Called out Sens Clearly Didn’t Listen to Their Boss

Hal Gill takes out Alex Kovalev during Montreal’s 4-1 win over Ottawa - Reuters

The Ottawa Senators fired 46 shots at Jaroslav Halak on Tuesday night, one went in during the Canadiens 4-1 victory.

On Sunday, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk called out his superstars, though not naming names.

"It's obvious what we need," Melnyk said Sunday. "The elite players have to start to play their best. Once they do that, I think we can be as competitive as ever. Hopefully that happens fairly quickly and we're back to where we were at the start of the season."

Jason Spezza and Alex Kovalev are clearly two of the elite players that he is referring to.

It's the whole group," Melnyk continued. "Some show up some nights and some don't. It's the elite players, that's basically it, but I'm really pleased to see guys like [Mike] Fisher step up to the plate as well as he has."

Well Mike Fisher continued to impress, scoring the Senators lone goal Tuesday and registering seven shots to earn second star honours.

Kovalev and Spezza on the other hand managed just two shots each in the game.

Mike Boone of HabsInsideOut.com made this notable comparison, “Marc André Bergeron will earn $750,000 this season. He has seven goals. Alex Kovalev makes $5 million. He has four.”

And Kovalev wonders why Russian Olympic GM Vladislav Tretiak didn’t pay him a visit two weeks ago. Sorry Alex, it wasn’t the travel schedule. Mr. Tretiak wants the best Russian players now, not from two or more years ago. Enjoy your two-week break in February.

As for Spezza, this quote after Tuesday’s loss makes you wonder if he even read Melnyk’s comments, “We got a lot of pucks at the net, but just didn't do a good enough job of getting pucks in the net.” We?

Cammalleri, Plekanec, Bergeron and Hamrlik celebrate Kostitsyn’s goal - Reuters

Meanwhile, Kovalev’s former line mates in Montreal, Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn, have certainly found a groove with their new winger Mike Cammalleri.

Plekanec had three assists on Tuesday, while Kostitsyn scored on the power play and set up another. Cammalleri had his fifth goal in three games.

The trio combined for six points and now has seven goals and eight assists in wins over the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and the Senators.

"Plecks is playing really well. He's creating a lot and we're getting a lot of production as a result," Cammalleri said.