Ottawa Senators lose 5-0 to Boston Bruins

It was a great night to be a Sens fan. In their last home game of 2017, Erik Burgdoerfer was the OT hero as Marcus Hogberg lifted Belleville to a 3-2 win in his first AHL start.

Then there was Ottawa.

It’s only December, and the games are mattering less and less. The light of the playoffs has faded from a glow to a small speck in the distance, and it showed in their effortless 5-0 catastrophe against the Boston Bruins.

As has become typical with the Sens, there were signs of hope at the beginning, only to have them be torn apart while filling us up with sports-related sadness. They showed pace with the Bruins in the first period, although couldn’t gain any momentum as they kept putting themselves in the penalty box.

The first of Boston’s three power play goals on the night came from Ryan Spooner, who buried a rebound past Mike Condon. The first period ended 1-0 Boston, with the storm waiting right around the corner.

In fact, despite all the bad hockey we’ve seen spewed from this team recently, this second period reached a whole new level of incompetence. As it turns out, rock bottom is actually an endless pit.

• 2-0 Boston: Feeling bad for being hit by Fredrik Claesson, Condon gave Bruins forward Noel Acciari a late Christmas gift. He only had to feather the puck towards the net to make it go in. No fault for Karlsson and Oduya on the play, just outright bad goaltending.
• 3-0 Boston: Ryan Spooner struck again. Ben Harpur attempted to take a shot at the blue line, although it kicked right off Spooner sending him to a breakaway. Condon was beat five hole and the game was put out of reach.
• 4-0 Boston: A power play pileup in front of Condon led to David Krejci netting his sixth goal of the season. Ceci and Phaneuf were both caught on the opposite side of Krejci, leaving him with what was essentially a tap in./

You know that scene in Zootopia with the sloths? Now imagine the sloths in Sens jerseys. That’s the third period in a nutshell.

Neither team was all that engaged — Boston had already won the two points. Disgruntled Sens fans left the CTC early to beat traffic, with even more dashing after Patrice Bergeron made it 5-0 with a tip in front. With a glimmer of hope in yesterday’s win against the Blue Jackets, the Sens put up the opposite effort in the empty loss.

Mark Stone summed it up best when discussing the team’s problems:

“We’re coming to the rink every day and working hard. I don’t think it’s work ethic, I think it’s a little bit of stupidity more than anything — stupidity and frustration. We’ve put ourselves in a terrible spot.”

Biggest Standouts

• One of the rare local players to not play for the Sens, Ryan Spooner’s two goals really sealed the deal for Boston.
• Tuukka Rask didn’t have to work too hard, having to stop only 25 shots for the shutout.
• The other end of the rink was where the meltdown was happening, as Condon looked disinterested, moving much slower than we saw last season.
• Kudos to referee Ian Walsh, who provided tonight’s best entertainment as he still managed to make the penalty call while falling to the ice.
• You know your team is in trouble when a fan throws their jersey on the ice.
• As mentioned at the top of the page, Marcus Hogberg won his first ever AHL start. Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson also scored for Team Canada at the World Juniors. Always look to the prospects for a bit of optimism.
• Game Flow/

Heat Map

Up Next

The Sens kick off the new year with a single game road trip against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.