Travis Green was seething. Read MoreToo many mistakes led to too many goals against and a stinging defeat on Saturday afternoon.
Too many mistakes led to too many goals against and a stinging defeat on Saturday afternoon.
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Islanders 5, Senators 4
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Travis Green was seething.
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The Ottawa Senators’ head coach wasn’t alone on that front after they spoiled the Oktoberfest party with a disgraceful 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon in front of 15,929 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
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Green could handle the loss, but he didn’t like the way it happened one bit, after New York’s Anders Lee scored the winner with 63 seconds left, which meant the Senators’ effort until then was totally pointless.
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“It’s disappointing, for starters,” Green said. “I thought we got too loose when we got the lead. There were a lot of things that we took pride in last year that we were good at that we weren’t good at tonight.
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“There is a certain style of play that we want. There has been a lot of talk about creating more offence, but that doesn’t mean cheating for offence. That part of our game isn’t tight right now.”
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The Senators were too easy to play against.
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“We’re on the wrong side of the puck,” Green added. “We’re not making hard players, loose plays, loose passes, losing puck battles in certain areas of the rink or joining the rush when there’s no time to join.
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“Different things like that, or making a play inside the blue-line when it’s not the time or place. When you have the lead, you’ve got to keep making a team come 200 feet and create offence with your forecheck. That’s when you’re a good team. We did a lot of good things tonight, but I thought our mindset was a little loose.”
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STICKING WITH THE STARTER
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The Senators have allowed 30 goals in six games this season. The winning goal by Lee was the result of a comedy of errors that turned out not to be funny.
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Senators defenceman Jordan Spence got beat to a loose puck in the Ottawa zone. Lee then turned and beat netminder Linus Ullmark with a shot through the five-hole.
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Ullmark stopped only 18 of 23 shots. He needs to find a way to turn this around.
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“We’ve got to learn from it,” said veteran winger David Perron, who scored his second goal of the season. “I’m surprised we haven’t because of what we went through last year. We’ve got to get right back on the program as soon as we can. That’s how you get successful.”
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Ullmark came into this game with a 9-6-1 lifetime record versus the Isles, combined with a 2.55 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage. He had delivered a solid effort in the Senators’ victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.