Senators lose 8-4 to Kraken

There are games where your goaltending holds you in the game; this was the opposite of that. The Senators’ goalies allowed a goal every three shots, with Cam Talbot’s .737 in relief beating the very low bar of Anton Forsberg’s .400. On most night, scoring four goals is enough to win you the game, but tonight ended up being an ugly loss, where every bad giveaway, every defensive lapse seemed to end up in the net.

The first period was both great and awful for the Sens. On the great side, Ottawa dominated play. They were hard on the forecheck and had the bulk of shots. on the awful side, Anton Forsberg allowed three goals on five shots before he got pulled. The Kraken were good at getting the Sens out of position on the rush, so it wasn’t all his fault, but he still looked shaky. I think it was the right call. Brady Tkachuk did score a beauty of a goal to tie it at 1-1 before the Kraken opened up their two-goal lead:

That's our #NHLAllStar! 🚨#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/c5qKslktbA

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 8, 2023

Even getting the game’s first powerplay couldn’t help out the Sens, and they hit the first intermission down 3-1 despite outshooting them 11-7.

The second period gave us two early Tim Stützle goals to tie things up, including one on the red-hot powerplay:

Right place, right time 🤷‍♂️🚨#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/pU9X13lz8O

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 8, 2023

Those reflexes though! 🤯🚨#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/ppZkDqQWeW

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 8, 2023

This made it a tie game for 22 seconds, which also happened to be the last 22 seconds of the game in which I had much hope. Just after this, Daniel Sprong scored, and six minutes later Matty Beniers made it 5-3. The Sens were behind two goals again, and seemed to have lost some of their earlier jump.

The third period, everything unravelled. Just over a minute in, Vince Dunn scored. Before the five minute mark, Jordan Eberle made it a 7-3 game, it all felt over. Stützle completed his hat-trick 25 seconds later:

🎩-trick! 🚨#GoSensGo | @timstuetzle18 pic.twitter.com/QZJUfbGelW

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 8, 2023

Unfortunately, the only goal after that was Andre Burakovsky for the bad guys, and that did it. The balance of play was pretty even, with Ottawa getting more sustained pressure and the Kraken getting more rush chances, but some nights every shot goes in for one team, and this was one of those nights.

Thoughts on the game:

• I can’t fault the goalies on many of the goals that were scored (the first one was a misplay, and Dunn’s was stoppable for sure), but you need your goalies to win one for. The good news is that both Forsberg and Talbot have bounced back this season, so I expect they will again. I do think it’s a little odd that with two starters, Smith insists on continuing to play the same goalie until they have an awful game.
• Thomas Chabot activated very well tonight. His skating with the puck is a huge strength, and he showed it well tonight.
• Poor Stützle, getting a hat-trick no one will remember. The first goal was kind of lucky, but the other two showed how good he is with his hands. Hard to believe this guy’s only 20.
• As for skating with the puck, I noticed both Tkachuk and Brännström make nice carries into the zone.
• A couple of times I noticed the Watson-Brassard-Kelly line out there for an offensive zone draw, and to me that seems like an odd choice. Watson and Kelly have roles on the team, but if they’re going to score it’s likely on the rush. Give one of your top two lines a chance to win the faceoff and pour on the pressure every chance you get.
• Hopefully Sens Skills tomorrow is a good chance for everybody to have fun and take their mind off this stinker./

Game Flow: