Another game, another loss for the Ottawa Senators, a night that saw them (after the Coyotes upset the Lightning) fall into a tie for 30th place in a 31 team league, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres in ineptitude.
And of course, when the opportunity presents to give up an opposition player's first NHL goal, the Senators usually accommodate those opportunities. Such was the case with Warren Foegele who opened the scoring late in the first period in his NHL debut. It was a move where the rookie beat Ben Harpur off the boards in the corner and made a shot on goal that went right through Craig Anderson.
Bobby Ryan tied it up, finally reaching double digits in goals for the year midway through the second period, but the Hurricanes went on to score 3 unanswered, the last of which was into an empty net, to skate away with the 4-1 win and maintain a slight glimmer of hope of possibly running the table and sneaking into a playoff spot. Their next game is a big matchup against the Devils that is a must win for them.
As for the Senators, playing once again without Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone, didn't have much giddy-up in their game and managed just 20 shots on goal on the night.
Ben Sexton made his NHL debut, and did not get as fortunate as Foegele, notching 3 hits and a -1 rating to show for his first game.
The Senators return home to face the Islanders in their penultimate back to back in a season that has been full of them.
The Islanders have been almost as disappointing as the Senators this season, and Ottawa goes from playing against the team with the worst save percentage in the league to facing the one that has the highest Goals Against Average and the only team that has allowed more goals (276) than the Senators (266).
Much like the Senators, the Islanders have some questions of their own in terms of the future of their franchise player. John Tavares can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and there hasn't been a ton of conversation (at least publicly) that the two sides are anywhere close to an agreement on a contract extension.
In a season bereft of bright spots, the shining light for the Islanders has been the play of Matthew Barzal, who has stomed to the front of the rookie scoring race, with 76 points in 76 games, including 3 5-point nights this season. He leads all rookies in scoring, and is 15 points clear of second place Clayton Keller, one of the early-season co-favorites (along with Brock Boeser) for the Calder.
Rugged blueliner Mark Borowiecki was named as the Senators nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy at the NHL awards in June. Craig Anderson won the award last season, and if he had been able to play Clarke MacArthur would have been a shoo-in for the award, but that didn't materialize.
With the likes of Jordan Staal, Steven Stamkos and Kris Letang among the 15 players already nominated, Borowiecki's chances of actually winning the award are pretty slim but congratulations to him regardless.