When I said yesterday that the Senators were quaking in their skates about Stephen Weiss' anticipated return to the Red Wings' lineup, it was completely tongue-in-cheek.
Well, as it turns out Weiss' two second period goals that put the Wings up 4-1 proved to be the difference as the Senators mounted a late but unsuccessful comeback and fell 4-3 to Detroit.
Here are some random thoughts on the game:
* The score was very flattering to the Senators, and once again Craig Anderson kept them in position to at least gain a point. His game wasn't perfect by any means and his rebound control was suspect (all 4 goals were on second chance opportunities), but he faced over 40 shots.
* The Senators played about 10 good minutes, the first 7 (of which almost half of it was spent on the power play) and some of the last 10. For the other 50 it was a disaster of epic proportions, and I am almost disappointed they mounted the 2 goal comeback and had a shot to tie it up in the final moment, because it could overshadow what was wrong with this game. And there were lots of things to point at towards lots of different players.
* Jared Cowen struggled with gap control, but it wasn't entirely his fault, especially the Riley Sheahan goal where Tomas Tatar had a full head of steam untouched and uncontested right through the neutral zone. Cowen had no choice but to back up early because nobody on the Senators blue line, including Erik Karlsson would be able to back up and pivot with a speedster like Tatar with that much room. Cowen forced a bad angle shot, but the rebound was kicked right onto the stick of Sheahan.
* The first half of the game was a special teams battle, with both teams enjoying lengthy 5-on-3's. Ottawa scored on theirs first, and then killed of the 2 man disadvantage nicely by Cowen, Ceci and Legwand, but the Wings scored on the PP shortly thereafter.
* Weiss out-muscling Turris to get to the front of the net shows that Turris still has a ways to go before he can be considered a true #1...his physical strength just isn't there, also evidenced by the way he lost the draw so clean to Zetterberg that resulted in the first Detroit goal. Turris simply didn't have the strength to tie Zetterberg's stick up, resulting in a definitive win.
* Committing two icings with the goalie out in the final 34 seconds of the game was unacceptable. Karlsson trying the long bomb play that has worked fairly well on the power play, so far this season, but is a 50/50 play at best. With no time to waste, it wasn't the time to attempt such a risky play that ended up being both icing and offside, resulting in a defensive zone faceoff with 27 second left. Turris actually won the ensuing draw, but Patrick Wiercioch fired it around the boards like he was killing a penalty, not looking for a tying goal in the last few seconds, and it was another icing.
Well at least the Senators won't have too long to dwell on this performance, and if they can garner anything from a couple of late goals they will need it as they get right back at it against the St. Louis Blues.
Not much has changed for the Blues since the preview and recap of Saturday's game. So rather than regurgitate that information you can click the links and refresh yourself. The Blues won Sunday night in Winnipeg to end their 4 game trip at 2-2. Hopefully for the Senators, the first game back from a long road trip jinx is in effect, but if they play again the way they did on Monday, its not going to matter much.
For the Senators, Robin Lehner will likely get the call with the workload Anderson had on Monday, and the way the team played, Paul MacLean could definitely justify making a lineup change or two, because that was a gong show. It would be a knee jerk reaction, but that is what MacLean tends to do best, and that is change something up before it has a chance to work.
The game against the Wings was the 20th game of the season for the Senators, but I will postpone the look back at the last 10 games until the off day on Thursday. It wasn't pretty though.