Senators Playoff Hopes Not Looking Good

Senators In Tampa Bay

Neil Becker

29sports.com

Any faint aspirations of  playoff hockey in Ottawa next month took a major blow on Saturday night when the Senators who are left with no margin of error lost 6-3 to the Atlanta Thrashers.

Having made the post season for 11 straight seasons, the Senators who were in the Stanley Cup finals two years ago have an impressive 15-5-2 record from February 7-March 22, but they have not been able to overcome what was a horrible first few months.

Riding high on a five game winning streak, the Senators who were talking about the possibility of still sneaking into the playoffs lost that swagger when they dropped their contest in Carolina against the Hurricanes on Wednesday. Ottawa who have to virtually run the table by winning their remaining games to entertain any thoughts of post season play followed up the Hurricanes game with a flat 6-3 Saturday night loss against the Thrashers.

“We played a decent first period, made good goals,” Spezza who scored twice against Atlanta said. “We had a horrible second period, and they just outplayed us after that.” 

Heading into Sunday nights game Ottawa is still alive but barely as they are a whopping 12 points out of a playoff spot with only 8 games remaining.

One area that has killed Ottawa this season is their road record which is a disappointing 12-20-4 with one game against the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins remaining on their current six game road trip.  If there is any ray of hope heading into Tampa Bay it’s that the Senators have taken two out of three games against them this season.

The Lightning who have been eliminated from the playoff picture have lost six of their past seven home games.

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