Sunday, November 16, 2008

Too little, too late: Isles 3, Sens 2


Pretty late game review after a second loss in as many games against the New York Islanders, but it was so depressing I didn't really want to talk about it. With the two goals the Sens scored in the third period, the Sens have now scored four goals through their four-game losing skid--not good enough to win many, no matter how well goaltender Alex Auld is playing.

I'm going to keep this short, because the game is old news now. The team played hard, outshot the Islanders 15-7 in the first period and had 40 shots on the night, but had a hard time beating Isles tender Joey MacDonald. Most of the shots weren't great scoring chances, and they made MacDonald looks pretty good. Filip Kuba led the team in shots once again with six, and Dean McAmmond had five shots in only 10:13 played, the same number as Daniel Alfredsson (22:16) and more than Dany Heatley (4 shots in 21:41) and Jason Spezza (2 shots in 19:26).

It's quicker to list positives than negatives, so I will: The Sens were recharged late in the third when the CASH Line was reunited, and Spezza and Heatley scored the Sens' two goals (Heatley also had one assist). I don't know if re-uniting the line will work for next game, but it's about all Craig Hartsburg hasn't tried yet. Ilya Zubov looked really confident and settled, playing well in his 15:19 of ice time, registering two shots and getting some second-unit powerplay time. He hasn't been demoted yet, and will suit up Monday in place of Chris Neil, who injured himself just before fighting Isles tough guy Tim Jackman.

That's that. The almost-comeback was certainly too little, too late for this game, and might have been too little, too late for some players' careers with the Senators--time will tell on the latter front.
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