Ottawa feels more like Florida

Streak Continues as Caps Drop Their Sixth Consecutive Road Game, And Lose Defenseman Mike Green
Ottawa Senators 5, Washington Capitals 2
Boxscore

A new climate nor a new country could snap the Capitals out of their current slide as they brought their sloppy play with them from Florida. The Caps kept pace with the swift footed Senators for most of the game, but suffered from mental lapses that led to Ottawa's goals.
Brent Johnson was solid at times keeping the game from getting out of hand, but allowed a couple soft goals in key situations. With the Caps trailing 1-0, Johnson seemed to freeze the puck following a routine save, but the puck would never find his glove and squeezed through his pads to a waiting Mike Comrie who slammed the gift home for the 2-0 lead. The other soft goal occurred midway through the second period with an assist from an unlucky bounce off the Scotiabank Palace end boards right into the front of the Caps net where Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson converted for the short-handed goal, and a 3-1 lead. The newly aquired center Comrie would then put the game out reach a minute later scoring on a wrist shot for his second of the game and the 4-1 lead.
The Capitals' highlights of the game came from Steve Eminger who recorded his first goal of the season, snapping a 41 game goal scoring drought dating back to last season, on a nice hustle play from Boyd Gordon. Alex Ovechkin also got credited with an assist on the play extending his goal scoring streak to 7 games. Earlier in the game Chris Clark scored his 17th goal of the season on a short-handed goal at the end of the first period that pulled the Caps to within one 2-1.
The news got even worse for the Caps after the game as they learned that Mike Green could soon join fellow defenseman John Erskine and Bryan Muir on the injured reserve list pending the results of the x-rays taken on his left leg. Green was injured while blocking a shot towards the end of the first period. He hobbled to the bench, then even returned for a shift at the beginning of the second period before leaving the game for good. The injury could not come at a worse time for the Caps who are thin on defense to begin with. Now they could be looking at calling up another defenseman before Thursday night's game at Carolina. In all likely hood that man would be Jeff Schultz who made his NHL debut earlier in the season with the Caps.