Sometimes you just hope for the best while expecting the worst.
Such was the case yesterday heading into the lions den of Tampa, to face the league's best team coming off a devastating last second loss in Vegas.
Whether it was the dreaded first game back from a long road trip performance by the Bolts or a pretty solid effort from the Senators, Ottawa scratched and clawed their way to a shootout loss, which is a far better result than most expected.
They did give up 3 one-goal leads, but given the way they were outplayed, especially in the second period, but the Senators found a way to earn a point, much like they were doing at the beginning of the season. Craig Anderson faced 18 shots in the middle frame, stopping 16 of them.
The catch-22 of the situation the Senators find themselves in, is that while the single point is a victory of sorts, every team in the Eastern Conference that played last night also went to overtime, so they gained absolutely no ground on anyone, and it came at a cost as Bobby Ryan left the game with yet another finger injury.
Ryan did score earlier, a bit of a Christmas gift from the Lightning, as Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped Ryan's shot, but Dan Girardi fired the rebound off the shin of Brayden Coburn and into his own net. It was Ryan's fourth goal of the season, and the second one that didn't involve him actually shooting the puck into the net.
It was a game the Senators looked like they were playing not to lose as opposed to trying to win, as evidenced by the fact that Thomas Chabot played just two shifts in the third period, the second one lasting a whole 4 seconds.
Meanwhile, Nate Thompson played more in the last 6 minutes of regulation than Mark Stone.
The Senators have one more stop before Christmas, and will look to enter the break on a winning note against the Panthers on Saturday night, the second half of a back to back for Florida, as they host the Wild tonight.