This will probably be a pretty short one, just like the effort put forth by the Ottawa Senators in Montreal on Saturday night. Or it could drag on as frustration comes to the core, I am not sure what will happen.
The Senators came out as flat as they have for any game this season, and gave up almost a full game's worth of shots (even for them) in the first period flurry where they got out of it trailing 2-0 but could have been much worse.
There was no attention to detail, and even less effort in the first 20 minutes in a game that they should have been ready for at the drop of the puck. The prime-time CBC game, without another Canadian team to take any spotlight off of them and they laid an absolute egg.
The Habs got more shots in the first period than Ottawa had in the entire game. Ottawa has seemingly had to play from behind for the better part of a couple of weeks so that is nothing new, but that takes a lot of energy and at least in the last couple of game even though there was some push-back, the results haven't come.
I said at the beginning of the month that December would be telling, and they have certainly struggled to put in a consistent effort in the last 4 or 5 games.
They are wearing Craig Anderson out and although you can't point the finger at him for this loss and the second period goalie switch was more one of mercy than indicitive of his play, he didn't look as sharp as he usually does. The lone bright spot might have been the play of Chris Dreidger, who wasn't under siege as much as Anderson but was solid in stopping all 11 shots he faced. Having him make a start or two in this stretch to give Anderson a breath might not have been the end of the world after all.
And by the way, Andrew Hammond made his second start for Binghamton last night and gave up 4 first period goals on 16 shots, but didn't allow any more after that as the BSens lost 5-3 in Hershey. I guess he just isn't an AHL goalie.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau continued his personal success against the Habs, cashing in a rebound to make it 3-1 and give the Senators a bit of life with almost half a game to go, but they didn't mount much more even if the effort did improve.
Full credit to the Habs for taking it to the Senators almost from the very start and not letting Ottawa in the game until it was pretty much decided. They sort of coasted after taking the 3-0 lead and Pageau's goal was a wake-up call for them, which they took accordingly and bent but didn't break and they are full marks for the win.
We kind of knew that the ridiculous shooting percentage the Senators were putting up wasn't sustainable, and that has certainly dried up other than the third period against the Panthers on Tuesday night.
Dave Cameron did have an epic post-game media scrum (check it out on TSN if you get a chance), and he was one angry coach, and rightfully so.