I'm Sorry, It's My Fault: Montreal 5; Ottawa 4 (SO)

Suffice to say I should have known better. The hockey pool this year, she has been rough. Generally, when I decide to gamble on an unproven commodity, I get Darren McCarty'd. So, hindsight being 20/20, I am now puzzled as to how my stupidity led me to believe it was a good idea to start my recent free agent pickup Brian Elliott against a red-hot Habs team. While I am not one to confuse correlation with causation, I should have known disaster was certain to unfold. Sorry, Sens fans. This one's on me.

Elliott didn't exactly do himself any favours, mind you. The rook had his moments, stopping breakaways from Tomas Plekanec and Robert Lang in the second period, and making a handful of other nice saves. However, Elliott also gave up two bad goals. The first - late in the opening frame - squeaked by him short side off an Andrei Koistitsyn shot. I looked at a few replays and still have a hard time figuring out exactly how it got through Elliott's gear. Nevertheless, Elliott should have been tight to the post and had that one covered. The Habs' fourth goal, coming with the Sens trailing by one in the third period and pressing for the equalizer, could only be described as Gerberesque. Tom Koustopolous' bad angle shot squeaked through Eliott's legs and trickled across the goal line before Elliott could recover. He simply has to have that shot. The Wisconsin alum seemed to lose his confidence after that weak goal, and fought the puck for much of the remainder of the game. Elliott also went 0-2 in his first NHL shootout, which suggests the former NCAA champion may not be the saviour the HNIC cast made him out to be.

Fans can find cause for optimism going forward in the team's performance, though. While they have normally wilted under the heat of adversity this season, they battled back from a two goal deficit to force overtime. Mike Fisher scored a skill goal, converting on an opportunity late in the third period to tie the game. Fisher has been struggling to bury his chances, but that shot was a thing of beauty. Fisher had a good overall game, showing his typical willingness to get involved physically.

Jesse Winchester's impressive second effort resulted in a nice Jarkko Ruutu feed on which Chris Kelly converted to open the scoring for the Senators. The trio combined to create offense when the potential for a goal was slim. Winchester showcased his reputed prowess along the boards to beat two Canadiens defenders, while Ruutu made a great pass and Kelly's shot was hard and well placed. That was not the trio's only scoring chance this evening.

Dany Heatley, who has not been playing his best hockey recently, scored twice, including a quick reply after Elliott's second mistake to bring the Ottawas within a goal. Typically, the Sens surrender those kinds of goals rather than making them for themselves. Heatley was an offensive force, registering 7 shots on goal, while the Habs blocked 3 more of his attempts.

Greg Millen -for possibly the first time in his inexplicably long and amply painful career in broadcasting - made a good observation. He correctly noted that the Senators gave this game away by not paying enough attention to detail. Their effort level was good, but the club's lack of focus led to little mistakes, resulting in turnovers and failures to clear their zone and alleviate pressure. Greg Carvell told Elliott Freidman that he felt the Senators lost their structure after taking several penalties in the first period, essentially concurring with the normally clueless commentary of Millen.

Give the Habs credit though; they played as advertised. Montreal made the most of their opportunities, and kept the Ottawa defence on it's heals with their speed, skill, and puck possession in the offensive zone. The Senators did their best to match the Canadiens in the run and gun department for much of the first 20 minutes, but le Tricolore simply outclassed them.

Before and after the game, Ron MacLean interviewed NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly. Among other things, Kelly said that the NHL and NHLPA had more or less agreed on staging another World Cup of Hockey in September of 2011. He also stated that the player surveys the PA distributed this fall indicate that players of all creeds and nationalities are overwhelmingly in favour of the NHL's participation in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The league's head office is rumoured to be against going to the games, which nicely illustrates the ineptitude of the NHL's business sense. With the league trying to branch out to overseas markets, the opportunity to secure the level of exposure the NHL would get on such a global stage, in the backyard of a newly formed competitor no less, seems to make participation a no-brainer. Should the NHL turn down the invitation, you can bet the KHL will send its athletes.

Also, is it just me or does Bob Cole actually sound like he is pro-Ottawa when covering their games against Montreal. The excitement in his voice dropped perceptibly whenever the Habs scuttled Ottawa's offensive pressure, and he sounded like his mother had just died after Alexei Kovalev's brilliant shootout goal. Moreover, when the Montreal-dominated crowd started doing their "Ole" chant in the third, he remarked with vitriol "I don't know what are they doing chanting that stuff in a one goal game." While the Leafs will always be Bob's darlings, he appears to hate symbols of Francophone pride even more than he hates the Senators - and that's really saying something.