by Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
The Senators inexplicably came out flat vs. the NYI on Thursday, and lost a game they easily could have won by a 4-2 margin. After managing just 5 shots on goal in the first period, they followed it up in the second by giving up a pair of highly avoidable goals against, and then allowing a third goal less than 3 minutes into the third period. Nick Jensen and Drake Batherson scored as part of a late rally, but it fell short. Anton Forsberg made a terrible play behind the net that led directly to that third goal, but he played well enough to keep the NYI off the board for the first 30 minutes of the game. This should have been more than enough time for OTT to assert some kind of control over the game. Instead, they allowed the NYI to play a classic road game, and steal a clean 2 points from them on home ice.
NYI 4 - OTT 2 (NHL Game Highlights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjXC__RbV8g/
It’s pretty difficult to view this game as anything but a missed opportunity. Not only did they fail to get the win, they also failed to secure even a single point on home ice against an objectively weaker opponent than most of the other teams they've faced this season. It’s precisely the kind of systemic losing behaviour that was supposed to have been addressed by team management. Much was made in the off-season about Head Coach Travis Green establishing a greater sense of accountability by the players, and you have to wonder if/when this will manifest in terms of lineup changes.
The Good - There were relatively few bright spots for the Senators in this game. Tim Stutzle had a team-high 2 points (2A), but also had a -2 rating. The top-D pairing in the game was Thomas Chabot and Nick Jensen, who combined for 1G-1A, had 7 shots, 2 hits, 4 blocked shots, and were +2. Josh Norris led the team with 10/14 faceoff wins, and Drake Batherson had a 1G and was the only forward to have a + rating. There also doesn't seem to be any indication of anyone having sustained an injury during this game.
The Bad - The entire top unit of Tkachuk-Stutzle-Greig finished the night with a combined -7 rating, and were exposed by some of the veteran Islanders’ best two-way forwards, including Bo Horvat and former Senator Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Despite the good news of Artem Zub returning to the lineup, he had a relatively tough night with Jake Sanderson, with the D-pair finishing the night with a combined -5 rating. Josh Norris went 10/14 in terms of face-offs, but was held pointless for the 5th time in his last 7 games, and has the fewest goals and worst +/- of any of the team's high-salary forwards.
The Ugly - The first time the Senators lost 2-straight games on the season it came as the result of a pair of road losses to recent Cup-winning teams in VGK/COL by a combined 3 goal margin where they scored 8 goals and were tied or leading in the 3rd period of both games. This time the 2-straight losses included a home loss and came at the hands of a pair of non-playoff teams in BUF/NYI, where they only scored 3 goals and lost by a combined 6 goal margin. This stretch of the schedule was supposed to be an opportunity to create separation from the .500 teams and instead they've fallen behind that mark.
For a team that has made a habit of slow first-quarter starts to the season, this recent stretch of games has to be a concern. After an encouraging 4-2-0 start to the year, OTT has now gone 2-5-0 since and have a very tough pair of games ahead vs. key divisional rivals BOS/TOR. Worse yet, this game marked the 3rd time in the past 4 games the Senators waited until they were down by 2 goals or more before scoring a goal. To their credit, there is push-back in this group and they’ve come very close on more than one occasion to making a significant comeback. Unfortunately, the reality is that they’re now 0-5-0 when playing from behind going into the 3rd period, and they’ve fallen back to having the identical 6-7-0 record they had last year under DJ Smith. They absolutely have to find a way to be more competitive early on in their games, and not lapse into another November slump that cripples an otherwise promising season.
What are your thoughts about the Senators’ loss to the Islanders? Please leave your comments below, and as always thanks for reading!
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