The Ottawa Senators remain a work in progress under first-year coach Travis Green.
After their encouraging 4-2-0 start this season, the Senators allowed 11 goals while suffering road losses over the weekend to the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche. They will try to reset Tuesday when they host the St. Louis Blues.
Ottawa fell to the Avalanche 5-4 on Sunday despite getting a strong performance by Anton Forsberg (25 saves) in goal.
“We didn’t play good enough to win. Our goalie gave us a great game,” Green said. “I thought physically, we didn’t play well enough, but he gave us a good enough game to give us a chance to get a point. But mentally, we weren’t very sharp, either. We made some mistakes that more or less led to three goals.
“There’s just little, tiny details that are pretty ‘A-B-C’ that we didn’t perform, and when you don’t do that, that tells me that you weren’t ready to play,” he continued. “I didn’t think we were physically a good hockey team, and mentally, we definitely weren’t sharp enough to win.”
Ottawa features a potent offense with Drake Batherson (five goals, five assists), Brady Tkachuk (four goals, six assists) and Tim Stutzle (three goals, seven assists) setting the pace through eight games.
Claude Giroux, 36, is also off to a strong start. He scored twice against the Avalanche, and he has five goals and four assists.
But the Senators have struggled defensively, allowing 3.75 goals per game — the NHL’s fifth-worst average.
The Blues will be making their third stop on a four-game road swing. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 on Thursday, then fell to the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday.
“It’s not a good game,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said after that defeat. “I thought we tiptoed into the first period. I thought for 40 minutes, we didn’t bring a lot of physicality to the game. We weren’t finishing checks. I thought we turned off a lot.
“We weren’t willing to work early and we weren’t willing to be physical. When you’re doing that, then you’re usually chasing the game, and it’s hard to get yourself into it.”
The Blues have spent much of their early season playing from behind. According to Natural Stat Trick, they have trailed an average of 28:07 per game.
“That’s on us as players to come out ready to go from puck drop,” said Blues winger Jake Neighbours, who has four goals and an assist in his last five games. “You’ve got to be ready at the start of the game. That gives you a better opportunity to maybe grab a lead or keep it a tied game for a longer amount of time. That’s on us as players.”
The Blues have had to shuffle their forward lines after losing No. 1 center Robert Thomas (broken ankle) for approximately six weeks. Converted winger Pavel Buchnevich is centering the top line and captain Brayden Schenn moved up to center the No. 2 line.
–Field Level Media