In theory, I didn't mind the makeup of the Senators' defense. I don't necessarily agree with the way they are being used, and I am on the record with that opinion.
They are, however, a house of cards and when one key piece gets blown away, there leaves a gaping hole. Case in point the late scratch of Marc Methot with the flu. Taking away a first pairing blue liner on any team would hurt, but on this club it is near disaster.
The depth of the blue line (or lack thereof) was really shown just before the opening power play goal in the first period. With Methot ill, the Senators have just 3 guys who kill penalties on a regular basis as it is, and when you put Mark Borowiecki in the box after a fight and Jared Cowen off for interference, that leaves 1. And the Predators made the Senators pay after Patrick Wiercioch was weak on the puck and James Neal pulled a power move from the side of the net to stuff it past Craig Anderson after the turnover, before Wiercioch could seal the lane. It was an identical play in the middle of the third to put the Predators up 3-2, with Neal beating Jared Cowen to the lane.
Thank goodness for the trio of Kyle Turris, Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone. Hoffman had a pair, including the tying goal on a rocket shot from the point the simply beat Carter Hutton, while Turris added a goal and an assist and Stone a pair of helpers. Without the first line firing on all cylinders, the Sens wouldn't have mounted much of an offence at all, because the second line of Ryan, Zibanejad and Michalek was all but invisible. In fact, at even strength the third line was used as much as the second line, and the unit of Chiasson, Pageau and Lazar were far more effective and had more scoring chances than the Zibanejad line, they just lacked the finish.
Three-on-3 OT was a lot of fun, and was dominated by the Senators and by all rights they should have ended it before Ryan bowled over/was shoved into Hutton and drew a goaltender interference penalty giving the Preds a power play for the final 40 seconds.
Ryan showed he does have hands after all in the shootout, with a nice deke on Hutton, but he was the only one to beat the netminder while Filip Forsberg and James Neal both put it past Anderson for the win.
In the last 2 games the Senators have certainly left points on the table. For all the inconsistency and the lack of game to game offensive contribution from anyone but the Turris line and Karlsson, the Senators are still in decent shape going forward and there hasn't been a game this season that they haven't at least been in.
They are off until Thursday night, which means they have 4 days to try and figure something out, and we have 4 days here to dissect what is going on and to speculate/propose things that they should/could do to fix what isn't working without taking away from what is.
Hey, for you optimists out there, at least the Senators outshot their opponent and held the opposition to 25 shots or less, both firsts for this season!