Usually reliable Mark Stone made one mistake and it cost the Senators the game. Stone lost his man on the backcheck and it allowed Jonathan Huberdeau to go down main street and beat Mike Condon clean for what turned out to be the only goal of the game.
The undermanned Senators didn't have an answer, and the stubborn-ness of Guy Boucher cost them.
Playing without Zack Smith, Bobby Ryan and Dion Phaneuf (and a flu-ridden Craig Anderson), it makes absolutely no sense to replace Smith and Ryan in the top 6 with Alex Burrows and Nate Thompson while keeping Mike Hoffman on the third line and callup Filip Chlapik on the fourth. If you can generate offense on a regular basis, sure you can try to spread the offense. But when there is no offense to spread, you need to load up your top line and hope. That is not even up for debate in my eyes. Boucher started with his top 3 (forward) offensive threats - Stone, Hoffman and Matt Duchene - on 3 different lines.
On a day where they played well enough defensively where 2 would have been enough, the Senators couldn't even get 1. They had a handful of chances, with the best coming on special teams. Hoffman hit the post on a power play and Reimer turned Erik Karlsson aside on a short-handed breakaway, which is as close as they got.
With the loss, the Senators enter the Christmas break sitting in 29th place in the league, ahead of only the dreadfully bad Sabres and Coyotes. You might not have thought heading into the season that the Senators were Stanley Cup contenders, but I don't think anyone could have seen this coming.
This team is quite simply too easy to play against right now. They aren't hard on the puck, they aren't winning many free puck battles and they definitely aren't making other teams pay the price when they have it. They are a tough watch and frustrating beyond any definition.
Quite honestly, I think it is time for Pierre Dorion to rethink that vote of confidence. But then again, are the Senators willing to pay another coach not to work for them?
So have a Happy Holiday, and I will have some thoughts on the World Juniors aka "The most wonderful time of the year" either tomorrow or Tuesday, since the Sens are thankfully unable to lose again until Wednesday.
Until then, in the spirit of Festivus, I invite you to relieve a little holiday stress in the comments section and air your grievances with what you think is the biggest reason the Senators have sunk like a stone (no pun intended) since the big week that they acquired Duchene and had their Swedish excursion?