Corvo, Eaves back in Ottawa

It's former Sens' first trip back

KANATA, ONTARIO -- Patrick Eaves said he enjoyed his time playing for the Ottawa Senators, that he considers Sens forward Mike Fisher one of his best friends.

As for Joe Corvo ... let's just say it might be best to leave the Ottawa subject alone.

A year ago, Eaves and Corvo were Senators in the two games when the Carolina Hurricanes came to Scotiabank Place. That changed Feb. 11, 2008, when Ottawa traded Eaves and Corvo to Carolina for Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore.

Eaves called it a jolt to the system.

"They give up on you. They trade you," the forward said Monday. "There are two sides of it, though, because another team wants you just as bad. You have to focus on that part of it."

Judging by his play against the Senators, part of Corvo's focus appears to be in making Ottawa pay. In his only game against the Sens last year -- March 16 at the RBC Center -- the defenseman responded with the only hat trick of his career as the Canes rolled 5-1.

In the teams' first game this season, Nov. 7 in Raleigh, Corvo had the deciding goal in a 2-1 victory. Two games, two game-winners. Enough said?

But tonight's game will be a first -- the return to Scotiabank Place for Corvo and Eaves. Corvo, perhaps predictably, was double-teamed in the locker room by the local media Monday.

Would he like a third game-winner, Corvo was asked?

"I think it's highly unlikely, but you never know how a game plays out," Corvo said, his eyes fixed and looking straight ahead. "That would be fun, yeah, but I don't think the odds are in my favor to do what I've done so far against them."

Corvo calmly noted that he didn't believe Ottawa general manager Bryan Murray traded him because he thought he was a "bad player." It was a decision, Corvo said, made in hopes of making the Senators better.

Not that the trade did that. Stillman and Commodore are both gone. The Senators, meanwhile, are 13-21-6 after losing their past five games -- a skid being treated like a national calamity in the Canadian capital.

As Canes coach Paul Maurice said, "It's a little different struggling up here. This is a different animal.

"It's very, very difficult to shelter your team from it, because it's 24 hours a day, it's on every media outlet. It's in the building, it's in the stands."

And at times it engulfed players like Corvo and Eaves, who came under the intense Ottawa glare.

With the local media gone Monday, Corvo noticeably relaxed.

"It takes guys with thick skin to play here," Corvo said. "It takes a lot of restraint for me to sit here and not go crazy about some of the [media]."

Corvo said he wasn't surprised to get to Ottawa and discover front-page headlines Sunday devoted to the Senators' struggles -- and the "excuses," as one headline put it.

"That's the way it is," he said. "It's especially tough here in Ottawa. We're going to get a lot of fair-weather fans, too, because a lot of fans around here were fans of Montreal before [the Senators] were here. When we played Montreal or Toronto, there was maybe more fans for them than for us."

"I don't think they have a lot of sympathy for a team here that doesn't do well or for players who get paid a lot of money here and they have a losing record or losing at home."

Not for a team that was in the Stanley Cup final in 2007, that pays a lot of money to the likes of Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and goalie Martin Gerber, who was a healthy scratch in the last game and has been replaced by Brian Elliott, a call-up from the American Hockey League. The Sens now are long shots to make the playoffs.

"That's a pretty dramatic drop," Corvo said.

But what Corvo, Eaves and the Canes have more in mind is reversing a two-game skid of their own. After winning four straight, Carolina was beaten 4-2 by Florida and then took a 5-1 whipping Saturday in Boston.

For a few minutes Monday, before practice began, Eaves and Corvo had the ice to themselves. Each seemed lost in their own thoughts.

"I had a great time playing here and I look back at it with good thoughts," Eaves said. "But now the task at hand is to get two points. You can't worry about that."