Sens arrive in Vancouver on down note
Blown lead in Winnipeg a poor way to start seven-game, 14-day cross-Canada road trip
Just over a week into the shortened season and the Ottawa Senators are searching for answers.
And with time ticking away on this 56-game schedule, they'd better find them in a hurry.
Coming off a 6-3 loss to the
Jets on Saturday in Winnipeg to start a seven-game, 14-day road trip, the Senators arrived in Vancouver around 5 a.m. EST. After spending a day off hunkered down at their hotel, they'll face the Canucks on Monday at Rogers Arena to start a threegame series.
The Senators were outscored 14-7 in three games against the Jets. Ottawa had a 3-2 lead heading into the final period of Saturday's loss and let it slip away. Instead of turning up the heat on Winnipeg, the Senators started turning over the puck and it was costly.
If you have a third-period lead, you can't surrender four unanswered goals. It's not a recipe for success. A giveaway by Artem Anisimov allowed the Jets to tie it up early in the third on Andrew Copp's first goal of the game, then Derek Stepan's ill-timed delay of game resulted in the winning goal by Paul Stastny.
“You can't stop playing. The message was to stay on the gas and go get these guys,” coach D.J. Smith said via Zoom on Saturday night before the Senators left Winnipeg. “A blatant turnover in the middle of the ice ends up in the back of your net; that's not going to get them.
“We've got to make people turn and we've got to stay above people to have success. We did that in the first two periods, but we didn't do that in the third.”
The Jets have a boatload of talent with Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and
Stastny. The Senators let them up off the mat and paid dearly.
“These are world-class players. If you want to beat them, you have to play to the letter of the law and limit them to nothing,” Smith added.
“We gave them too many Grade-A (scoring chances), especially the third goal is on us.”
There will be changes against the Canucks. The Senators lost forward Cedric Paquette with a lower-body injury early in the second period. His spot could be taken by rookie forward Tim Stuetzle, who has missed three straight games with an ailment that has been bothering him since the world juniors.
He'd be welcomed back with open arms and even though he was placed on injured reserve Saturday, it was retroactive to Jan. 16, so Stuetzle is eligible to come off.
Stuetzle was close to returning Saturday but wasn't 100 per cent. He could go in to play the left wing beside veteran centre Chris Tierney and winger Connor Brown. Forwards Colin White and Alex Galchenyuk were both healthy scratches Saturday and it wouldn't be a surprise to see both play Monday.
Like everybody else, the Senators are trying to find answers on the fly because there was no pre-season, and this is a team with a lot of new faces.
“We did a lot of good things. We can't forget that. We've got to keep building,” said alternate captain Brady Tkachuk, who scored his second of the season in Winnipeg.
“With no exhibition games, we're kind of learning on the fly with new guys. Now, we've just got to keep learning and applying the things we've learned.
“We've just got to keep going. It's a shortened year and we've got to get ready for the next one. Every point is valuable here. With our group, we've got a lot of great veterans and a lot of great experience. We're going to learn and we're going to be better because of it.”
The challenge for Smith and the coaching staff is putting the right pieces in the right places while also developing the young players by putting them in situations where they can be successful.
The Senators have shown flashes in the five games they've played this season, but haven't been able to sustain that effort for 60 minutes.
Tkachuk is hopeful the time on the road will help the group get to know the players that were brought in during the off-season. When they're not playing, the Senators will have nothing but time to kill on the road and there is a large ballroom in every hotel where the team can gather with proper social distancing.
A pre-season would have helped this group immensely to build chemistry, but Tkachuk said that's no excuse.
“Everybody's going through the same situation,” Tkachuk said. “There's always new guys every year. It's good, though; it's going to be a nice time, this road trip, to get to know some of the new guys and some of those guys to get to know guys that have been here.
“This is going to be good for us as a team, and a lot of quality time with one another, so no, it's going to be good. We're going to take advantage of it and it's going to carry over to the ice.”
We've got to make people turn and we've got to stay above people to have success. We did that in the first two periods, but we didn't do that in the third.