Good day from beautiful downtown Sunrise where the weather is spectacular even if the hockey may not be.
Yeah, the first-place Senators are in town, fresh off their seventh straight loss last night in Tampa. The Panthers are only riding a two-game losing streak, but didn't do a whole lot in their previous game, and if recent history gives any clue, I wouldn't be betting on Florida tonight.
First, the Panthers don't match up very well against the Senators. They just don't. Secondly, can you remember a time a team played the Panthers with a lengthy losing streak going and didn't snap it against Florida? Earlier this year, Tampa was riding a six-game losing streak. Then came the Panthers. I have no stats to back me up, but I can't remember the last time Florida continued a team's misery. They just don't seem to have it in them.
-- According to the Ottawa guys, Ray Emery gets another start tonight. Emery made 25 saves in last night's shootout loss at Tampa.
-- Also, the NHL doesn't consider Ottawa's losing stretch an official losing streak. The rationale: Two of those losses came in a shootout. Last time Sens lost this many consecutive game was in the franchise's fourth season.
We also extended Tampa's losing streak to 6 games before losing to them 2 nights later. I can understand that, I don't expect the Panthers to extend a team's losing streak twice within 2 days, that isn't likely for any NHL team. Tonight is a different scenario coming off 2 horrible outings and the Sens played last night (i know that's what everyone said about Washingston), but this team will hopefully learn from their mistakes and get it together. Tonight's game is ours to lose.
Posted by: Monts | December 05, 2007 at 04:29 PM