After a strong effort against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night, the Ottawa Senators returned to Scotiabank Place to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Hockey Night in Canada. The Senators once again played admirably against one of the best in the league, but fell short once more, downed by the Lightning 2-1.

Neither team was able to muster many scoring opportunities in the first period, eerily similar to the first period last night in the United Center. Ottawa only managed seven shots against Roloson through the twenty, with the only legitimate scoring chance coming from a redirection off of Martin St. Louis. Tampa Bay wasn't that much better in the offensive end - ten shots on Brian Elliott, a nice portion of which came after Jarkko Ruutu was sent off with consecutive minor penalites near the end of the period. Both teams seemed more than comfortable to keep the scoring margin low and protect their end of the ice.

In fact, it wasn't until the waning moments of the second period that the zeroes were officially erased, and it came from one of the unlikeliest of sources - Zack Smith. Smith was the beneficiary of some incredible end-to-end rush play by Jesse Winchester, who beat two Bolts players and dished off a perfect pass to Smith right in front of Roloson.

With Brian Elliott playing extremely well and the Lightning on their heels, the Senators looked to be in quite a strong position, but as everyone knows, this Lightning team focuses on a quick strike - pun intended. In just mere minutes, both Adam Hall and Martin St. Louis had beaten Brian Elliott clean, and grabbed a crucial one-goal lead heading into the final ten.

Hall's goal, which came 1:47 into the third, was a product of about eight turnovers by the Ottawa Senators. Hard to not give credit to the tenacious Bolts forecheck, but Brian Elliott, Filip Kuba, and Alex Kovalev all made less than desirable decisions in succession, setting up the Moore to Hall finish.

Martin St. Louis' goal at 5:43 turned out to be the real nail in the coffin for an Ottawa team that's had so much trouble scoring as of late. Blocking multiple shots in the defensive end, Ottawa was forcing everything to come from the perimeter, but a Ryan Malone shot that redirected found its way to Steven Stamkos' stick just a few feet out of the crease, and he fed the uncovered Martin St. Louis right against the pipe for the lead.

Ottawa was given a power play in the final minutes to try and even up the score, but Tampa Bay held tight, and Dwayne Roloson earned a huge victory for his Lightning north of the border.

Closing Thoughts

Well, that's two games in a row where the on-ice product was much better, relatively speaking. I think it's pretty safe to say that Cory Clouston and the coaching staff have made all of the adjustments they could possibly make - two one goal losses to the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning are nothing to be upset about, and the effort across the board has been spectacular.

Unfortunately, as mentioned in pretty much every blog this season since Jason Spezza's injury, it all comes down to a talent issue. There simply isn't enough on Ottawa, especially on the offensive end. They've got no one that can step up and pot a key goal when they really need it, and all of their higher end players have decided to have career lows during the same campaign.

To be a little more upbeat, though, let me be the first to tip my cap to both Dwayne Roloson and Brian Elliott, both of whom were brilliant for the majority of the game. While both defensive units played well enough for their team to win the game, Roloson and Elliott made more than a handful of key stops in their own right, creating quite the goaltending duel on HNIC. Roloson was a touch better, which makes you wonder how deadly this Tampa Bay team can be when their offense is clicking.

Sens have a bit of a layoff until their roadie in Boston on Tuesday. I wonder how low the Las Vegas sportsbooks can set the over/under for that tilt? Four? Three? Two?

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