The Ottawa Senators looked like a team that wanted to get home from a road trip. In the second half of a back to back against a strong Anaheim Ducks squad, the Senators didn't have and answer, and goaltenting that had saved them so many times this season couldn't bail them out as Mike Condon allowed three first period goals before yielding the net to Andrew Hammond.
I will admit I haven't watched the Ducks play a lot this season, but they certainly have one thing the Senators do not, and that is depth. They are three lines deep, and on many nights can be four in terms of generating offense, while on too many nights the Senators rely on one line and a defenseman for consistent offense and goaltending to make sure that stands up.
We have seen over this four game road trip, which I said would be telling when it started, that that strategy might work in the short term against middling or worse teams, it will not be an effective game plan when you play the better teams in the league. You might come away with a win here or there, but for the most part the Senators were outplayed and were fortunate to come away with two points. Admittedly it was a tough gauntlet to run, but they were outmatched in a lot of situations and they also did a decent job of shooting themselves in the foot.
Games like Anaheim are tougher to take because it didn't look like the effort was there either for a lot of it. When you combine less talent with less effort, the result is totally predictable, and now they come home for the dreaded first game back from a road trip to face the Sharks, a team that is probably going to be angry that Ottawa came to their rink and basically stole two points from them a week before.
Still, on the bright side they are treading water in second place in the Atlantic Division, but there isn't much more room for error with four divisional clubs within four points of them and it looking like the two wildcard spots are going to be awarded to Metropolitan Division clubs with the separation they have already built.
They only have one game in the next 5 days, Wednesday against the Sharks, so there will be time to rest, recover and refocus for the next third of the season.