Senators Kill Two Penalties, Still Lose in Seattle

I have good news for all you sadists out there as the Ottawa Senators managed to keep us up past midnight Eastern Standard time while also playing more uninspired hockey. If you chose to sleep instead then you chose correctly!

If you wanted some sort of consolation for staying up late to catch this game then you didn’t get what you wanted in the first period. The Sens got the majority of the shots by virtue of an extended powerplay but Seattle had the better chances and the lead after 20 in a frame I would best describe as frustrating. Ottawa killed an early penalty after a Josh Norris high-stick but couldn’t get a puck past Joey Daccord at five-on-three or five-on-four (or five-on-five for that matter). Seattle’s first period goal came in very predictable fashion with some of Ottawa’s best players on the ice and no one able to control the puck to clear the zone. 1-0 Seattle.

If you’ve watched any amount of Senators hockey this season then I don’t really need to to tell you how the second period played out. The Sens actually started out strong defensively killing consecutive penalties for what felt like the first time this season. Korpisalo made a lot of crucial saves through the first five minutes when Seattle really turned it on. In another very Sens moment, Norris had thought he scored around the seven-minute mark to tie the game but, just joking, it was just a close call and Daccord still had his shutout intact.

After the midway mark of the second frame it felt like the Sens started to click but Daccord really, it must be said, played a solid game all night. The Sens drew a penalty shortly thereafter but that dreaded curse lives on and after failing to convert on the PP, Seattle scored twice in quick succession to close out the frame courtesy of Tomas Tatar, Andre Burakovsky, and Ottawa turning over the puck on the breakout. Anyway, gotta love giving up those coffin nails in the last minute of the period. 3-0 Seattle.

In the final period, Ottawa earned a powerplay opportunity but once again failed to convert with just too many unnecessary passes and no one willing to pull the trigger. By the time the Sens really got into gear, they only had about ten minutes left to work with and still a three-goal deficit to overcome. With all of Ottawa’s star forwards snakebitten, Parker Kelly broke the shutout bid and got Ottawa on the board on a broken play. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, really.

Still holding a two-goal lead, Seattle looked perfectly capable of running out the clock against Ottawa’s seemingly disinterested forecheck. For a second it genuinely felt like Daccord would get the empty netter in true poetic justice but alas Vincent Dunn sealed it. 4-1 Seattle. Bedtime.

Game Notes

• Considering the score effects, a shot margin of 31-28 seems underwhelming even on the road. Looking at the heatmap below, you can once again see Ottawa getting more volume but less quality than their opponent.
• Not to belabour the point but for these Senators, killing consecutive penalties does feel like a much-needed small victory. The powerplay, on the other hand still looks disastrous. They get looks but they also seem one step behind the penalty killers with that first unit out there.
• The save percentage and final score don't do Joonas Korpisalo justice again. He made more clutch saves than I could count and kept this one closer than he should have. Maybe he could have had one or two of those goals back but he also made a lot of saves that other netminders wouldn't have.
• Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, and Drake Batherson had a rough night. Norris got a couple of chances but Seattle for the most part neutralized that trio. Ridly Greig on the other hand I thought had a great game with Parker Kelly and Dominik Kubalik of all linemates.
• Despite the score I thought all of Ottawa's defenders had their moments. On paper, Thomas Chabot technically had the roughest night but it felt more like bad bounces than a genuinely poor performance. Like everything else with this team. I can't pin down the individual components that don't work. The whole thing is just broken.