Six goals surrendered, six of seven games lost

By all measuring sticks Thursday was perhaps the ugliest loss yet in the Senators current losing skid. As the Nashville Predators took two points out of Scotiabank Place with a last minute flourish of shots and a 6-5 victory. A nice little celebration for the Preds who found out today that Gary Bettman and the twenty nine other owners gave the official thumbs up to their sale.

The Sens who normally are the team filling the net found themselves playing from behind all night long, in the end losing their sixth of seven games with mere seconds to go.

The Senators who gave up the most goals so far this season, had battled back to tie the game heading into the last half minute of play, only to watch Martin Erat lay ruin to their comeback with the go ahead and winning goal with but twenty two seconds left to play, it was Nashville’s sixth goal on 29 shots directed at Martin Gerber, who like Ray Emery before him is continuing to struggle between the pipes.

Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson seems to at least understand the Sens problems as he suggested that the Senators were finding ways to lose where we found ways to win before.

The last six or seven games have been a puzzling display for the Sens, who seem to have not only lost their scoring touch but have neglected their defensive responsibilities and suffered from inconsistent goaltending from both of their keepers.

With the win Nashville has begun the first incursion into Eastern Canada since 2004, they next play in Montreal on Saturday and then it’s on to Toronto on Tuesday. The Senators entertain the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon for their next match, a game that will be played with a fair amount of desperation to shake the lethargic ways of the last six.

From a 15 and 2 start to the season, suddenly the Sens have given back almost half of those wins in a November slide to remember.

As they head into the December portion of the schedule much like Santa they’ll be checking their line up lists and seeing who has been naughty and who’s been nice. No doubt hopeful that the naughtiest of Sens get back on track, lest there be more servings of coal left in their stockings by the end of the month.

Ottawa Sun--Sens drop fifth straight to Preds
Ottawa Citizen--Sloppy Senators drop fifth straight