PITTSBURGH — On a night when the Ottawa Senators were supposed to be celebrating the return of No. 1 goalie Pascal Leclaire and energy wingers Chris Neil and Shean Donovan from injury, they found themselves coping with another potentially devastating loss.

Captain and leading scorer Daniel Alfredsson left after taking a hard hit in the first period of a thoroughly embarrassing 8-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and didn’t return.

As Alfredsson dragged himself straight to the dressing room, Milan Michalek doled out some immediate payback by jumping Pittsburgh forward Craig Adams.

That set the tone for a long, sad, scrappy night for the Senators. If the players weren’t pushing and shoving, it meant the Penguins were probably scoring a goal.

A team spokesman said Alfredsson suffered a shoulder injury and coach Cory Clouston said after the game, “It doesn’t look good.”

Ottawa’s captain had his arm in a sling after the game and said he would likely be out for at least a few weeks.

“I’ll probably see the doctor (Thursday) and get an X-ray, and see what the damage is, but I expect at least a few weeks,” Alfredsson said.

He said he hadn’t watched the hit delivered by Adams, but acknowledged he was in a vulnerable position reaching for the puck.

It seems absurd to suggest Leclaire was strong in his first game back after an errant puck flew into the bench and broke his cheekbone a month ago, but that was the case.

Of the six goals he over two periods of work, precisely none were his fault. The defensive breakdowns were so atrocious, the Senators could have started a four-by-six slab of titanium and still allowed a few tallies.

Brian Elliott came in for mop-up duty in the third, allowing two more.

“You can’t blame (Leclaire) for the situation we were in going into the third period,” Clouston said. “I thought we had four or five unbelievable chances in the first period, we didn’t score on them and it just seemed to snowball from there. We collapsed partway through the second and just couldn’t recover.”

Leclaire had to make about four or five highlight reel stops in the first 10 minutes and Ottawa was lucky to escape the first period tied 1-1.

The dam broke in the second.

Bill Guerin (twice), Ruslan Fedotenko, Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin all scored in the middle frame. 

In fact, the line of Malkin, Kunitz and Guerin toyed with the Senators all night, combining for 12 points.

Two of the Penguins’ goals came on the power play, which was inexplicably mired in 30th place in the NHL heading into this game.

Anton Volchenkov and Chris Kelly had the goals for Ottawa.

With the contest all but over, the Senators were left to do what most teams do when they’re getting annihilated — they started yapping and throwing punches.

Chris Neil challenged and fought Mike Rupp early in the third to a draw. Matt Carkner challenged Adams less than a minute later.

Shean Donovan, who sustained his knee injury on a hit by Penguins agitator Matt Cooke the last time these two teams played, tried to exact some revenge late in the game but didn’t get a response.

It was an ugly game all around for Ottawa and it sets the stage for a difficult new year.

After talking for days about how they’d shored up their defensive game and could now compete with any team in the league, the Senators face the prospect of starting over without both Alfredsson and centre Jason Spezza, who is out until after the Olympic break with a knee injury.

Now two of the four players expected to carry the offensive load for the Senators are on the shelf and the other two are mired in extended slumps.

Milan Michalek now has one goal in 12 games and Alexei Kovalev has three goals in the last 16 (and they all came on the same night).

Forget the latest gadgets, they’re probably hoping Santa brings back their scoring touches.

So much for a merry Christmas in Ottawa.

Ottawa Citizen