The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Perhaps I should be worried. Perhaps I should be proclaiming the sky is falling while hiding in my nuclear fallout shelter. Hey, six losses in a row for my Sens...can't get much worse than that. If they lose the next one, they'll equal a seven game losing streak that occurred back in 1996, the first year Jacques Martin was the coach. That is definitely an eye-opener to consider.

But, perhaps because I'm a little battle-hardened after last year's disastrous slow start where the Sens didn't even hit the .500 mark until December, I'm not calling for the team to be blown up or for management to be fired. It certainly helps the team is still in 1st place in the East while this losing streak is happening. But to me there is just too much talent on this squad to make me think they'll continue losing and be a bottom-of-the-barrel team in the NHL.

I'm going to ask if there's anyone out there who still thinks the Sens should trade Emery and have Gerber be the man? Guess what, Razor will get the start Tuesday and if he wins that game, there is no question Gerber is going to be riding the pine the next little while. (Imagine that: a guy who has wrist surgery & misses most of training camp isn't playing to 100%!). Gerber, who I thought might be an all-star candidate, has been absolutely brutal and has let in too many pucks he should have stopped. It's time for Emery to show he's the same guy that brought the team to the Stanley Cup final.

What's killing this team isn't the play of their top line of Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. They're still scoring and keeping opponents on their heels (kind of amazing during this slump that Heater actually leads the NHL in plus/minus). Their secondary lines and defence have been pretty bad. I can't recall a time before where I've said, "Hey, Mike Fisher is playing horribly." He usually brings it every night, but he's been invisible lately. And the turnovers served up by Ottawa's D have been quite amazing. The lowlight was definitely Meszaros' play that had him kick the puck in his own net against Nashville; that guy needs to get better.

I'm confident though, they'll get out of their rut and they should be able to come out on top against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. But the bleeding needs to stop...I'm getting sick of my team losing.