Maple Leafs extend Senators’ losing streak to six
The Battle of Ontario turned decidedly blue on Saturday. Blue as in the colour of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Blue as in the mood of the Ottawa Senators.
The Battle of Ontario turned decidedly blue on Saturday.
Blue as in the colour of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Blue as in the mood of the Ottawa Senators.
That’s what an ugly 5-0 romp on home ice will do.
The Senators losing streak is now at six games and they’re holding on to a playoff spot only because they’ve played more games than their closest pursuers. The Maple Leafs are a single point behind the Senators, but have played three fewer games.
As the Senators are sliding south, the Maple Leafs are suddenly on a roll, with a 4-0-1 record and a red-hot goaltender. James Reimer stopped 49 Senators shots in the victory, posting his second consecutive shutout.
Phil Kessel was the offensive hero, registering a goal and two assists by the midway point of the game. Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak, Luke Schenn and Cody Franson also beat Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, much to the delight of the Maple Leafs faithful in the crowd at Scotiabank Place.
“There’s urgency, no question,” said captain Daniel Alfredsson in describing the situation. “Panic is not the right word, but we’ve got to find a way and dig deep here and work towards getting better in a lot of areas. We show really good play at times, but it’s not as consistent as we’ve done previously in the season and everybody’s got to come together and find one gutsy effort here to build on.”
The easy answer would be a hard skate Sunday, but after games on consecutive nights – the Senators lost 2-1 in overtime to the New York Islanders Friday – coach Paul MacLean kept to the original plan of a day off on Sunday.
Come Monday, though, they can expect to be put through their paces in preparation for Tuesday’s visit by the defensively-sound St. Louis Blues, featuring former Senators goaltender Brian Elliott. In order to salvage a winning record from the five-game homestand, the Senators now must make a clean sweep of games against St. Louis, the Nashville Predators on Thursday and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
“We’re going to come back on Monday and work to fix it,” said MacLean. “We have to find a way to do a little bit more. Not a whole lot, lot more, but we have to be a bit better on special teams. Our best players need to be our best players, just like every other team in the league. We don’t have to do anything spectacular by any individual or anything, but we have to come and play a good solid NHL team, from start to finish.”
Unlike their weak effort at the start of so many games lately, the Senators actually began the game with some jump. They also had the opening two power plays of the game, but couldn’t get any quality shots through against Reimer.
The game turned on a fortunate break for Kessel. His initial shot was blocked by Matt Carkner, but the rebound bounced right back to him. He then beat Anderson up high to open the scoring.
Then, the Maple Leafs went to work on the power play, moving the puck around crisply before Phaneuf one-timed Kessel’s pass past Anderson to make it 2-0.
While the Senators pressed to put a dent in Reimer early in the second period, the goaltender stood tall. Then Bozak effectively iced the game, beating Anderson on a breakaway following a pretty pass from Kessel. Schenn and Franson made it ugly with third period goals.
“I thought Phil Kessel was an absolute star tonight, we didn’t have an answer for him,” said MacLean. “One second he’s in their end and the next second, he’s in our end shooting the puck at our net.”
For parts of the game, MacLean was like a crazy hockey scientist in trying new line combinations, hoping to find a spark somewhere. Chris Neil featured prominently in the shuffling, playing on almost every line at some point. He also saw plenty of time on a Senators power play which continues to fizzle.
As frustrating as Saturday’s loss was, Jason Spezza says Sunday is “time to take a breath” and be ready to work hard on Monday.
“We’re not getting puck luck, but it’s got to be earned,” he said of his scoring slump. “We need our best guys to score goals and right now we’re not doing that and all those things contribute to the losses. We’re not in a terrible position.
“Hopefully this is the end of it and we’ll come back to work on Monday. We’re not going to quit.”
GAME FILE
Why They Lost: They couldn’t take advantage of their early spark, couldn’t crack the James Reimer wall and (stop if you’ve heard this before) made some glaring defensive errors.
Stud: Phil Kessel, Maple Leafs. Midway through the game, he had a goal and two pretty assists as the Maple Leafs took a commanding 3-0 lead. Kessel then served as a decoy on Luke Schenn’s third period goal.
Dud: Senators power play. The Senators had early energy and drew the first two penalties. Once again, though, their effort with the man advantage wasn’t nearly good enough and the penalty kills served to inspire the Maple Leafs.
The defence delivers: Defencemen Luke Schenn (his first goal in 28 games), Dion Phaneuf and Cody Franson found the range for the Maple Leafs. The defensive punch comes a night after defensive defenceman Mark Eaton scored the game winner for the New York Islanders in their 2-1 win over the Senators on Friday.
