KANATA, Ont. — Given the chance to win a big game on home ice, the supposedly 'new and improved' Ottawa Senators fell back into old ways on Tuesday night.
After a strong start, they let their game go off the rails. They were erratic. Easy to play against. Immature.
So much for bagging a couple of points before heading out on a critical road trip.
Oh, and just when the Senators thought they had cured their second-period woes, along came the Carolina Hurricanes.
Few teams give the Senators more trouble than the 'Canes, who pulled into the Nation’s Capital nursing a four-game losing string, all in western Canada, but buoyed by the knowledge they generally own the Sens.
With 10 victories over Ottawa in their past 15 meetings dating back through the 2016-17 season, Carolina pushed it to 11 wins in 16 tries in a typical, grinding, 4-1 win. The 'Canes scored three unanswered goals in the second period as Ottawa’s defence parted like the Red Sea at times.
“That second period was as bad as we’ve played this year,” said Senators head coach D.J. Smith. “And that team (Carolina) came ready to do it right. Disappointing after what I thought was probably our best 15 periods of the year. We had a real opportunity here.”
An opportunity to go above .500 before heading out for a five-game road trip. Instead, the Senators fall back to 11-12-0; 8-9-0 on home ice.
If the Senators thought they had figured out their middle-period issues by scoring three against Detroit on Saturday in a 5-1, Tuesday’s second period brought nothing but trouble.
The visitors took a tight, 1-1 game and schooled the Senators in the middle period, scoring every which way: One on a power play, one four-on-four and one five-on-five.
Sebastian Aho had two of Carolina’s three goals, both wrist shots that beat Joonas Korpisalo.
He also set up Seth Jarvis on what was a two-on-none, before Jake Sanderson got back into the play and nearly broke it up. Bad line changes resulted in convenient Carolina breakaways.
And the Senators power play, which was gifted a too-many-men advantage and a puck over the glass penalty? It accomplished nothing. Unable to gain entry on most of them.
“It’s shit. Brutal,” said Senators centre Josh Norris, of the power play.
“Excuse my language.”
Actually, it was the kind of language most Senators fans were using, and worse, to describe the power play and this game overall.
Norris called it “embarrassing.”
“It’s tough,” said captain Brady Tkachuk. “Just frustrating to play like that at home. You never want to come up with that performance in the second period.”
Tkachuk finished the game sitting out with a 10-minute misconduct after mouthing off to Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov following a missed penalty shot by Tkachuk late in the third period. The Hurricanes argued that their goalie had simply lost his stick during a save attempt, but officials awarded Tkachuk a penalty shot for Kochetkov “throwing his stick.”
On the penalty shot itself, Tkachuk came in hard and felt Kochetkov tripped him, as the goalie was aggressively trying to poke check the forward. Go back and look at Johnny Bower highlights to get the idea.
The end result was that Tkachuk flew over the goaltender’s pads and slammed into the boards.
“I came in with a lot of speed and just felt he poked my legs,” Tkachuk said. “Of course, I went into the boards hard. So... I don’t like going that hard into the boards. Leave it at that.”
To Norris's point, the Senators power was beyond anemic.
They continually tried to skate through Carolina sticks, only to see the puck go the other direction after pockets got picked.
After falling behind, there was a ton of solo effort, everyone trying to fix things himself, and not much in any unified way.
“We had a couple of good looks early, but that’s a really good penalty kill,” Smith said. “You can’t be frustrated. They’re one of the tops in the league every year. You’ve got to understand they pressure you, you’ve got to make the plays. And if you don’t make them, you can’t let it bleed into your five-on-five play.”
Second period disease seemed to leak into every aspect of Ottawa’s game.
They’re not yet mature enough to win consistently, so the record shows.
“We want to be a team that never has a bad period,” said Tkachuk, as angry and frustrated as we have seen him all season. “When we have a tough stretch within a period, we fix it right away.”
The teams traded first period goals and both sides had players looking skyward after chances missed.
Off a centering pass from Norris, Tkachuk was all alone out front but lifted his shot over the net, when the top half of it was open. This after Norris had given Ottawa the lead on a tip of an Erik Brannstrom shot.
At the other end, Korpisalo stopped Aho, getting a pad down on the shot from the high slot. A few minutes later it was Jarvis in alone on a power play breakaway, when his deke attempt was thwarted by Korpisalo stretching across.
On that same man advantage, with Ridly Greig off for a blatant interference penalty, Martin Necas wired home a one-timer past Korpisalo in the dying minutes of the period, a goal that seemed to deflate the home team.
They are home no more, for the next week. With roadies against St. Louis, Dallas, Vegas, Arizona and Colorado. If the Sens don’t survive this trip with two or three wins their season will be done.
“We’ve got a huge road trip coming up, so it’s time to step and dial in,” Tkachuk said.
“We’ve played well on the road,” Smith said, knowing his team is 3-3 on North American road trips and 2-0 in Sweden (technically “home” games).
“We’ve certainly got to get our mindset back to the way we play — and throw this (game) out but it’s gotta be fixed.”
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.