Sens fall 2-0 to Bruins, haven't scored in 137:10

Tonight felt demoralizing. The Sens actually got a stellar goaltending performance from Anton Forsberg, who made 24 saves, but allowed a solitary goal, which was one more goal than the Sens could score. Joonas Korpisalo continued the trend of ex-Sens goalies burning their former team, making 29 saves in the shutout. On a night where they should've got something out of the game, they couldn't muster any offence. Morgan Geekie scored the game winner, and David Pastrnak iced it with an empty netter.

We knew before the game started that Josh Norris wasn't in the lineup, possibly with concussion concerns, but David Perron was back for just his tenth game of the season. Just before the game started, we found out that Jake Sanderson's "maintenance day" was translating to the game itself, so Donovan Sebrango was thrust into action for the second time in his NHL career. The first period started with the Sens a little asleep to start the game, but thankfully Anton Forsberg wasn't. He made a few key stops. The refs also seemed to be asleep, missing a couple obvious penalties, including a barehand choke by Brad Marchand on Nick Cousins. Finally, the refs started calling a couple Bruins penalties, and the Sens started getting shots on goal. Still, the first ended 0-0.

The second opened with the Bruins getting on the board just 2 minutes in. David Pastrnak was a little too much for Drake Batherson to handle, and after a lengthy cycle, he set Morgan Geekie up for a cross-crease tap-in. This goal was really benefited by Sebrango's lack of experience. He and Zub were confused on their net-front coverage, and even mess up a clearing attempt earlier in the cycle. I think there's no way that was a goal with Sanderson in the lineup and the partners being comfortable with each other. That also did it for scoring in the second. The Bruins got a few cross-crease passes, but Forsberg remained sharp and shut them all down. It gave the Sens a chance to win it entering the third. As the cliches say, they just needed one shot to go in.

Ottawa still wasn't really pushing for the goal in the third. Through the first half of the period, their best chance came shorthanded, when Tyler Kleven's shot went through Joonas Korpisalo's glove but hit the crossbar. Ottawa got a powerplay around the 10-minute mark, and scored early, but Eric Furlatt forgot to put in his contact lenses and didn't see a loose puck in behind Korpisalo and blew play dead despite the puck being clearly loose. Just an awful break for a team that could've used one going their way offensively. Just after though, Patrick Brown backhanded a puck straight over the glass, giving the Sens 32 seconds of 5-on-3. But the Sens' powerplay is stymied so of course they didn't score or even generate anything resembling a good chance (other than the missed goal). Bad news got even worse as Nick Jensen left the Sens' bench before the last TV timeout and wouldn't return.

In the final 5, Anton Forsberg got called on to make two big saves, first on Brad Marchand who made a power move to get in alone, then against Pavel Zacha who got, guess what, a cross-crease one-timer. Ottawa pulled the goalie with 2 minutes left and started getting some chances, but it was starting to feel like too little, too late. Ottawa cycled and cycled and tried some pinball chances, hoping to just bounce it in from the point, but couldn't score. With a handful of seconds left, Thomas Chabot made a pass that David Pastrnak picked off and skated up the empty net. Sens fell 2-0, and the shutout streak is now at 137:10. Maybe even more offensively, Joonas Korpisalo got a shutout for the Bruins. Sens are back in action on Saturday, 7 pm at home against the Leafs.

Game Thoughts:

• This team is way too talented to got 130+ minutes without scoring a goal. I'm not sure what's up. The team was banged up, but even without Norris and Sanderson, this team should have scoring ability. It's like they can't have offence and defence at the same time.
• Ottawa's PK continues to look really strong. Greig/Pinto are a great forward duo, and Matthew Highmore has fit in nicely.
• Anton Forsberg deserved better. Poor guy gets no goal support when he actually puts up a great game.
• Brady Tkachuk is having too many games he lets his frustration get the better of him this year. Tonight, it was third-pairing defenceman Nikita Zadorov who was in Brady's head. Sens need him scoring. He did have 6 shots, so he was clearly doing something right. The rest of the team's top forwards also need to get things going, I just think the captain bears a little more responsibility than the rest of the team by virtue of his position.
• Tonight reminded us that Thomas Chabot plays better when he isn't forced into 29 minutes. We need Jake Sanderson back.
• Korpisalo had several pucks leak through him but was saved by posts, trickling wide, etc. Every damn one of those was a goal last season.

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