Ottawa Senators Postgame: Sens Lose to Sabres, Again

My headlines have become repetitive, but why sway from the truth? It was just over a week ago that the Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the third straight time this season. Then, last Tuesday, the Senators lost to the Montreal Canadiens for the third straight time this season. That brings us to tonight, where the Senators lost to the Buffalo Sabres for the third straight time this season. The final was 3-2, with the Sens blowing 1-0 and 2-1 leads. Let’s dive into the details on the disappointing loss.

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Reimer, Sabres Continue Dominance Over Sens

Coming into tonight, here were Reimer’s numbers against the Senators in his career: 17-6-4, .924 SV%,  four shutouts. Well, you can add another win to those totals, and slightly increase that save percentage after he stopped 30 of 32 shots tonight. He has more wins, more shutouts, and a higher save percentage against the Sens than he does any team in the league. The Senators had a 1-0 lead for almost the whole first period, but couldn’t add to that lead, thanks to Reimer’s strong play. This seems to be a case of a guy who enjoys playing against the Sens.

Speaking of enjoying games against the Sens, that’s been the Sabres team as a whole this season. Despite sitting last in the East, the Sabres have won all three games against the Senators this season. While the Sabres give up an average of 3.5 goals against per game, the Senators have managed just three goals in all three games combined this year. The Senators have one final chance to beat the Sabres this season, on April 1st.

Five on Five Struggles Continue

Going into tonight, the Ottawa Senators were 30th in the NHL with 112 goals at five on five. They are dead last in the Eastern Conference. While they have been solid at goal prevention at five on five (11th best in the NHL), their goal differential is an abysmal minus 21. That of course includes a minus three tonight. The Senators added Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund in part to help with this issue. Cozens has looked good on a line with Batherson and Perron. Zetterlund took a little longer to gain a bigger opportunity. He has looked solid with Stützle and Tkachuk in recent games, but hasn’t been able to score as of yet. Inevitably, being close to scoring doesn’t help at this point. It’s time for Zetterlund and the rest of the Senators top offensive players to put the puck in the net at five on five.

Additional Notes

Anton Forsberg doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence at this point. To his credit, he made a great glove save to keep this game 3-2. The problem is, the goals against weren’t great, especially the goal by Bernard-Docker. Let’s face it, though, Forsberg’s put up mediocre numbers for three seasons now. He needs a lot of support around him to succeed. Maybe that means Travis Green should play the likes of Sanderson and Chabot more when Forsberg is in net, to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Tonight, Travis Hamonic and Tyler Kleven were given very similar even strength ice-time as the top four. That’s not a recipe for success. Some good news going forward for the Ottawa Senators- Brady Tkachuk looked like his normal self tonight. He scored a goal, had eight shots, three hits, and won 13 of his 17 faceoffs in 19:20 of ice-time.