Sens Falter In Hogtown ..... Spezza Hurt?

A tough loss for the Senators in Toronto tonight but give credit to the Leafs who seemed to stymie almost every breakout Ottawa attempted in the 3rd period and forced giveaway after giveaway.

While the Kovalev-Fisher-Foligno line was flying again tonight, the Spezza-Alfie-Michalek line seemed to struggle defensively even though they led the shot count in the match. If Ottawa could get those two lines rolling on any given night, they wouldn't lose many going forward.

As for Brian Elliott, he wasn't terrible, but he hasn't managed to state his case for more playing time once Pascal Leclaire gets healthy. The only thing he's proven is that he's a backup goalie at this stage of his career. Nothing more, nothing less. He had to have that Jason Blake goal. Just had to have it.


We all saw Jason Spezza limp off the ice near the end of the game. From the replay it looked like his ankle rolled over in a battle for the puck. Spezza scored a nice goal tonight, but it looks like his season from hell will continue unabated, although no details have leaked out at this point.

Black Aces Senators 3 Stars

1. Nick Foligno
2. Mike Fisher
3. Alexei Kovalev


Black Aces Senators 3 Stars Season Scorecard

(1st Star - 3 points, 3rd star - 1 point)

Alfredsson – 19
Fisher – 15
Michalek – 14
Spezza – 13
Elliott – 10
Neil - 7
Leclaire – 7
Kovalev – 7
Foligno – 7
Ruutu - 5
Winchester - 5
Volchenkov – 4
Phillips - 3
Carkner – 3
Kuba – 3
Regin - 2
Lee – 1
Donovan – 1
Kelly – 1
Shannon – 1
Karlsson - 1

***

NOTES

Colour commentator Gary Galley went to great pains to excoriate Erik Karlsson for getting caught up the ice when Toronto's Jason Blake scooped up a puck and beat Brian Elliott in the second period. Only problem was, it was number 45 Alex Picard who was on the ice and not number 65 Erik Karlsson. It's tough enough being a rookie without being blamed for the mistakes you didn't make. But we'll give Galley a mulligan. He's one of the best colour guys in the game today........Usually tried and true Leaf acolytes, Sportsnet intermission hosts Nick Kypreos and Bill Watters seemed more than a little impressed by Matt Carkner's KO of Leaf tough guy Colton Orr, claiming that Ottawa is not exactly known for upping the Leafs in any kind of physical battle. Sens fans should be impressed too. Colton Orr doesn't lose many fights and it was a bit of a personal redemption for Carkner after getting beat bad by Orr a few weeks ago. This bodes well for a renewed Battle of Ontario...... This is not the same Toronto team that started out this season as a bad joke on the ever loyal Hogtown fans. Coach Ron Wilson has them playing a really tough brand of hockey right now and Phil Kessel is proving the doubters wrong. Suddenly, that trade doesn't seem so bad does it?......Brutal missed call on Mike Komisarek after he elbowed Alex Kovalev in the melon..... It must have been nice for Coach Clouston to see the other team get called for a couple of too-many-men penalties...... Is it me or did Coach Wilson and Coach Clouston both get sharp new haircuts for the Battle of Ontario tonight? ....... Hit of the night: Jarkko Ruutu on Jeff Finger in the 3rd period. Finger will be taping a few aspirins to his shoulders tonight, that's for sure. Both Ruutu and Jesse Winchester have really brought the physical play since Chris Neil went down with an injury. It's actually somewhat crazy to think that Winchester was a healthy scratch earlier this season. This guy has now made himself indispensable. He can hit like Fisher and protect the puck along the boards just as good as Peter Schaefer used to. Not a bad combination.

You know the Senators have changed uniforms too many times when: A lone Senator fan was shown on television cheering after the second period Mike Fisher goal. Only problem was that he was waving a flag featuring the original 2-D logo and wearing the old black and gold 3rd jersey worn at the start of the decade. You have to admire him though. How many times do fans have to buy new team jersey's? Lucky Leaf fans don't have to face that problem.