Smells Like Teen Spirit: Senators 5, Hurricanes 1

The game smelled like something all right last night, but it sure wasn’t teen spirit. The Senators dominated the Hurricanes all game long, right from the opening face off. There’s nothing much to analyze. There’s not much else to report. About 4-5 players in white showed up to play last night, and one of them was a guy who was picked up on waivers last week. It’s a sad state of affairs for Carolina.

To switch things up a bit, I’m just going to throw out some random mini-rants and thoughts….

*The Canes have now lost 4 in a row and 8 of their last 10. They have allowed 19 goals against in the past 4 games.

*Did I hear Rod Brind’Amour correctly during the pregame interview when he said that he didn’t think that they were playing that badly and kind of shrugged his shoulders? Or perhaps he said that they weren’t “far off”? I think maybe that interview and that attitude explains exactly what’s wrong. If the team’s captain and leader is that far out of touch with reality or doesn’t care anymore, then what is anyone else going to do?

*The game opened badly with the Senators practically living in the Hurricanes zone. Bret Hedican took 2 penalties in about 2 minutes time wrapped around a Ray Whitney

*It seemed like the Sens had more shots on goal and opportunities when they were short-handed than the Canes did when they were on the powerplay.
Ottawa scored 3 consecutive goals in less than two and a half minutes in the 2nd period.

*Can you spell “q-u-i-t-t-e-r-s”?

*It seemed like the team was a step slow all night, (especially the defense.)

*Not to dump on Trevor Letowski all the time, but dude…just once try not breaking your stick or falling down when you have an open shot.

*I actually felt sorry for Cam Ward. Have you ever seen so many odd man rushes or break-aways? It seems like every game the Canes allow a ton of them. The Sens had time and space all night long. 

Apparently Jim Rutherford’s well publicized rant fell on deaf ears as far as the team was concerned. Maybe they want a major trade or a shake up?

I’m starting to see some rumblings out there about firing the coach. If some of the team is complacent because they already won the Cup, can you pin all of that on the coach?

If the team tuned him out, then they tuned him out the very first week after winning the Cup because this team has pretty much played the same for the past 2 seasons. There’s been very little passion, urgency, or emotion. Does he get the blame for last year as well?

I’m not sure I’m ready to throw Peter Laviolette under the bus just yet. While I have criticized him from time to time because I think everyone deserves some blame for the current mess and he surely hasn’t been perfect with his decision making, you could blame Jim Rutherford just as easily, couldn’t you?

Rutherford is the one who gave out so many no-trade contracts, and he is stuck with them right now. He’s the one who tempted fate by sticking with this old, slow defensive crew which everyone knew would be questionable this season.

Is Laviolette more to blame, or is Rutherford? More deep thoughts at lunchtime. TGIF!