Even if you have the best home defense system in the world, your house can and will get robbed if you leave the back door open every night. If you don’t have much of a home security system in the first place and you do it, you’re just asking for problems.

Take away a goal that bounced off of Freddy Meyer and an empty-netter and the Isles were right in this game until the end. However, they could have been ahead if they stopped the lapses in the defensive end. Chris Phillips should not have been allowed to coast up to the circle like that and take a wrist shot. Nevertheless, Rick DiPietro had a decent look at it and should have gotten to it. Dean McAmmond was left all by himself in front of the net later in the game and he cashed in as well. While watching the game, I saw that play developing and it felt like McAmmond was all by himself for about five seconds. Him and DP could have exchanged pictures of their friends and family and talked about the Super Bowl during that time.

And when the Isles started capitalizing on the Senators mistakes and got a pair of goals from Sean Bergenheim and Bryan Berard, Radek Martinek gets himself a penalty and they lose the momentum they had. If they could have just kept the game at five on five and kept playing hard in the corners and kept up a solid forecheck, they could have taken that game into overtime and maybe even won it. However, the defense couldn’t keep themselves out of trouble.

The only real positives I took out of that game was the play of the Josef Vasicek, Miroslav Satan and Bergenheim line, they were buzzing at times and had a few shifts that got the team going. Satan also made a beautiful pass on the powerplay to Berard to get him a goal in his first game back in a while. The rest of the lines really couldn’t maintain any consistent offensive pressure and thanks to a few bad bounces and a goal post, the Isles lost this one.

If this team wants to make the playoffs, they have to play more responsibly in the defensive end, especially considering how lethargic the offense has been this season. Regardless, things can change pretty quickly, as the Isles next opponent is the pitiful Los Angeles Kings. Hopefully, a big offensive night can sparkplug the team for a little while and get the confidence back up.