Sens can't handle Sharks' bite, lose 5-2
Sens' hero: Milan Michalek
Michalek clearly wanted to beat his old team, firing six shots on net -- twice as many as any of his teammates. He scored 2 goals, both of them beauties. The first was on a rush from his own end with Jason Spezza clearing him some space, while the second was a quick powerplay goal off a nice pass from Daniel Alfredsson.
Sens' zeroes: Brian Elliott, Anton Volchenkov
Elliott had his worst game of the season, allowing 4 goals (a few of them questionable). After the fourth, it looked like Clouston might throw in backup to the backup Mike Brodeur, but he let Elliott finish the night. Volchenkov clearly still had some rust in his first game back, as he failed to clear the puck on two of San Jose's goals.
Sens killers: Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley
The Sharks' top line was dominant tonight, each of them getting two points (with Marleau scoring on each of them). Heatley played with more heart than he usually does (what I call "International Game Dany Heatley"), showed great hustle and fired off 8 shots (most in the first period). Thornton was, well, Joe Thornton -- he made great passes and was hard to move off the puck.
Good game, rookie: Erik Karlsson
Karlsson didn't have a perfect game (a defensive lapse contributed to the Sharks' second goal), but he had one of his best so far. He was a force to be reckoned with on the powerplay, getting an assist and creating chances with his crisp passes. Sometimes he takes risks that are a bit too big, but when they succeed, they certainly create nice opportunities.
Oh no, not again: Too many men penalty
Ottawa is now second in the league in bench minor penalties, thanks to their seventh tonight. This team needs to learn how to perform a line change.
Telling stat: Faceoffs, 39-22 in favour of the Sharks.
You're not going to win many games when you're completely dominated at the faceoff circle, and it's hard to do much worse than the Sens did tonight. Jason Spezza was the worst with an appalling 27%, while Mike Fisher wasn't much better at 32%.
Surprising stat: Ryan Shannon, +1
None of the Sharks' goals were scored on the powerplay, which makes it kind of amazing that anyone could be a plus player in a 5-2 loss, but Shannon was the Sens' only plus player on the night. In fact, the only other Senator that wasn't a minus player was Ryan Keller who was even (mostly because he barely played).