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Senators Destroyed in Florida

November 11, 2018, 7:47 PM ET [14 Comments]
Trevor Shackles
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS

Remember yesterday when I talked about what a nice feel-good win it was for the Senators over the Lightning as they scored four goals in a row to win 6-4? Well, today was a different story...

On the second half of a back-to-back, Ottawa failed to win their second game in a row, which would have been just their second streak of two in a row all season. Alas, the Panthers came to play after winning at home against the Islanders the night before, whereas the Senators did not. It was disappointing to see such a poor effort after a thrilling come from behind win yesterday, but growing pains like these are to be expected with a young team like this.

The funny thing is that Ryan Dzingel got things going in an uneventful first period with another goal, as he potted his team-leading ninth of the season:




It was all downhill from there though, as the second period was one of the worst of the season so far.

In the second frame, Florida scored five goals from Alex Barkov (2), Jonathan Huberdeau, Frank Vatrano, and Troy Brouwer. Not only that, they had 36 shot attempts to Ottawa's 11, and it was 27-8 at even strength. Portions of the period legitimately made it seem like the Panthers were on a never-ending powerplay, and the Senators looked gassed on every shift. Their final three goals in the frame were all in the last five minutes of the period, including this nice goal from Barkov that made look Mike McKenna look foolish:




Obviously you have to give credit to Barkov there, but McKenna got caught swimming on the play. The next two goals were not good goals to show on his player resumé either, and it hit a point where I just felt bad for him. He gets to live the NHL life for a bit and gets some more money, but he's clearly not a good enough goalie even for a backup. With Anderson playing the night before, he had to stay in for the rest of the night too.

To his credit, he stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third period when he could've just given up. That doesn't absolve him from the rest of the night, but I think most goalies in the league would have been on the losing end tonight if they were put behind Ottawa's defense. I was very impressed with many of the efforts from last night, and tonight was the exact opposite.

Christian Jaros had a rough game and was a big reason for the 3-1 goal, and I wonder how long he will be with the team if he isn't showing more than this. I think he can be a third pairing player at some point, but he's definitely been a weak spot on the roster. Other than that, Mark Borowiecki struggled as well, as he continues his rough beginning to the season. Last season he was legitimately a decent depth defenseman but has been anything but effective so far in 2018-19. I can't say I was thrilled with many performance tonight besides Dzingel I suppose for extending his goal streak to four games.

Although another player that I didn't notice while watching but had a good game on the scoresheet was Nick Paul. In just 11:37 of 5v5 ice time, Paul had six shot attempts and was on for 15 attempts for and just seven against, which was the best percentage on the team (68.18%). There's a chance that he can actually be a serviceable fourth line player, although that's only valuable if players like Tom Pyatt and Max McCormick are not playing.

Besides the game itself, there was even more bad news regarding Colin White. He played just four minutes on the night, and was then removed for the game for an undisclosed reason:




Hopefully this is a short-term injury because he had been on fire recently and was actually getting a chance to play with decent linemates. If Ottawa does have to call somebody up, it needs to be one of Filip Chlapik, Drake Batherson, or Rudolfs Balcers because they've all done enough to deserve a chance in the NHL. Calling up Paul Carey again wouldn't serve much of a purpose. I'm sure we will hear more about White's injury later tonight or tomorrow morning.

The Senators next game isn't until Thursday at home against the Detroit Red Wings. Hopefully that'll be a better matchup for them.
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