Senators face early pressure after consecutive ugly losses at home

OTTAWA — What happened to those early Ottawa Senators' vibes?

Did this team get complacent aftter three good showings at home?

Only last week, the sun was shining, confidence swelled and the Senators had the ball on an elevated tee. All they had to do was smack it down the middle of the fairway, on their home course with supporters flanking them. 

But no, they shanked the tee shot in a dismal home ice loss to their rivals from Detroit on Saturday, and then sprayed it all over the place in a Tuesday loss to the Buffalo Sabres, with the Sabres playing their second game in two nights. 

Keep in mind, Detroit and Buffalo are THE measuring sticks for a Senators team trying to rise up along with these upstart teams in the Atlantic Division. 

As a result the Senators close out this pivotal five-game homestand with consecutive losses, a 3-3 overall record, 3-2 on home ice. 

A meh kind of homestand when it could have been booyah!

Also, keep in mind the context. A new owner, a new president of hockey operations presiding over a team that is not new to slow starts that have killed playoff hopes later on. 

This year was supposed to be different. The team more mature, ready to compete. 

There is an urgency to the early weeks of Ottawa’s season that wasn’t here in years past. 

“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Ottawa’s wise winger Claude Giroux, following the Senators 6-4 loss to Buffalo. The late surge was flattering. The Sabres were cruising 5-1 early in the third period before a late rally by the home side.

After Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Red Wings, captain Brady Tkachuk chastised his team for its effort, for some “bonehead” plays, including his own, and vowed it would “not happen again.”

From that, we expected the Sabres to be run out of the rink on Tuesday, not physically necessarily but on the scoreboard. Far from it. 

 “There’s no question the guys are battling,” Giroux said. “We’re working hard. As frustrating as it is, we have 76 games left. It’s not time to hit the panic button.”

Perhaps. But the early signs of panic are around them, and in the stands where the “Fire DJ!” chants rang out for the first time this season. These weren’t full-throated chants, not yet, but an early rumblings of discontent among the masses that have seen too much. 

Head coach D.J. Smith and general manager Pierre Dorion are both under pressure for early success. They have brand new bosses to impress, owner Michael Andlauer and president of hockey operations Steve Staios, both of whom looked to be suffering from indigestion watching that Sens loss to Buffalo. 

“This is a building we want to take a lot of pride competing in every time we’re here,” said defenceman Jakob Chychrun, who had one of Ottawa’s goals. “That just wasn’t good enough. Good on us for sticking with it in the third and making a push, but we can’t put ourselves in that situation.”

What happened to the team that made life hard for the visiting Flyers, Capitals and Lightning last week? That team was relentless on the forecheck, had puck possession and pumped shots at enemy goaltenders. 

Tuesday’s Senators didn’t threaten until the game was out of hand. They got outworked over large stretches by a road team on a back-to-back. 

Jeff Skinner was a one-man menace in the Senators’ zone, wheeling, firing six shots, and full value for his two goals. 

Sniper Tage Thompson also scored twice and got robbed by Anders Forsberg on another chance in close. 

The Senators were advertised as new and improved in their own end but this looked like the sloppy zone coverage we’ve seen so often in recent years. 

They sure miss Artem Zub, whose absence on the blueline these past two games has scrambled the defence pairings, and not in a good way. Zub should be in the lineup for road games in Long Island and Pittsburgh on Thursday and Saturday, which suddenly loom large for the Sens. 

The defensive disarray is resulting in ugly stats. 

Centre Josh Norris, who scored a power play goal late in the third period, was -5 against the Sabres. Linemate Drake Batherson was -4. Dominik Kubalik was only -3 because he got yanked off that line and played just 9:54.

While Norris passed the puck, he didn’t pass the buck on responsibility. 

“I’ve got to be better defensively, no excuses,” Norris said. “You’ve got to stop the bleeding there when it opens up like that. I felt like when we were out there, everything was going in, and we’ve gotta be better.”

The goaltending has to improve, too. The tandem built to backstop a playoff berth has distressing early numbers: Joonas Korpisalo – 1-2, 3.63 goals-against and .872 save percentage. Forsberg – 2-1, 3.01 and .873. 

Forsberg only stopped 13 of 18 shots, including a couple of soft goals, and was replaced by Korpisalo to start the third period. Oh, but no one bothered to tell Forsberg he was getting yanked and he actually reported to his crease for duty, whereupon veteran defenceman Travis Hamonic had to tell Forsberg his night was done. 

Just a shite show. 

Tkachuk took his frustrations out on Alex Tuch, hammering him to the ice with a punch and delivering one last shot with Tuch prone. In Tkachuk’s defence, Tuch had slew-footed him and Tkachuk nevertheless drew an instigator penalty and game misconduct for his role in the fight. (Tkachuk had delivered a high hit on Tuch at the Sens blue line to set Tuch off). 

The Senators were notified that Tkachuk won't be suspended one game for starting a fight in the final five minutes, because he was provoked by Tuch, who took an interference penalty on him. 

When it rains it pours. 

The Senators power play that had been humming last week was one-for-five on Tuesday, including a failure on a lengthy five-on-three advantage early in the second period, a huge opportunity to cut in on Buffalo’s 3-0 lead. The Sens were one-for-six against the Red Wings.

“We’re getting looks right now (on the power play) and they’re not going in,” Smith says. “We’re getting one here and there. You’re going to clip around 20 per cent regardless with this group, but we want to be better.”

And Ottawa’s penalty killers gave up one goal on two Sabres power plays after yielding three goals on five Detroit power plays Saturday. 

The Senators are ranked 12th in the NHL on the power play, 22.2 per cent, not good enough considering the depth of talent on PP1 and PP2. 

The penalty kill is 22nd at 73.9 per cent. Acres of room for improvement. 

Can the Senators keep their cool and respond to this early challenge?

“We have a lot of emotional guys in this room that care a lot and want to win,” Chychrun said. “We have a lot of guys who wear their hearts on their sleeves a lot in here and I think it’s important to keep an even keel. It’s early in the year.”

Early games. With earlier pressure than usual.