Ottawa Senators collapse in 5-0 loss to the Boston Bruins

The Ottawa Senators started strong and then faded badly. The Senators had many chances and outshot the Bruins 15-5 in the first period but unfortunately as many teams have found out, it is pretty hard to score on Tuuka Rask. Over the final two periods, the Bruins outshot the Senators 37-18 and outscored them 5-0. This was Ottawa's ninth consecutive loss in games following a win, and seven of those losses have been by at least three goals.

There isn't a whole lot to say about this one. Things looked promising and even though the Bruins started carrying play in the second period, Ottawa was able to cling on thanks to some help from the goalposts as well as excellent goaltending from Robin Lehner. It was still a 0-0 game late in the second period until Jared Cowen was called for high-sticking. The Bruins scored on the ensuing power play and things crumbled from there onwards.

Early in the third period, Lehner stopped a breakaway but the Bruins scored a few seconds later to make it 2-0. At this point Chris Neil had played 10:54 while Bobby Ryan had just 9:53 of ice time. The Senators were not going to come back at this point, so the collapse afterwards hurt only in optics rather than in the standings. But collapse they did. Ottawa just stopped defending and the Bruins didn't let up, scoring three more goals to win 5-0.

Sens zero: Paul MacLean
Colin Greening led all forwards with 17:35 of ice time. Zack Smith played 16:39. Bobby Ryan played 14:12. Kyle Turris played 15:16. The Senators aren't a perfect team, but the coach's absurd decisions are the biggest problems facing the team right now.

Other notes

• After the first period, the Senators were dominating the Bruins while the Leafs were losing 2-0 at home to Buffalo. It appeared the Senators might close the gap to two points. At the end of the night, Ottawa lost in regulation and the Leafs are up 3-2 at the time of writing.
• Tomorrow's game will mark the halfway point of the season with the Senators still on 37 points.
• Regardless of what happens tomorrow, the Senators will have two winning streaks in the first half of the season. One was two games, one was three games. Amazing. There have now been seven weeks since the last winning streak.
• The way the rest of the east is playing, one gets the sense the team is just one big winning streak away from making it. It gives the fan's hope, but the team just isn't capable of taking that step right now./

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