Kids Say The Darndest Things

So that's two spirited games in a row by the Senators with the exact same result and now many will be wondering what happens next.

Is it time for Bryan Murray to make a move to bring in help?

What does he focus on? A second line forward who can score or a powerplay quarterback? Are those types of players even available? Why would anyone want to do Ottawa a favour and take their problems on?

It's got to be a miserable time for Murray with his back up against the wall here. He doesn't have many guys he can trade without opening up another hole on the team but there are a few tradeable assets like Antoine Vermette and Christoph Schubert who could realistically bring in help without hurting the long-term future of the team.

Vermette had another one of those maddening games where he just couldn't score despite having chances that many players would kill for. Twice he completely missed the net when he was in alone on Carey Price, once during the game and once during the shootout. And growing a moustache is not going to magically teach him to be clutch. It's too bad because he's a really good defensive player and a popular teammate, but Murray might need to give both Vermette and the team a new look and Vermie may still be popular with other GM's.

As for the game tonight (which was basically a Montreal home date in everything but name due to the massive contingent of Habs fans booing the Senators all night long), there were a couple of real strange calls (both involving Anton Volchenkov) that must have been totally frustrating for Craig Hartsburg. First they disallow Volchenkov's go-ahead goal on a delayed Montreal penalty-call because they thought the Montreal defenseman touched the puck. But as Gary Galley emphatically pointed out on the Sportsnet broadcast, the play is only supposed to whistled dead when the offending team gets possession of the puck and not if they simply make contact with it.

Then Volchie gets high-sticked which causes blood to stream from his nose but the penalty is two minutes instead of four. I'm not sure how the NHL can explain that one but it doesn't matter in the end.

It was a commendable effort by Ottawa but until they can get some more natural goal scorer's on this team, there are going to be many nights like this.

So this is how the other half lived while Ottawa was cruising along the past decade, huh?