Losing to Ottawa sucks. There’s no getting around that.

But last night’s game sucked EXTRA hard for a few reasons:

A “did that really just happen” moment?

Not helping out his own narrative as a behind-the-times defenceman, Roman Polak fails to clear the crease while trying to tie up Ryan Dzingel, and either doesn’t really see the puck bouncing in off his own leg, or just can’t react fast enough to do anything about it. Kudos to Chabot for throwing the puck on net, but really, this goal falls into the “one you’d like to have back” category.

Put people in front of the net, and you’ll up your chances at scoring. Simple, really.

After we spent most of yesterday making fun of him on twitter, Matt Duchene shut us up with a great pair of “dipsy-doodles” past Jake Gardiner and all of a sudden, the Senators were up 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period.

It seems like Borgman’s scored more than three this year, right? He hasn’t, but kudos to putting pucks on net, and the Leafs break the deadlock with 110 seconds remaining in the second period.

Just 54 seconds into the third period, JVR did what JVR does best: score goals where he shoves his butt in the goalie’s face. His 19th of the season, JVR pulled a bit of between the legs trickery, realized that wouldn’t work, pulled it out again and slotted the puck past Craig Anderson for the goal.

If you don’t remember another Gabriel Dumont goal, don’t be alarmed. He’s only scored four in his career, and that was his first with the Senators. As the GIF states, great pass through traffic, and Dumont just crashes ‘n’ bangs his way to the net here.

Could you say any more good things about Morgan Rielly this season? Leading the team in points among defencemen while driving great possession numbers, Rielly has been a man on a mission this year. With a quick blast, it was a “classic Morgan Rielly” moment that thankfully has become increasingly common.

The dagger, apparently. Not exactly the likeliest of heroes, but they all count the same. A bit like ripping a bandaid off of your own eyes, this one hurt to see and there’s a pair of lapses that make it hurt that much more. On one end, Morgan Rielly mistimes a pinch at the blueline that creates a 3-on-1 the other way. The lone man back, Ron Hainsey uhhhh… shifts all the way to the left side of the ice, and pinches again? Pyatt’s left open and confused, and Frederik Andersen has no answer.

The Leafs never held the lead in this game, but it also never really felt like they should have been behind either. Alas, such is life, and the Leafs head into the bye week where they don’t play until Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend.