Senators Keep Streaking; Handle Penguins, 4-1

Pittsburgh Penguin fans know what it's like to watch their team when it's clicking on all cylinders.

And that's why the Penguins' 4-1 defeat to the Ottawa Senators last night at Mellon Arena can't be entirely surprising.

The Senators came into the game streaking, winners of 7 in a row, and showed why on the Igloo ice in methodically dispatching the home team.

Ottawa was aggressive, sound, and smooth in almost every facet of their game. They controlled the play most of the evening, got solid if not unspectacular goaltending, didn't take many penalties, limited Pittsburgh's scoring chances, and capitalized on their own.

Add it all up and, other than Evgeni Malkin's sweet, top-shelf, short-side goal to open the scoring just a few minutes into the contest, and there simply wasn't a whole lot to write home about for the Penguins in this one.

Pens' center and Captain Sidney Crosby -- a non-factor much of the night -- summed things up well after the game:

"We didn't really play hard enough tonight," he said. "We weren't really tough enough to play against."

Yep, that's about the size of it.

While Malkin was the only Penguin to tally against Senators' netminder Brian Elliott, Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly, Jason Spezza and Nick Foligno all beat Marc-Andre Fleury, who didn't have his best game.

Kelly got a freebee on a puck that squeaked through Fleury's arm and just laid there in the crease for a tap-in during the first period, while Speeza and Foligno didn't score the prettiest of goals in the 3rd when the game was still up in the air either.

So, while the Senators have now won 8 straight and have moved to within 3 points of the 4th place Penguins in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins must look ahead to their Sunday afternoon, nationally-televised Stanley Cup Finals rematch at Mellon with the Detroit Red Wings.

The Red Wings have been awful lately. They've lost 6 of their last 7 and earlier this week, blew a 2 goal lead in the last 90 seconds of a game at home against Phoenix, only to then go on and lose it to the 'Yotes in overtime.

The night after that, they lost to the Minnesota Wild.

Tonight, they face a challenging Predators squad, so their losing streak could easily continue.

However, despite the Red Wings being 27th overall in the league in goals scored and being squarely on the playoff bubble in the Western Conference, the Penguins should not take them lightly.

Detroit will certainly be up for the game and the Penguins will have to be ready. Pittsburgh should look to get back on the winning side of the ledger quickly -- and not just because they play back-to-back the next night against a tough Buffalo Sabres team.

More over the weekend.


NOTES:

As expected, defenseman Alex Goligoski and forward Eric Godard didn't play against Ottawa last night. While GoGo is said to be day-to-day, Head Coach Dan Bylsma announced yesterday that Godard had a meaningful groin injury and would be out at least 4-6 weeks.

While Godard is still being evaluated, there seems to be some concern within the organization that the injury could require surgery and, in that event, might sideline the Penguins' enforcer for a further extended period -- perhaps even the season.

Meanwhile, RW Tyler Kennedy also didn't play last night. He's day-to-day with an undisclosed injury as well.

Max Talbot did return to the lineup after missing 3 games with a groin problem, as did RW Bill Guerin, but because of TK's unexpected absence, the Penguins had to recall RW Nick Johnson from Wilkes-Barre again. He played with Malkin once more and assisted on Geno's first period tally.

I wouldn't at all be surprised to hear that both Johnson and Chris Conner -- recalled the day before -- get sent back down to the AHL today, again for salary cap reasons.