Slow start a killer in loss to Kings
The best-case scenario for the Ottawa Senators is to turn the page and move on.
They really don't have any other choice.
It's been one step forward followed by a step or two back for the Senators through the first 25 games of the season and, unfortunately, that trend continued in the club's 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Trailing 4-1 at the end of the first period, the Senators gave themselves no chance to have success by digging such a deep hole and, as a result, they woke up 10 points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the final wild card spot in the East.
There was plenty of blame to go around after the game but coach D.J. Smith put the loss to the Kings on himself because it's his job to have them prepared to play. If the Senators want to get back into the playoff race then they can't afford many nights like that one.
The club went into the game with four wins in its last five and it felt like perhaps the momentum was building for the Senators to do something special.
“I think we've played really well and we've played hard,” said Smith.
“What I didn't like was the first period because we didn't play hard enough. You're going to have games where you don't have it, but you find ways when you don't have your legs to stay in the game.
“We have an opportunity in the second period, they get a power play because we take a penalty and it ends up in the back of our net.”
If the Senators are to get back to have success, they need contributions from everybody. The club is in a tough part of the schedule before the NHL'S mandated holiday break begins Dec. 24 and the task doesn't get any easier Thursday against the Stars or Saturday in Nashville.
Winger Drake Batherson scored his first goal in 10 games against the Kings. Down 2-0 only 2:15 into the game, he scored his sixth of the season to cut the deficit to one goal briefly.
Batherson felt a sense of relief to end a drought that dated to Nov. 14 against the New York Islanders.
“It's nice to score, but it's just disappointing it comes in a loss,” said Batherson.
“We'll look forward to Dallas and hope for a better start.”
But the Senators need the likes of Batherson, centre Shane Pinto and winger Alex Debrincat to find consistency on the scoreboard and it has to happen quickly. After a hot start, Pinto, playing a second-line role, has just one goal in 12 games while Debrincat has one in nine games.
Acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks, the 24-year-old Debrincat was brought in to help make a difference for this team. A two-time 40-goal scorer, he has six goals and 14 assists for 20 points in 25 games this season. He's on pace for 20 goals and the club needs more.
That's why the players aren't about to let Smith shoulder all the responsibility for the way they played.
“It's not on him,” Batherson said. “The game plan was there and we, as a group of players, just weren't ready to go. It has nothing to do with the coaches. They had the game plan all set for us and we just didn't execute it very well.”
The key for any team that wants to contend is to stay on an even keel. You can't ride the highs too high or the lows too low and you have to take the same approach every game. Captain Brady Tkachuk noted they got away from that approach.
“We've been having some success of late so maybe we thought it was going to be easy,” Tkachuk said.
“There's no easy games or no easy moments in the NHL. It's just unacceptable and it's just as simple as that.”
The club recalled defenceman Dillon Heatherington from its AHL affiliate in Belleville for this two-game trip. The Senators need to have an extra defenceman with Artem Zub and Jacob Bernard-docker sidelined.