Senators collapse in Boston
The Ottawa Senators were sailing along, playing well and sitting on a 3-1 lead, when all of a sudden their world turned upside down.
The Ottawa Senators were sailing along, playing well and sitting on a 3-1 lead, when all of a sudden their world turned upside down.
The Boston Bruins scored three unanswered goals in just 7:44 from the end of the second to early in the third to take the lead and hang on for a 4-3 win.
The worst goal was the fourth — a shot from the centre red line from Dennis Seidenberg that was going wide but which took a weird bounce and deflected in off Craig Anderson’s stick.
Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, and Brad Marchand also scored for Boston.
Colin Greening, Kyle Turris, and Erik Karlsson scored for Ottawa.
Tim Thomas faced 33 shots for the Bruins while Anderson faced 30.
The loss was Ottawa’s fourth straight and their third to Boston this season. They’re now 0-7-0 in their last seven against the Bruins.
“We had the game,” said Anderson.
“We were going into the third with the lead. We were playing real well. Give them credit. They battled hard. They battled to the end.”
He was ruing the long goal, a combination of a bad bounce and bad luck.
“It took one bounce, then it hit my stick and went in,” he said.
“Just one of those things where I’ve got to make the save, but at the same time it took a crazy bounce.”
Karlsson said the game is an object lesson in playing all three periods.
“I don’t think we had the game,” he said.
“There’s 60 minutes to play and they did a good job for the full 60 minutes and we had some minutes where we weren’t really on top of our game against probably one of the best teams in the league.
“We know that we can’t really take our foot of the gas for one second, or it’s going to cost us.”
Coach Paul MacLean noted the obvious — that the four-game losing streak isn’t fun. But he had to give his players credit.
“I thought we played real well for a lot of the game,” he said.
“We had the lead going into the third in a tough building against a real good team. But we took too many penalties, made a bad line change, and then a puck skips and goes in.
“So we had a little bit of bad luck as well, but I thought our team played real hard for the whole game and we certainly gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game.”
He was, however, dismayed that his team didn’t get one power play while the Bruins were given four.
“Obviously we’re not doing enough,” he said. “We’ve got to play harder to get more respect, that’s all there is to it.”
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WHY THEY LOST: Because they couldn’t hold on to a 3-1 lead. After scoring three straight goals to take the lead, they gave up three straight goals – including one from the centre red line.
STUD: Brad Marchand. He’s the kind of guy you hate unless he’s on your team. He a big tying goal early in the third by outmuscling Chris Phillips to get to a rebound that Anderson couldn’t hold.
DUD: Craig Anderson. He actually played great for much of the game. But anytime you give up a goal on a shot from centre ice, you pretty well lose the argument.
KING OF THE PENALTY BOX: Zenon Konopka’s first-period fight with Adam McQuaid was his 17th major of the season. It gave him 159 penalty minutes so far and a comfortable lead over Philly’s Zac Rinaldo, who went into the night second with 124 penalty minutes.
It was the refs! The Senators weren’t at fault, I’m sure of it!
Couldn’t have been the refs – after all the Bruins are up for the Lady Byng as a team. Too bad that NHL hockey has to settle for sandlot refs!
Inexpert rough justice isn’t what refs are supposed to dispense. The ref definitely tilted the ice in this game. By the third period the Bruins in their end were experimenting with trips of opposing players just to see how far the ref would go. The answer? Restore order by nailing a Senator the first time he touches a Bruin.
Spezza’s disgusted cross check in the last 5 seconds was a protest well justified. Why should one guy in a striped shirt assume godlike status to punish the Sens for their hubris, real or imagined?
Enough with the conspiracy theories. Yes, the reffing was bad, but it was bad both ways. Perhaps if there was some integrity left in the players, things would be different. Anytime Neil goes down, I’m not calling a penalty, because most are obvious dives.
MacLean opened this can of worms by calling out the referees after they allegedly labeled Karlsson as a “diver.” The team always whining isn’t doing them any favours.
Where did the team with heart and determination go? That’s the team everyone wants to see play. That’s the team that everyone loves.
I see that my first post didn’t make it through the censorship board so I’ll try again. The Senators deserved the penalties that they took; the Bruins deserved the ones that weren’t called. Thank you and have a great day.
It wasn’t just this game that O’Rourke has ‘missed’ calls for infractions against the Sens.
It started in SJ when Karlsson took an elbow to the face from Marleau.. enough to have his nose bleed.. but I guess they thought it was fake blood or something.
The ‘trip’ in Anaheim that was not called on Getzlaf at the end of the game because Karlsson is a diver.
The whole game in LA — when O’Rourke deliberately did not call penalties..
Then the game last night. 3 obvious penalties that were not called.. and the league just keeps putting him into ref Sens games…
Anyone want to make a bet that he does the Leafs’ game on Saturday?
But that 4th goal by Boston was the difference. Sens played really well in the first two periods… but taking penalties and not having power plays could have been the difference.
Every team in the NHL deserves to be respected and to be given a fair game by the officials… last night and the other nights mentioned above was not given to the Sens.
Conspiracy? maybe… incompetence? definitely
The NHL is a bush league. It is corrupt and puts its finger on the scale for big market teams. O’Rourke is corrupt, and the NHL is incompetent and corrupt for not disciplining him.
Bush! I won’t be paying good money to go to a game any time soon. I think I’ll wait until the NHL starts acting like a big league.
Folks,,,, B’s fan here,,,,I would say the Sens were shorted a penalty or two against the B’s for sure but things have a way of working out. I was at the Vancouver B’s game a few weeks ago and Lucic was thrown out for leaving the bench. The refs made a horrible call he was in a line change, Vancouver went on to score a PP goal and won by one. The refs admitted the mistake after the game!!!! Until we see you again at ScotiaPlace!