Sens (Somehow) Find A Way To Lose Against Islanders
Getting real tired of moral victories
What else did you expect?
The Sens went into tonight’s home tilt against the Islanders with a chance to truly right the ship after once again plummeting to the bottom of the standings in the month of November. On a two game winning streak, facing a pretty bad opponent, they should have been able to win. A win would have been a real “we’re so back” moment. So of course they didn’t win.
Given recent history, I fully expected this to be a boring game. The Islanders are a boring team. Games against them are always boring. The Sens made sure to prove me wrong on the very first shift. Shane Pinto didn’t score, but he hit the post, and the Sens almost scored on the rebound too. You love to see it!
It didn’t take long for Adam Gaudette to continue his goalscoring streak and put the Sens up by one. The goal was a real team effort, with Stützle doing most of the work to create the scoring chance, Gregor carrying the puck to the net, and Gaudette finishing it off. Beautiful work. 1-0 Ottawa.
A GSG goal in every sense of the term 👊#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/uYHWPdSc6g
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 8, 2024
Ottawa absolutely dominated the start of the game, to the point where it was difficult to tell if the Islanders were just that bad or if the Sens had completely hit a new level. It was a nice change of pace after watching so many slow starts.
Naturally, the Islanders were up by one by the fifteen minute mark.
What even happened? Giroux took a penalty. The worst powerplay in the league chose this moment to work. Then the Sens did a little defensive breakdown. 2 goals on 2 shots. Nothing new. 2-1 Islanders.
Ottawa got a powerplay of their own right at the end of the period. It carried over into the second frame, when one Joshua MF Norris tied the game from his spot on the right circle. That’s another assist for Stützle, by the way. 2-2.
Just Newf doing Newf things 🙌#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/ln5YfEcKB9
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 8, 2024
Just like with the first period, Ottawa started the second really well, not even allowing any shots for the first seven minutes. It was looking like a very winnable game, but they needed to score.
They didn’t.
They continued to control the play, and didn’t give up any more good chances, but the score remained tied.
The third period brought even more of the same. The Sens were far and away the better team. They got scoring chance after scoring chance after scoring chance. So, naturally, what do you think happened?
If you guessed that the Islanders’ league-worst powerplay scored yet another goal, congrats on being so traumatized by this team that you can predict every outcome! It was all thanks to a pretty bad penalty by Norris.
The goal was scored early enough in the third period to give the Sens enough time to get a goal back, but if you think they scored with their own net empty, you clearly haven’t been watching them for the past 3 years. Good for you!
3-2 Islanders.
They gave up an empty netter and found a way to lose. 4-2 Islanders was the final score.
The most frustrating outcome for a mostly good game. I hate moral victories.
Game Notes
- Tim Stützle is so consistently good these days that it almost doesn't need to be said, but somehow he was even better than usual tonight. Just. Wow.
- Not Forsberg's best game.
- Not Hamonic's best game, either. I'm not going to nitpick the defense when the team generally played an incredibly good game and got unlucky, but those defensive breakdowns did happen.
