With the news that Erik Karlsson is further away from a return than anticipated, Johnny Oduya out day to day from a first game entanglement, the Senators suffered another shootout loss and lost another defenseman as callup Ben Harpur lasted half a game before leaving.
On the ice, it was a goaltending duel between Detroit's Jimmy Howard and Ottawa's Craig Anderson that stymied shooters for most of the night, through breakaways and power plays until each was beat late and Detroit was one better in the shootout to walk away with the extra point.
Ottawa's power play continued to struggle without Karlsson, adding an 0 for 7 (including another opportunity in overtime) to go with the 0 for 5 on Thursday night. Meanwhile the penalty kill was perfect as they have killed off all 5 opposing power plays through 2 games. I love the fact that through 2 games Guy Boucher has seemingly decided to play Mark Stone in a penalty killing role. A player with his skill set of puck thievery needs to play more than the 3:54 he played for an entire season with the man disadvantage like he did last year. He killed penalties for 1:53 last night alone, which is a good sign in my book.
It could have been different if the nets were regulation size, as Mike Hoffman hit a couple of posts and Mark Stone another, but close doesn't count. Dion Phaneuf rescued a point, stepping in and picking off a clearing attempt and putting a shot through traffic to beat Howard for a goal that was originally credited to Derick Brassard but later changed to Phaneuf. That goal came just 43 seconds after Martin Frk looked like his icebreaker would be enough, breaking Anderson's perfect game with just 2:34 remaining in regulation.
So, getting two points in two games without your best player is adequate, but considering they had a 3-1 lead in the third period in the first one and blew it, and were a shot away from winning this one, leaving a point or two on the table even this early might come to haunt them come April.
Karlsson is not scheduled to go with the club to Vancouver to begin their three game road trip in the Canadian West (Tuesday night against the Canucks), but didn't rule out joining the team before the back to back in Calgary and Edmonton next Friday and Saturday.
If either Harpur or Oduya isn't ready to go, it would mean another call to Belleville, and perhaps to Thomas Chabot who by all accounts played well on Friday and then scored on the power play and added an assist on Saturday night but is a -4 in his 2 AHL games. He has been in on 100% of Belleville's offense, but they have been outscored 9-2 in their two road games in Laval against Montreal's farm team.