THE GOING GOT TOUGH, WE GOT SCHOOLED:

There is no shame in losing to the best. And if anyone had any question marks about the Ottawa Senators being the best in the East, last night’s spectacle was Ottawa flexing it’s muscle and warning the masses. They’re still #1.

Since the beginning of the season, the Senators have been in a class of their own. The recent challenge of the Montreal Canadiens for the top seat was the closes they’ve come to mediocrity, but clearly they wanted nothing of it. The Montreal Canadiens are clearly the second best team in the East, however this may change quickly depending on how and when we’ll bounce back from two consecutive losses to Division rivals. As it stands today however, we tried unbuckling the Sens from the top, we stuck our head through the door, and got knocked with a giant cast iron pan upside the head. We’ll try again I’m sure…at least one more time before the season’s end. Hopefully that time around results will be more favourable, but for now we know our place. For a team who was supposed to miss the playoffs, 2nd best in the East is a great place to be.

As I begin to think about the post-season, I wonder if a part of me doesn’t wish the Sens killer Toronto Maple Turds sneak in to the playoffs in eight, only to knock out the Sens in the first round, then get eliminated in the second round.

On a separate note, there were three important points I wanted to bring up from last night’s game.

1) As expected, Koivu had one hack of a game. He was intense on all his shifts, despite being down by several goals. The little guy was throwing the body around, and got his line energized. Despite no goals, the top line combined for several good scoring chances.

2) Carrey Price seems in good order. Yeah he lost on Thursday and let in 3 goals last night, but if one foicuses on his performance, he’s back to being cucumber boy…as in cool as a.

3) After letting in three goals in less than five minutes, the team didn’t pack up and get ready to go home. We pushed back and we pushed hard. 4 Posts and a dozen scoring chances (with 4-5 of the on an open net with bad bounces) tells me that we were not out played that bad. Sure bad bounces and luck is part of the game, but the fact of the matter is we were not totally out of it.

I’m sure many will focus on the goal spread and begin to plan for the demise and elimination of our HABS from the playoff picture, but in essence we were fairly toe to toe with the #1 team to beat in the East.

The boys just have to take this lesson learnt, move on and realise now they cannot waste opportunities like the TO game and waste points. The primary objective should be to cut the loosing streak at two, and get on a winning streak against some conference rivals. Unfortunately our schedule is not a bouquet of roses, but as I always like to say: “You can’t change the wind. You just trim your sails and face the music”.