Stop booing Zdeno Chara every time Boston comes to town. There's no reason to. Ottawa made a decision to go with Wade Redden instead. Chara went somewhere he was wanted, somewhere he could grow into a leadership role.
You can't blame Chara for Redden's lack of performance.
Booing Chara makes the city look like it is populated by a bunch of ignorant hicks.
Just. Stop. Doing it. Thanks.
That said, let's again pretend the first period didn't happen on Tuesday. Letting the Boston players set up camp totally unchallenged in front of Elliot was inexcusable. The Boston players had a good, leisurely look at every incoming shot and inevitable rebound, and the resulting chaotic scramble was always going to end badly for the Senators. I don't think Elliot was totally blameless, but I think that nothing short of a miracle worker could have prevented them.
At the Boston end, their defenders kept pushing the Senators to the edges of their zone, and gave up only a few real opportunities, with Thomas being adequate to the challenge most of those times.
For the second and third periods, the Senators played tighter, but one never got the feeling that Boston was in any serious danger of being challenged.
Kovalev was one bright spot on Tuesday. While I am not a fan of this "flip the puck into the goaltender's pads" that he has been doing in response to "put the puck on the net" exhortations that everyone is fond of making, Kovalev made a few opportunities happen, one of which resulted in Kuba's goal. On a night when few Senators stepped up, Kovalev continued his improved play.
I've been waiting for the shoe to drop on this Senators team. Their run since Alfredsson's injury has been nothing short of incredible, but with Spezza gone Michalek is misfiring, and while you could say Alfredsson's leadership isn't being totally missed, it goes without saying that things would be better with him.
Things don't get any easier for this team -- Washington is next on Thursday. I'm not hopeful. Florida visits on Saturday. That one could go either way. But in the short term, things are going to get challenging for the Senators, and they need to be producing a little better effort on the ice than they did during the first on Tuesday.
(And then I watched the Juniors OT. I'm just everyone's lucky charm tonight, aren't I.)