Another big problem the Sens had was that they couldn’t keep the crowd out of the game. Letting the Leafs get the first goal just set the stage for ongoing Go-Leafs-Go chants; and of course the compulsory booing of the Sens captain. This has to be a problem for the team in their own building.
Great game. Large proportion of leafs fans. Excellent to see Reimer get the shut-out and Lupul and Schenn score great goals. Anyone born before 1990 cannot possibly be a Sens fan.
This team is garbage and that’s being generous.
What the heck is Jim O’Brien doing on the first line or even playing?
Why is that pylon Carkner still here?
Why is Konopka here?
Coach said they could not answer Kessel?
NO SCRAP SHERLOCK!
You need SKILL to answer that and all this team has are grinders and pluggers with a few star players to fill in.
Murray retire already so the next GM can provide us with a team that’s worth the price of admission.
I think The Sens clearly have some young talent that puts them in good position for the future, despite being in the midst of a rebuild.They might be “overachieving” at the moment, (according to some pundits,) but I believe that building a winning attitude in guys like Karlsson is vital for a future contender. I’m a Leaf fan, and I look forward to the future when we have another meaningful Battle of Ontario in the playoffs. We’re not as far away from that becoming a reality, regardless of what some people claim. Tonight’s game wasn’t as intense as they have been in the past, but I could see that the rivalry is not dead yet.
Looks like Burke was more careful in his building of Toronto and it’s coming to fruition now. It also appears that the Sens are now wearing down and showing their lack of skill. Sens need a proper rebuild.
Hey Feb 5th 1:57…You sound like a typical Sens fan.
All the hockey experts predicted early in the season that Ottawa wouuld not make the playoffs. This is a team in re-build.
If you have no patience in the time it takes to mature this young Sens team then join Leaf Nation
Look around the rink last night… This is the Leafs Second Home..
ha ha…
Suck it up!
Leaf Nation
The Sens can thank the morons that found it necessary to act like idiots throughout the allstar weekend by booing every Leaf, every time. You don’t think all the Leaf players – and Leaf Nation – wanted to shove this right up their collective a$$es. This was one of the sweetest wins this year!
Sure some sens fans may not like leaf players just as some leaf fans don’t like some sens.
I agree with you, it was sweet.
I am reminded of the last five Laffs seasons. The team would play a good month or two only to lose games when the expectations were raised. The new Sens still need to develop that confidence.
I thought Anderson looked frustrated. The sens kept leaving players open. The effort seemed to be there but the Laffs put up an effective wall around reimer. They blocked 20 shots. The score only reflected that the sens kept coming but it wasn’t working.
The sens need to stop thinking about playoffs and work on playing the game as a team. Just ‘playing the game. Realistically there was zero expectations of playoffs this year. Now go out there and play like any points is gravy. The groove will come back.
Alex L, I would think that you could spell the name of the team that eliminated the Sens from the playoffs 4 times between 1999 and 2004 AND just pushed them around like a peewee team last night. Here, I’ll help you L-E-A-F-S. I guess you could also look around your home arena and read LEAFS on the majority of jerseys in the stands. HA, I love it?
Revenge is Sweet, if you’re so good at spelling (and presumably grammar), then why would you end your last sentence with a question mark? Or maybe you’re actually asking us if you love it. What I love is how Leaf fans who haven’t had a cup since before most of us were born love to remind us of those playoff wins against the Sens so many years ago…
Boy oh boy JF, you really hit Revenge hard by pointing out his question mark blunder! On top of that, you threw in the Leaf cup drought. I bet he wishes he was a Sens fan now.
At least the SENS had been making the play-offs over the past decade . . .
Leafs Nation represented big time last night…great job folks…on TV it sounded much louder than a leaf home game..the only disappointment was that the sens weren’t wearing the zero jerseys…
I find it annoying that there was so much Leaf fan support? Why? Ottawa is in their first year of a rebuild while the Leafs are in their 45th The Leafs operation,despite some progress this year, are continually the joke of the league.
So much for all stars, huh? I doubt four players from Ottawa will ever make it on the all star team again at the same time … unless it’s held in Ottawa again and fans artificially inflate their so-called *star* status.
lol….whiny sens fans get a taste of the good ole pre playoff beating…beautiful reward for the boobirds at the allstar(BS) fiasco…hope these two teams meet in playoffs so Leafs can spank them again….
Hey Alex L, thank you for your constructive feedback. Since you can’t spell properly, we will rename the Sens home arena to Leaf’s 2nd Home, just for you – since we effectively made it official as we pummeled your Sens last night. We’re also sending them some Preparation H after they bent over in the game last night.