Senators Suffocated Amidst the Stars in 4-2 Loss

It's been a while since the Ottawa Senators have been shut down to such a degree that their AHL affiliate probably would've done as good of a job. The Dallas Stars are one of the league's top teams, even better than their record shows, and especially so at home. All that aside, even though 0 points tonight and 3 losses in 4 games aren't reasons in and of themselves to panic, tonight was still painful to watch.

Demolished at even strength. Embarrassed on the power-play. The PK...was not bad, to be honest, even though they allowed an early ice-breaker to Roope Hintz on a deflection.

I know it's hard to remember now for that watched, but the Sens had a good road period in the 1st and managed to turn the momentum in their favour quickly.

Three minutes after the opening goal, Matt Duchene, most likely as a result of PTSD triggered by the sight of an Ottawa Senators jersey, did this:

And just 43 seconds later, Miro Heiskanen, most likely as a result of exhaustion from having to carry Ilya Lyubushkin on a nightly basis, did this:

A four-game goal drought for the Tkaptain snapped, and a three-game goal streak for Ridly Greig materialized in the blink of an eye, reversing this season's trend of the Senators allowing goals in bunches after a strong stretch.

Yeah...about what I just said regarding goals in bunches. Old habits die hard, it turns out. After a solid first half of a second period, Jamie Benn's shot off the rush deflected off Travis Hamonic and beat Leevi Merilainen to tie the game at 2. Unlucky.

And 1:08 later, off an Ottawa D-zone win, Jake Sanderson made a brutal turnover in front of the net, and Hamonic ran a pick on his own goaltender, which made it easy for Roope Hintz to give Dallas the lead back. Unacceptable.

From that point on, and through the 3rd period, it was all Dallas, save for a Shane Pinto shorthanded breakaway that was stopped by Oettinger, and Duchene doubled the Stars' lead with 6:30 to go in the game, which brought about our final score of 4-2, with the shots count at 25 for Dallas and a measly 13 for Ottawa.

Game Notes:

• I think the best way to describe the goaltending for Ottawa tonight is as follows: the team deserved an .840 save percentage, but Leevi Merilainen didn't. He was better than that number indicated and you'll hear no arguments from me against running a tandem with him and Anton Forsberg while Linus Ullmark is out.
• Even a good coach, as Travis Green has been for the Sens this year, has their kryptonite. In his case, it's the stubbornness of relying on a Sanderson-Hamonic pairing that's like rolling a six-sided die, except the highest result you can get is a 3. He's used it in response to Artem Zub's absence, and presumably to ease him back into the linuep tonight. But it needs to stop. I'd say it cost the team the game but that burden is shared by the whole team tonight.
• Perhaps equally as disappointing was the performance of Ottawa's forward corps and power-play. Tkachuk, Pinto, and Greig did their part in capitalizing on the Stars' mistakes, but boy did the the team look lousy with the man advantage. If you squinted hard enough you could see Green begin to develop a badass facial scar on the bench. I suppose there's solace in the fact that there won't be many games in which Tim Stützle and Josh Norris are indistinguishable from Noah Gregor and Cole Reinhardt.
• Boston lost tonight. Moral victory?
• Up next are the St. Louis Blues, tomorrow on the second half of a back-to-back, starting at 8:00 pm EST. Despite tonight, this road trip has been successful so far, and a win will see them with at least a winning record across the nine games.

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