Despite another Caps hat trick, the Senators pinned down Washington for a
second straight loss. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand)

Senators 6, Capitals 5: Two games, two hat tricks, two 6-5 losses for the Caps. This time, Alexander Semin had the headwear-worthy honors, but Ottawa outgunned the tired, undermanned Caps — the Senators’ 13th win in 14 outings. The Capitals were missing Shaone Morrisonn, Tom Poti, Jason Chimera, and Quintin Laing, while Semyon Varlamov was making his first NHL start in over two months. Varlamov certainly looked shaky, allowing six goals on only 28 shots; coach Bruce Boudreau said he didn’t “think he was ready to play,” and that rust shouldn’t be used as an excuse. “It’s [Varlamov’s] responsibility to be ready. When you say, he’s rusty, it’s an excuse. And excuses aren’t tolerated,” Boudreau admitted. Washington got in trouble early, just like they did in Montreal on Wednesday, finding themselves down 3-1 after the first period on goals from Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek and Daniel Alfredsson. But through Semin, the Capitals fought back to actually take a 4-3 lead with four minutes left in the middle period. The Sens then went on to score three more goals, prompting Boudreau to call the teams’ effort, especially defensively, “an ugly display,” “horrible,” and “awful” at various points during his post game comments. You know, it seems strange to say it, but a win by the Capitals at St. Louis on Saturday is quite possibly a necessity — despite just coming off a 14-game winning streak and holding a 26 point lead in the division and a 14 point lead in the conference, it’s probably not optimal, psychologically, to go into the two-week Olympic break riding three straight losses.