About Last Night: Habs completely stink against the Sens

The Senators extended their winning streak against the Canadiens to seven with a 6-2 victory.

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The Ottawa Senators are having a nightmare season, but they likely put a smile on new owner Michael Andlauer’s face by pounding the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.

Last night was the seventh straight win for the Sens against the Habs, while Montreal had their two-game winning streak snapped.

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Tim Stützle continued to be a thorn in Montreal’s side with three points to lead the way on offence for his club.

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The loss doesn’t fall entirely on netminder Cayden Primeau, but he had a rough evening, with five goals allowed on 37 shots.

Brady Tkachuk opened scoring on a shift that began with a big hit on Mike Matheson, followed by Sean Monahan hitting the post at the other end. Tkachuk got the last laugh to make it 1-0.

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Less than three minutes later, Stützle raced in and beat Primeau blocker side to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

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Cole Caufield then extended his goal scoring streak to four games to halve Ottawa’s lead to 2-1.

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At the end of the first period, Michael Pezzetta tried to rally the troops by dropping the gloves with heavyweight Zack MacEwen.

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Montreal escaped the first period only down a goal, but they got outshot 17-6. It only went downhill from there. Ottawa scored two unanswered goals in the second period, starting with Rourke Chartier pouncing on a rebound in front by Primeau.

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With a minute left in the second, Vladimir Tarasenko’s shot seemed to be an easy glove save for Primeau, but it sailed right by him to make it 4-1 Sens. Ottawa thought they had another one shorthanded after that, but coach Martin St. Louis won his challenge that Primeau was interfered with on the play.

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It took all of 1:41 in the third period for the Senators to get their fifth goal. Stützle undressed the Habs defence before setting up Mathieu Joseph with the 5-1 marker.

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Coach St. Louis pulled Primeau with just under eight minutes left to spur some offence, or keep his team from checking out, and they responded by almost immediately giving up an empty-net goal to Parker Kelly. 6-1 Sens.

Pezzetta scored with time winding down to put himself just an assist away from a Gordie Howe hat trick.

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The game ended 6-2, continuing Montreal’s streak of futility against their division rival. Ottawa remains behind them in the standings, but their goal differential suggests they deserve a better fate. Not surprisingly, most of the Habs were in the negative on the defensive side of things, according to Hockey Stat Cards:

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The goodwill built up by their regulation wins against the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils this week partially evaporated in the liveblog comments last night. The commenters again saw the Habs deliver a turkey against a lesser team after playing up to better opponents. Why does this keep happening? Why so maddeningly inconsistent? How can St. Louis get his squad pumped to play in Kanata, where they seem to find little success? They’ll need to bring their A game on Saturday when they take on the division leading Bruins.

3. “Three good goaltender performances in a row. The rest of the team were only really worthy in the last one.” — T Moore

2. “We take far too long to move the puck or shoot. Eventually we are forced into a high-risk pass and any pressure and opportunity we had evaporates.” — Derek Stevens

1. “Three really good games in a row caught up to them tonight. Feeble, tired effort, or lack thereof, by the whole team. Some nights just nothing works. Not blaming Primeau at all, but I think if you ask him, he would like to do this one over. Consistency, can’t get too high and you can’t get too low. Just put this one behind them and move on.” — Doug Kirkby

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