An ugly shutout loss to the worst team in the Eastern Conference. I didn't see the game, so I can't comment on it, but the losses of Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson were certainly felt by the rest of the Senators.Speaking of Alfredsson, according to the Ottawa Sun, he won't play today against the Philadelphia Flyers, either.
Back to the loss to Tampa Bay: The difference in the game was an ugly powerplay rebound goal by Martin St-Louis. The second goal was an empty-netter by Vincent Lecavalier.
Ray Emery started for the Sens, and he stopped 24 of 25 overall, so must have done alright. According to the NHL highlights package, though, Johan Holmqvist had to make a lot more difficult saves than Rayzor (seven Sens chances, while Emery was there twice). Maybe not the most accurate representation, but still.
A promising sign were the players who had chances for the Senators, with seven different guys supplying the Sens scoring chances (Antoine Vermette, Chris Phillips, Mike Fisher, Wade Redden, Anton Volchenkov, Shean Donovan, and Andrej Meszaros). While none of those scoring chances came off the stick of Jason Spezza--the last man standing from the CASH line--he set up at least two of them in the 26 minutes of ice time played. Ottawa finished with 25 shots on Holmqvist.
The quick turnaround to play Sunday evening against Philadelphia will likely not benefit the Senators. With Philly 9-2 in their last 11 game, I have a feeling that in order to come anywhere close to a win the Sens will need a show-stopping performance from Martin Gerber.
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