Life without Daniel Alfredsson isn't pretty for the Ottawa Senators.
With their captain and leading scorer out for the second time this month with a nagging hip injury, the Senators' attack again went quiet in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Boston's Zdeno Chara and Glen Metropolit battle for the puck with the Senators' Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond during the first period of Thursday's game in Ottawa.
(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Ottawa (32-16-4) didn't get on the board Thursday until 8:24 remained in the third period, when Antoine Vermette scored to make the game 3-1.
Phil Kessel — 28 seconds into the game — Milan Lucic and Marc Savard scored first-period goals for Boston (27-19-5), and Chuck Kobasew added an empty netter with 23 seconds left to ice the victory.
"It obviously wasn't the effort we needed," Ottawa centre Mike Fisher said. "The first period was pretty bad for turnovers and their team traps fairly well.
"We just gave them a lot of opportunities and from there, we played a little bit better, but they killed us in the first."
The Senators, held scoreless in each of their last two home games, have lost eight of the nine games Alfredsson has missed since the beginning of last season.
When he missed two games earlier in January — with the same sore hip — Ottawa lost 2-0 to Tampa and 6-1 at Philadelphia.
The captain, who pulled himself out of Tuesday's 5-2 road win over the New York Islanders, was chosen the league's first star of the week after he set a career high and team record with seven points a week earlier in an 8-4 win at Tampa Bay.
Alfredsson is also expected to sit out Saturday's road game against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs (CBC, 6:30 p.m. ET).
Tim Thomas made 30 saves Thursday for Boston, which extended its winning streak to three. The Bruins began their current 9-3-1 run on Dec. 31, when they ended their season-high, six-game losing streak (0-5-1) with a 5-2 win in Atlanta.
"We kind of held on for dear life there," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Tim has been good for us all year and today he made the key saves when we needed him.
"I don't know if we caught them off guard, but we started the game the way we wanted. We got some pucks in deep and got rewarded for it."
Martin Gerber stopped 18 shots in his third straight start for Ottawa, which had won two in a row after losing five of six.
Fifty-goal scorer Dany Heatley is also out of the Senators lineup with a shoulder injury, and the team endured controversy this week as goalie Ray Emery was fined for showing up late to a practice after spending the all-star break in Las Vegas.
"With (Alfredsson and Heatley) out, we've got to keep it simple and just make sure we're outworking teams and making simple plays and doing the little things, and we did the opposite tonight," Fisher said.
With files from the Associated Press
