Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson makes a save in front of his empty net during the final seconds of the third period against the Vegas Golden Knights in Ottawa on Nov. 21, 2024.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Travis Green hasn’t been behind the Ottawa Senators bench very long, but he could see what has carried over from years past with the team.
The Senators (8-10-1) lost their fourth straight game Thursday night, despite putting up a valiant effort against the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-2 loss.
The Golden Knights (12-6-2) jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Green knew his team was starting to get a familiar feeling, and not the kind he wants them to be comfortable with. The Senators are 1-9-1 overall when allowing the first goal and seem to struggle dealing with the adversity of playing from behind.
“I think that there’s a little bit of carryover from years past and here we go again around here,” admitted Green. “And I think you can only worry about the present, not worry about the past. Control what’s ahead of you, not, you can’t control what’s behind you.
“And our group still has to learn. And I could feel it when it got to 2-0 tonight that there’s a little bit of ‘Oh boy, we’re in trouble now,’ and we’ve got to learn to play from behind and not be a team that either panics or starts to take high risks, just keep playing.”
There was a lot to like about the Senators game Thursday, but a few mistakes proved costly. Ilya Samsonov also had an impressive 38-save performance for Vegas.
“He was just outstanding today for us,” said Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev of Samsonov. “He made a lot of saves against a really skilled team. He obviously kept us in the game, too. They had a lot of good looks and he was just really good for us.”
Green and management are well aware of their team’s struggles with adversity and are working with players to get through it, but players also need to take some accountability.
“You have to be honest with yourself, individually, as a team,” shared forward David Perron. “That’s what coaches do. For the players you look at yourself a little bit individually, you look at what the team can do better, and you have to just be honest with the assessment, win or lose.
“You’ve got to find a way to keep getting better.”
Vegas, which was coming off a 3-0 loss to Toronto the night before, opened the scoring in the first when Linus Ullmark made a diving save and was unable to get back into position, giving Jack Eichel a wide-open net for his sixth of the season.
Brett Howden made it 2-0 midway through the second with a goal that beat Ullmark, who stopped 30 shots, under the arm.
Ottawa made a game of it when Adam Gaudette finally beat Samsonov early in the third with two seconds remaining on the power play to cut the lead in half. But two minutes later, Pavel Dorofeyev scored.
Drake Batherson kept the Senators within reach, scoring on a Jake Sanderson rebound with just over seven minutes remaining. However, Ottawa was unable to complete the comeback despite throwing 18 shots at Samsonov in the third.
“I thought we controlled the tempo of the game the first half,” said Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy. “I thought that was important for us not to have to chase the game.
“To me, that’s the biggest thing when you’re on a road trip and you’re playing a lot of hockey – try not to put yourself in a position to chase the game so that you can use your whole bench and guys can feel good about their games. That’s what happened.”
The win was a memorable one for Cassidy, who is an Ottawa native, as this marked his 400th NHL career win.
“It feels great,” admitted Cassidy. “You never know where your numbers are going to end up, but I’m going to tell you: in this business, I’m just worried about No. 401 right now.”