Senators game thoughts

The difference between Saturday’s game against Ottawa and Thursday’s game against Columbus? On Thursday they won and on Saturday they lost. The way I look at it the play was about the same. Thursday night they found a way to win the game and on Saturday they found a way to the lose the game. The level of play was about the same. They were involved in two sloppy games between comparable teams where goals were going in at both ends and it came down to a few things at the end of the game. A video review and then a shootout on Thursday and an OT goal by a guy who hadn’t scored in more than 100 games on Saturday.

Sure, there were some differences. Three of the goals they gave up Saturday night came on the penalty kill, so that gets a lot of attention. Something always does when they lose. But they did get a point Saturday, so even though they gave up ten goals over two games they found a way to get three points. They are 6-3-1 in their last ten games. They are just four points out of eighth place. That’s the positive.

The negative is they are still a very inconsistent team. They still haven’t been able to string together a good stretch of solid hockey games. But they are finding ways to hang in games, where some part of their game bails them out. Lately it’s been their ability to score some goals thanks primarily to Loui Eriksson and Brad Richards. They are picking up points and keeping pace in the race, but if they continue to play this way they could lose three of five or four of six and take a step back in the standings. They still need to get some consistency in their game. Until they do, it will be more of the ups and downs like we’ve seen so far this season.

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