The Ottawa Senators are off to a 1-3-0 start and face the Seattle Kraken on Thursday one night after a blowout 8-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Looking to return to the playoffs again this year after snapping an eight-year drought in the spring, the Senators have lost three straight and are without their captain Brady Tkachuk for at least the next month due to an upper-body injury.
Defenceman Thomas Chabot called on the team to find unity after Wednesday’s defeat as the losses start to pile up early.
“It’s all little mistakes by all of us that just end up in the back of our net,” Chabot said. “The positive thing is that we can fix it as a team and as a group. It’s frustrating right now, but as a group we’ve got to stay together ... and make sure that tomorrow night we’re ready to go.”
Viewers in the Senators region can watch Thursday’s game LIVE on TSN5 at 7pm ET.
“We just got back to our game,” head coach Travis Green added. “There were probably two or three looser plays in the second period, and they happen to go down and score. They get the short-handed goal, a bit of a lucky bounce, the first goal’s a lucky bounce, another power-play goal goes off two sticks and off a body. I like that we battled back, but then you give up a goal that you’d like to have back.”
Defence has been an issue for the Senators, who have allowed at least four goals in all four of their games. Green, however, saw positives despite the result against the Sabres.
“It definitely didn’t feel like an 8-4 game. We spent a lot of time in their zone, and some weird goals went in tonight,” Green said. “When you lose like that, you hate to say you played well, but we did a lot of good things tonight.”
Green appeared to point some of the blame for Wednesday’s defeat on backup Leevi Merilainen, who finished with 19 saves on 26 shots in his first start of the year.
“When you let in seven, it’s hard to say you had a good night,” Green said. “I feel for Leevi. He’s got to battle through it and be better next time.”
Ottawa is expected to turn back to Linus Ullmark for Thursday’s game against the Kraken. The 32-year-old is 1-2-0 this season with a .842 save percentage and a 4.07 goals-against average.
