That was the difference between the Senators being 4 points back with 2 teams to pass and where they are now, 5 points back with 3 teams to pass in order to make the playoffs.
It was a tall order to begin with, but the door was kept open ajar with the Penguins and Red Wings both losing, but the Senators couldn't maximize the return and gained just 1 point instead of a desperately needed 2.
For the second time this season, Jeff Skinner played the role of villain as he scored in the dying seconds to force overtime. Earlier in the season, it was with about 3.5 seconds left, and this time he cut it even closer as he put a shot past Andrew Hammond with just .2 seconds left on the clock and the Senators went on to lose in the shootout.
Both Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman had opportunities to ice the game with the Carolina net empty, but both were wide left and it came back to haunt them.
But it shouldn't have been that close. Andrew Hammond allowed a couple of weak goals, first to Jeff Skinner after he misplayed a puck at his feet and the puck squirted to Skinner in the slot who had the empty cage. Then, the shorthanded marker by Jay McClement that slipped through Hammond from a bad angle.
These came after Ottawa had taken a 2-0 first period lead and had one of their best starts to a game in recent memory. The problem was that they had little follow up and let the Canes stay in the game with a let-down second period and then managed just 3 shots on goal in the third as they unsuccessfully tried to nurse the one goal lead, usually a recipe for disaster but one they almost got away with.
But almost doesn't generate points in the standings and the Senators have left some readily available points on the table with their inability to cash in on shootouts. After the 10 straight misses against the Blues last week, the Senators went just 1 for 4 this time around in a game that the Senators couldn't afford to drop.
So the already miniscule playoff hopes took another blow, and there is absolutely zero margin for error and it would probably take running the table to make it now.
And the much spotlighted Mike Hoffman played the 4th most ice time among the forwards, after the top line of Pageau, Stone and Smith. He had a great rush in the opening moments of the game, but didn't do much offensively after that and unfortunately for him was stuck in no-mans land as the tying goal went in.
Stone and Ryan Dzingel put the Sens on the board in the first, and Zack Smith scored a shorthanded marker on a nice rush (but a shot that Cam Ward would like to have back) to allow the Senators to re-take the lead late in the second.
It wasn't a goaltending clinic by either team and the fact that Ottawa only got 24 shots through on a struggling Ward was a big reason why they fell short and couldn't get the insurance marker the ended up needing.
With 14 games to go, there are 28 points available to the Senators. The consensus is that it will take 95 or 96 points to get into the playoffs so that means they need 25 or 26 of those 28 points. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out those odds, and even Lloyd Christmas wouldn't believe that is much of a chance.
Not much of one, but I made my call on that after the loss to Tampa Bay.
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