I don't know what is worse. Thursday night's 5-1 loss where the Senators had a brutal effort against the Predators and no chance to win, or Saturday night where the Senators thoroughly outplayed the Panthers but a great goaltending performance and gripping the sticks resulted in another loss.
It was a good effort by the Senators, especially since they were playing without Mike Hoffman and Bobby Ryan, and they deserved a better fate, but points aren't awarded by efforts.
Roberto Luongo was outstanding, and Craig Anderson was only human and the resulting 4-1 score was hardly indicative of the play or the performance on the ice.
The Panthers scored first, before most people had sat down from the National Anthem as Jaromir Jagr ended a lengthy scoring drought (14 games) just 25 seconds into the game. The puck was deflected by Derick Brassard, but it was one of 2 or maybe even 3 goals on the night that Anderson would have liked to have, and probably should have. Jagr also added a pair of assists on goals from Jussi Jokinen and Derek MacKenzie
But still, the story was Luongo, who turned aside 39 shots and only allowed a sneaky goal from Jean-Gabriel Pageu from the goal line that banked off Luongo's shoulder and in in the third period. The Senators had a pretty astounding 83 shot attempts, compared with 43 for the Panthers.
That was the first of three straight divisional games, and they have a couple of days to prepare for the task that will be scoring on Carey Price when the Senators travel to Montreal on Tuesday and then host Tuukka Rask and the Bruins on Thursday. ---
Andrew Hammond, who had refused a conditioning stint earlier in the week, cleared waivers yesterday so his fate i no longer in his own hands. Hammond has slipped to the third spot on the depth chart behind Mike Condon, and at 28 years old he is in a sort of purgatory. He won't likely play much in Ottawa, won't likely play much in Binghamton if he were assigned there because I would assume the Senators don't want to stunt the development of their younger prospects, and obviously no other team thinks enough of him to claim him for free on waivers.
Hammond is what he is, and that is a fringe NHL backup who failed to take the reigns when opportunities presented themselves last season. His tremendous run in 2015 was historic but as expected he hasn't been able to come anywhere near that level again. He hasn't even shown the ability to be a solid backup, which I am sure is disappointing to himself and the organization.