Die By The Blade Doghouse: February 4, 2010

In our second published installment regarding the doghouse, more people are nominated to potentially earn a stay in the infamous place that served as motivation for previously chosen players. For a game or two, Chris Butler, Adam Mair, Derek Roy and, to a certain length, Steve Montador, became better performers once their stays ended. Only this time, we will take a gander elsewhere for a few choices.

The first candidate is yours truly and I'll fill everyone in with the reason. I left yesterday's game thread while Buffalo was trailing 2-0 and later checked the boxscore to see that the Sabres had evened up the match with two goals in less than a minute. I returned to the thread and a few followers suggested I stay out because of how well the group performed upon my exit. I promised them that if Ottawa won in regulation, I'd put myself in the doghouse and surely enough Daniel Alfredsson made sure of that with a late game-winner. My fate is in your hands. Be merciful.

Up next is Lindy Ruff for throwing out the fourth line in the final minute of regulation against Alfredsson's unit. I don't deny the coach's smarts behind the bench but this was a head scratching moment.

Third, we have Andrej Sekera who got carried away (probably because of the excitement from his goal earlier) and forgot about his defensive responsibilities on two occasions. As a result, Ottawa opened the scoring because of his miscue and later the Senators captain had a tap-in at the side of the net to swipe away two points from Buffalo. Because of his goal, I'll place an option with the fourth line if some would rather blame the whole group as opposed to singling out Sekera.

Lastly, Toni Lydman's giveaway down low in the second period led to Jason Spezza's first goal. Leave your votes in the poll below and if I missed anyone, feel free to let out your frustrations in the comments. To show what a good sport I am, I will begin by voting myself in the doghouse as promised.