Ottawa's given up five goals less than the New York Islanders this year. Let that marinate for a minute.
As for tonight's game -- well, it was more of the same. Some of the forwards had really respectable games. Ales Hemsky had a goal of the year candidate, and as has been the case since his acquisition, was one of team's best forwards.
His beautiful dangle-and-score on ex-Senator Ben Bishop here:
The bad? Same as it ever was. The defense is an absolute tire fire. Paul MacLean decided to healthy scratch Patrick Wiercioch (again) because he thought the team needed more physicality against Tampa Bay's lineup.
Jared Cowen did this:
Of course, Cowen wasn't the only nightmare on the back-end. You could go through the tape and find a half-dozen of these clips. There was a sequence where Chris Phillips turned the puck over twice to Steven Stamkos in a matter of three seconds, not to mention his bizarre coverage on one of Tampa Bay's goals.
I'd note which one, but honestly, I lost track.
Robin Lehner was bad. He's not really getting any help, but he didn't have a clean performance in his own right. As has been the case for the last month or so.
Thirteen games left of this season.
Thanks for reading!