Well that certainly wasn't the result anyone with even the faintest glimmer of hope wanted.
I posed the question yesterday of whether or not the Senators (extremely brief) upswing was a sign of things to come of yet another blip in the radar of an underachieving squad, and their performance was telling.
They answered the question in spades, and any light of hope has been extinguished.
Dion Phaneuf was among those trying to deflect criticism away from the goaltending, and not throwing them under the bus was a team thing, and the right words to say, even if they were blatantly false.
This is a roster that with average to good goaltending would probably be a playoff level team, but they haven't gotten even close to average goaltending, and that is why they can't compete night in and night out.
Since they started out 3-0-2, allowing 8 goals in 5 games (shootout goals excluded), the Senators have held their opponents to less than 3 goals just 7 times in 36 games. By contrast, they held their opponents to 2 or less 20 times in the first 41 games last season.
The Chicago game hit a new low, with the Senators allowing 8 for the second time this season, and unlike the last time where Montreal shooters could get a majority of the credit, this one had a lack of positioning, puck awareness and simple inability to stop the puck to blame.
This is not to put the sole blame for the troubles on those two guys between the pipes, but until that problem is solved any other solutions would be knee-jerk reactions and slapping a band-aid on a severed artery.
Anderson's inexplicable one year on-one year off trend continues except as he gets older, the "on" years aren't quite as high, while the "off" years sink lower.
So now where do the Senators turn as they head down the 401 to face the Leafs?
Maybe a pit stop in Belleville on the way for a Marcus Hogberg or Danny Taylor? or maybe even the Hambu---oh yeah, he is Colorado property now.
While they are having some struggles of their own, the Leafs have gotten the type of goaltending from Freddie Andersen that covers up a lot of blemishes and as a result the Leafs have built up a pretty comfortable 11 point cushion on the 4th place team in the Atlantic division.
And to add insult to injury, or more like injury to injury, Bobby Ryan hurt his hand yet again and left the game early and is not expected to suit up tonight, meaning they will have to reach to Belleville for some help.
The All-Star rosters will be announced shortly and there will be all sorts of fanbases complaining about snubs, but I don't expect Mark Stone to be there, and he definitely deserves to be. If not for Stone the Senators might have 3 or 4 wins this season. He is coming pretty close to being the team's best player, and is by far the most consistent. The guy is +10 on a team with a goal differential of -21 at even strength and is in the top 20 in league scoring (4th among Atlantic Division forwards). I expect Erik Karlsson to be the Senators' representative, and I don't think they will get a second spot.