The All-Star break can't come soon enough for the reeling Ottawa Senators.

Just two more games until a much needed full week off to reset and refocus.

The inevitable came true as the mountain of reasons why the Sens weren't going to win Friday night against the New York Islanders were fulfilled and the team simply ran out of gas.

They shot themselves in the foot early on, taking three first period penalties, the first of which resulted in Nick Leddy's power play marker that meant the Senators gave up the first goal for the 33rd time in 48 games, the most in the league.

Ottawa took the lead briefly in the second, after goals from Bobby Ryan and Erik Karlsson, but that was very short-lived as Cal Clutterbuck tied it back up just 17 seconds after Ottawa took the lead.

Tied going into the third, the isles scored three straight while Ottawa managed just 4 shots on Jaroslav Halak in the period, obviously with little left in the tank after throwing everything they could on net in the second.


One of those third period shots was from Mark Stone, who made a great move to get in alone, had Halak beat with a deke and had 24 square feet of net to slide it home only to be foiled when Halak pulled it off the goal line with his glove. Such is the almost inexplicable struggle of the guy who has a gorilla on the back of the elephant that is sitting on the piano that sits on Stone's back.

More bad news on the injury front, as the already paper thin left side took another hit when Milan Michalek re-broke his finger blocking another shot. He missed about 5 weeks earlier this season with the injury so that is not the news the Senators needed right now.

Erik Karlsson reached the 10 goal and 50 point mark, but he can only do so much as the rest of the defense corps plays vastly out of position without Marc Methot.

Now is probably time (if it isn't already too late) for one of those closed door player's only meetings where they can air all of their grievances and then move on. This is a young team that doesn't really have an abundance of veteran leadership, but someone has to slam the door, take control and be the a-hole that makes each player look at themselves in the mirror and be accountable, not to the coaches or the fans, but to themselves and each other.

Dave Cameron can't lose his marbles every night or it becomes old quickly, the answer has to come from within.

The Sens have another Saturday off, their 4th in the last 6 weeks, ahead of tomorrow afternoon's game against the Rangers and then Tuesday's match with the Sabres which will send them to the break.

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