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Friday, November 19, 1999
Shaken by Sharks
Senators' offence can't finish off chances; defeat 'hurts'
CENTRE Shaun Van Allen left the rink with a battle scar as the result of a high stick last night. The rest of the Senators were suffering from bruised egos.
"That hurts," said defenceman Jason York.
Sure does.
There was no panic in the voices of the Senators as they talked about their disappointing 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks in front of 16,976 at the Corel Centre, but this loss was cause for concern.
For 53 minutes, the Senators outplayed the Sharks, but in what looked like a replay of their 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes 24 hours earlier, Ottawa players simply couldn't score. And, that's getting frustrating.
"We've got to get back to playing our game and capitalizing on our chances," said winger Rob Zamuner. "I don't know if we played that bad, but we had lots of chances and we just couldn't put the puck in the net.
"Sometimes when that happens you have to go back to the simple things. You don't try to score the fancy goals. Instead, we've got to go to the front of the net for rebounds and try to make things happen that way. It's frustrating when you're not scoring."
The Senators added another name to the injury list with the loss of tough guy Andre Roy to a knee problem in the second period. After suffering the injury, he attempted to take another shift, but didn't return.
In three of their last four losses the Senators have scored only three goals, and that's not good enough to beat anybody.
You can give credit to San Jose goaltender Mike Vernon, but this loss was a clear indication what can happen to the Senators if their work ethic slips.
In the last seven minutes, the Sharks ran away.
"It was ugly at the end," admitted winger Kevin Dineen, who scored his first goal in an Ottawa uniform at 5:19 of the first period.
"We just let it get away from us. We were trying to score to get back into the game and we just couldn't get the puck past Mike Vernon. We had some great chances, I think our effort just has to be a little more consistent. We didn't have the same kind of effort we usually do."
That was particularly evident on the power play. The Senators went 0-for-4 with the man advantage and committed a cardinal sin when they allowed San Jose's Marco Sturm to score the winner shorthanded.
That turned out to be the difference. Especially when the Senators had been pressing only moments before Sturm's fourth of the season with four minutes left in the second period.
Upset with the loss, Senators coach Jacques Martin tried to point the finger at referee Dan O'Halloran.
"It just seemed like when we got behind, they stopped calling the holding penalties," said Martin. "I guess that's the way the game is going to be played."
Martin's complaints fell on deaf ears and the way the Senators' power play performed, it may not have made much of a difference.
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