senators top line in a year or two.

Five games in the season now, we've seen a totally new style Senators team when compared to late last season. However, it remains to be seen whether this will result in a better record.