Introspection

The Ottawa Sens reached new lows this season with the Coach John Paddock being fired after 2 back-to-back shut out losses. Most people have been suggesting that he had lost the confidence of the players. Some even suggest that they had stopped listening to him. I dont think the last one was the case but something did not seem right about Paddock's coaching with his frequent line jugglings, his inability to find a number 1 goalie.

It would be intresting to see how the rest of the season plays out. Will Bryan Murray be able to get the Ottawa senators back to where they belonged last season? Or is the team performing badly because it is missing components in areas such as goaltending, Scoring depth, puck moving defensemen and so on? Only time will tell

Whatever happens.Go Sens Go.

Trade line has come and gone today with no big notable moves made by the sens.Worst of all the sens have been shut out now for 2 consecutive games for a total of 9-0 After suffering a 5-0 defeat by the Maple leaflets they suffered a 4-0 defeat by the Boston brunettes. At the trade deadline the senators only acquired Martin Lapointe from the Chicago Blackhoax for a 7th round 2008 draft pick. He will fill in for Chris Neil who will be out for a few week due to a knee injury.

Whatever, happens in the next few weeks i will always be a sens fan in good times or bad.

Rick Nash scored 1 goal in regulation and the game winner in shootout to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-2 victory against the senators.
Last year at the same time the Sens were unstoppable, they had found their game after a poor start and were having multiple game winning streaks. This year their story has been a polar opposite after a phenomenal strat to the season they are having multiple losing streaks! It is hard to tell why this is the case. After all this is the team that looked untouchable in the first 25 or so games of the season but now has been under .500 in the new year.

The Good:

The Vermette, Kelly, Stillman line is clicking. According to John Paddock Stillman is a similar kind of player to Patrick Eaves who was a former line mate of Vermette and Kelly and they thrive in that kind of chemistry.Ray Emery made some good stops even though he ended up on a losing side. Mike Commodore the other acquisition in the Carolina trade has been making good defensive plays but.....

The Bad:

......has seemed lacklustre in his previous two fights and hasn't been making any big hits as was expected of him.

The Ugly:

The Spezza line continues to have a scoring drought of sorts. And inspite of the new acquistions it has confirmed the fears that the sens struggle in the absence of scoring from their big three. They went winless when Alfredsson was out of the lineup and didn't do much better when Heatley was out for a month with his shoulder injury. With the trade deadline just a few days away the sens need atleast one puck moving defenseman to quaterback the powerplay and a gritty forward or another top 6 forward to beef up the scoring.

Flyer's 8 losses in a row = Big win for the sens.

Jason Spezza, scored the winning goal in a shootout victory for the sens. Its a breather for the fans for sure. It allows the sens to stay on top of the eastern conference standings with a tie with the Montreal Canadiens. Still this victory does little to answer questions raised by senators defensive breakdowns. Senators gave away a 2-0 lead in this game with one of the goals being short-handed scored by Kimmo Timonen.

The good thing is that Senators new acquisition Cory Stillman has atleast been producing assists if not goals. He has 3 in the last four games, while he is still looking for his first goal as a senator. Mike Commodore on the other hand hasn't done anything special. He was lacklustre in his fight with Clarkson of the New Jersey Devils in the last game. Also, havnt seen him in any scrums or hits lately. But it is just 4 games in for him hopefully too early to say anything about his play. It is also 4 games out for the traded Joe Corvo and i am praying to god that we dont end up missing him sorely in the powerplays because they are not looking any better either.


The really bad thing is that Sens top line has hadly produced anything now for 3 games in a row. They looked like their old selves in the win against Montreal but after that it has been nothing. Hopefully, this downturn in their scoring will get over soon. Heatley and Alfredsson did come to life in the last 5 minutes of the powerplay against the flyers - maybe that was a sign of good things to come.