The Ottawa Senators played tough style hockey in hopes of throwing the streaking Canucks off their game, only to learn that the league’s best power play devoured them for a 4-1 win at Scotia Bank Place. Was the game played in Ottawa? Hard to tell with all the Blue and green jerseys in the crowd.

PHOTO CREDIT - VancouverCanucks.com

Vancouver - Dec. 11, 2011 - The Ottawa Senators played tough style hockey in hopes of throwing the streaking Canucks off their game, only to learn that the league’s best power play devoured them for a 4-1 win at Scotia Bank Place. Was the game played in Ottawa? Hard to tell with all the Blue and green jerseys in the crowd. The Ottawa Senators learned a big lesson tonight in that if you are going to play Russian Roulette you’d better be aware of the fact that sooner or later the chamber with the bullet in it is going to come up and it’s going to have your name on it. And tonight Ryan Kesler was the player with the bullet!

All it took was 1:10 into the game for the Canucks to send the early message that their power play was locked and loaded and ready to fire at will, but the Senators obviously weren’t listening as Ryan Kesler and crew went 2-5 on the power play. The Senators can thank Nick Foligno for doling out the majority of rough play for the Senators as he racked up a whopping 17 minutes in penalties plus a game misconduct for running Kesler into the boards. I guess he realized that the only way for him to get recognized was to resort to guerrilla tactics, and it worked. Only problem for him is that it worked for the visiting team instead!

Props go out to Dale Weise who answered the bell for the Canucks when he challenged Foligno for his hit on Cody Hodgson late in the first period. The hit may have been clean, but somebody had to step up and let Foligno know that his crap wouldn’t be tolerated, and Weiss did just that, not only with his fists but also with his puck handling ability as well as he scored the final goal of the game that made the score 4-1. Take that!

While Nick Foligno and Chris Neal were busy gooning it up for the home town crowd, Ryan Kesler and the Sedins were busy showing why the Canucks have the best one-two punch in the league as Kesler scored two and assisted on Edler’s opening goal in the first. Henrik got two helpers while brother Daniel got one assist on Kesler’s second of the night.

Edler’s opening goal of the game from the point made its way through a crowd and ended up in the net while Senators goalie Craig Anderson was at the concession stand getting a chili dog! Seriously, where was he going on this shot?

Later in the period, Ryan Kesler tips in a beauty pass from Jannik Hansen to make it 2-0 for the Canucks. Does it get prettier than that? I think not! On the power play, Kesler scored his second of the night after Henrik did the gritty dirty work at the side of the net and found Kesler in the blue paint who scored the easy one with a wide open net, 3-0 Nucks in the second period. In fitting justice, Dale Weise scored late in the third period by skating around an indifferent Chris Neil to beat Anderson. That made the score 4-1, and reminded the Senators that their choice of game play against the high flying Canucks was a bad decision.

Luongo had a strong game, even though he let in a short handed goal late in the second to give the Senators a sniff, but other than that he was solid. Luongo went 24-25 and again solidified why he’s the number 1 in Vancouver.

So the Canucks now travel to Columbus to take on the recently awakened Blue Jackets, while Chris Neil and the Senators await word from Sheriff Shanny on Neil’s head-hunting hit on Burrows which nearly decapitated him. The Canucks also are saying that Cody Hodgson is fine after taking the hit from Foligno in the first period, but was held out for precautionary measures. This is good news for the Canucks and Hodgson, so he should be able to suit up in Columbus!