There's a lot of reasons you could point to for the Senators 5-2 loss against Tampa Bay. The ice was awful - it really was. They're playing back-to-back games. They're without their prime goalie, without Spezza, without Volchenkov. Find all the reasons you want, the Senators were out-played, out-fought, out-shot and out-scored. The defense was soft and lost way too many battlles in its own zone, especially behind the net.



Off sick

Pascal Leclaire is still laid out with the flu, which meant Brian Elliott stood in for him. While Elliott was good, you can see the difference in agility and speed between the two, Jason Spezza is off with a nagging back injury, something that seems to be resurfacing since 2007. Ryan Shannon got a chance to play because of Spezza's condition, also making room for Shean Donovan to step in. Antan Volchenkov is out for 3 weeks with an elbow injury. With Karlsson in Bingo for the rest of the year, Brian Lee was called up and picked up an assist on the Kovalev goal. Word is also going around that players are feeling a little sick these days. Let's hope it's just the switch to the heat and humidity of Florida where it was 31 degrees today.

Whoa!

The 4th line made things happen again. Did anyone notice the quality of play of both Chris Kelly and Jarkko Ruutu? Ruutu was all over the ice and, once again, a complete package. He got his 4th goal of the year on a blistering shot from the upper slot to rob Mike Smith of his shutout. Ruutu stands fourth on the Senators scoresheet. He also got into a real humdinger with Downie. Kelly was awesome, playing with spirit and speed, and attacking the net hard. He put five of the Sens' 23 shots on goal. While he picked up an assist on the Ruutu goal, Kelly deserved much better.