First off, for the latest Sens updates, please follow me on Twitter at
Follow @KevinFr65525204
Give me a Twitter follow, I will give you a follow too!

Momentum swings, lead changes, endless scoring, and poor defense/goaltending by both teams resulted in a 7-5 Washington win over Ottawa on a rainy Monday night in the Nation's Capital. Ottawa jumped out to an early 1-0 lead but then the Caps responded with 4 unanswered goals chasing Anton Forsberg from the net before the first period ended. Forsberg can't be faulted for all four goals but he definitely could've helped his team much more with his positioning in the net as he gave the Caps skilled players too much net to shoot at.

Filip Gustavsson faired better in goal and definitely earned himself the next start in goal on Friday night in Dallas. He gave his team a lift when the game could've got out of hand and it allowed Ottawa to score 3 unanswered goals in the 2nd period to tie it up at four. The problem was, the Caps fought back and scored two quick goals to end the 2nd period with the last one being rather weak and putting the Sens in a tough spot going into the 3rd period.

It looked like Ottawa was going to mount another comeback when Drake Batherson scored his third of the game, recording his first career hat trick to make the deficit 6-5 but the Caps yet again regained that two-goal lead.

When looking at the positives of this game, Ottawa had a great night in the faceoff circle winning 62% and it was no coincidence that the Sens weren't chasing the play as they have on previous nights when they were abysmal in the dot. This was Thomas Chabot's best game so far this year, creating numerous chances offensively and his gap control was the best it's been in a while. His defense partner Artem Zub was terrific too in all aspects of the game, he just continues to be so steady and calm on that blueline.

it was nice to see Ottawa score five goals at even strength as they only had six of those in the first 5 games. The only Sens players who came out on the plus side of tonight's game were the top line of Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson and the top defense pairing of Chabot/Zub.

Every other Sens player found themselves on the minus side of the scoresheet. Sadly, 6 players had a dash three on the night but half of them came on defense as Brown/Zaitsev/Holden struggled all game long, and Mete was a minus two. Holden had been very solid in the first five games of the season but nothing has changed with the rest of the Sens defense. After listening to DJ Smith after the game, you know changes are coming on the blueline. The problem is, there are few answers that can fix the defensive zone coverage that continues to ail this team. Brown had four giveaways and a few of those led directly to the Caps filling the net. I guess Michael Del Zotto will get a shot to step back in, but I think the coach needs to send a strong message to Zaitsev and make him a healthy scratch. He has been given the most rope of any player on this team by DJ Smith and heck why not call up Erik Brannstrom and let him play with Nick Holden?! What does the coaching staff have to lose at this point?!

One aspect that not many fans haven't talked about is the play of Connor Brown and Nick Paul. Nobody can question their commitment or effort but with both players getting more ice-time this year, I have found that duo isn't as effective as they have been in the past on the PK. Brown is getting upwards of 4-5 minutes more ice than he did last year while Paul is in the 3-4 minute range of extra ice. They were both on the minus side coming into tonight, but after they both put up a dash three against the Caps one has to wonder if the increased minutes have hurt their effectiveness on the PK. Ottawa was top three in SHG last season, this year the PK is currently 23rd in the league and they haven't been game-changers on the PK like they have been the last two years. It will be interesting to see how the increased ice affects both players. Sadly, it's another reason why this team so desperately needs another top 6 forward so the bottom 6 forwards can help out the secondary scoring.

Lastly, a much better home crowd than the last 2 home games with almost 12,000 in attendance. It was definitely a much louder crowd tonight than it has been for the first few home games of the season.

***New Sens Ticket Contest will be posted on Wednesday**

Thanks for reading and I look forward to a lively discussion in the comment section of the blog.
Kevin

Join the Discussion: » 31 Comments » Post New Comment

» Which player has exceeded expectations so far this season?!

» The Sens are in the playoff conversation to start 2023!!!!

» Sens set for critical back to back home games!

» Sens Gameday/More injuries/Sale of team

» Sens Gameday in Dallas/Dorion tried very hard to trade Formenton!