From The Prose: Cooke and Thornton Scrap on first shift
First and foremost, hat is off to Atlanta though for not rolling over. You tend to see that a lot with teams in their position late in the year, but you have to hand it to them - a team with virtually no fans in the seat and little optimism about their future came out and handed it to a superior opponent.
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If someone told me that the Ottawa Senators would score *gasp* three goals tonight, I might have fallen into cardiac arrest.
But, keeping up with the ridiculous negativity around Ottawa and the Sens Army, the Senators managed to again fall flat on their faces and lose to a bottom feeder in the Eastern Conference.
Again.
What else is there to say? Honestly, what is my role here at Hockey Buzz? To tell you that this team looked pathetic AGAIN tonight? Look back at my past six game recaps and it'll basically sum up tonight's performance. This team lacks any kind of spark, any kind of resolve, any kind of passion, and any kind of integrity for the game.
I'm tired of this team just going through the motions. Sick and tired of it. You can be a good team, you can be an average team, you can be a bad team - all I(and most fans by that token) ask for is that you show up to win every night. The Ottawa Senators are failing to do that. Again, this idea that they deserve the playoffs has crippled their play for this entire losing stretch, and I don't want to hear excuses for it. Cory Clouston should be taking this entire roster to task after this pathetic performance, with another third period collapse against the THRASHERS.
What irritates me is that this team isn't as bad as they're playing, obviously. It's the fact that no one is stepping up into any kind of leadership role, nor is anyone taking accountability for their play. Alfredsson continues to face the music in the pressers, but he usually just spits out some pre-meditated response and moves on.
And where's Cory Clouston in all of this? Such a young coach who has done such a tremendous job all year has to be enraged with his team's performance - thinking otherwise is straight asinine. But why is he failing to connect with them on different levels right now?
Johan Hedberg stopped 36 of 39 shots en route to the Thrashers win, and Atlanta parlayed a ridiculous third period barrage of goals into two points in the Eastern Conference standings. Nik Antropov and Colby Armstrong had a pair of goals, and Colby Armstrong, Jim Slater, and Todd White were a combined +9.
The Senators were horrendous defensively and in the pipes. Offensively, they continued to struggle to put pucks in the net, but generated tons of scoring opportunities. They scored three goals in the 2nd period to cut into an early deficit thanks to Chris Kelly, Jarkko Ruutu, and Chris Phillips, but eventually were taken to the woodshed by a more passionate and driven team late. Brian Elliott was nothing short of pathetic, stopping only 21 of 27, but the defense didn't help him much - if any.
Eventually, this team will turn the corner and return to their normal averages, but when? After Dallas on Saturda, they have a four game week upcoming, with tilts against New Montreal, Buffalo, and Philadelphia, with Washington looming soon after. Notice anything similar between those teams? Yeah, exactly.
OVerall, another terrible performance by the Senators, especially late in the game. The second period was actually quite surprising considering Ottawa usually can't get out of their own way as of late, but it was only a matter of time before this ship sank. Again.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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