Rough start to dads’ trip: Senators mess up their mojo with a listless effort vs. Kings

By CityNews Staff

Brady Tkachuk had a good line when he was asked how his father, Keith, might react to a loss like this 5-2 dud by the Senators against the Los Angeles Kings.

“Probably not much talk in the car,” Tkachuk said, reflecting on the classic father-son postgame ride home.

Probably not. Hockey dads can be demanding of their competitive sons, but most also know when to keep quiet and back off.

Compounding the Senators' “unacceptable” (Brady’s word) performance against the visiting Kings, many of the players’ fathers were in attendance at the Canadian Tire Centre (CTC). Hopefully, they get to enjoy lighter moments in the upcoming trip together – road games to Dallas and Nashville, stops on the 'dads’ trip” this season.

If only the Senators had raced after pucks as hard as they raced to accept responsibility for this inexplicably flat performance, coming on the heels of exhilarating weekend victories over the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks. Two steps forward, one step back for the last-place team in the Atlantic Division.

“That’s on me,” said Senators head coach D.J. Smith, asked about his team’s feeble opening minutes, giving up two goals in two minutes, 15 seconds. “Our preparation to start the game starts with me as the coach. It’s certainly unacceptable. My job is to make sure these guys are ready to play.”

Very noble of you, coach, but if professional hockey players can’t have themselves ready for the first shift, they need only look in the mirror. Which they did, give them credit.

“It’s not on him,” winger Drake Batherson said of his coach. “The game plan was there – as a group of players, we just weren’t ready to go. It has nothing to do with the coaches.”

Lack of attention to detail can be lethal. And quick. Over those first few shifts, the Kings were whipping the puck around as though they had an extra man. And it was Ottawa’s forwards who were late covering players wide or deep, as defenceman Matt Roy and centre Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored in those first two-plus minutes.

Batherson got one back, on the Senators' first power play of the night.

OK, 2-1. Back in the game.

But over the next six minutes, Viktor Arvidsson scored twice, once on the power play and then five-on-five, to completely demoralize the home team and a crowd of 13,459 at the CTC.

Cam Talbot, who got the start despite Anton Forsberg’s brilliant game against the Sharks on Saturday, was victimized by the Kings' puck movement, especially feeds to the wide forward.

Smith gave him a chance to work out of it, leaving him in to start the second period, down 4-1.

When Kevin Fiala put a power play shot through Talbot for L.A.’s fifth goal on 14 shots, Talbot gave way to Anton Forsberg. Forsberg stopped all 13 shots he faced, and likely earned the start in Dallas on Thursday, Dec. 8. 

“They’ve won us games and stood on their heads, both of them,” Tkachuk said. “For us to come out that flat and just screw Talbs like that, it’s unacceptable.”

This was also the third time in two-plus weeks that the Senators have pulled a goaltender, so there is plenty of blame to go around.

“Talbot was outstanding in New York (last Friday) and Forsberg was outstanding last game,” Smith said. “And if they don’t have their ‘A’ game, it’s up to us to cover them. They’ve covered us plenty. We’re not going to sit here and say, ‘Talbot, you should have this or have that,’ we’ve got to let him feel his way into the game – give them almost nothing in the first period and he’ll respond.”

That was the key to Ottawa’s overtime victory in L.A. on Nov. 27, to close out their western U.S. trip with a win. The Senators hounded the Kings with a consistent forecheck and neutral-zone presence, and didn't let them wheel as freely as they did in Ottawa Tuesday. Clearly, there was an emotional letdown after the stirring weekend wins.

The Senators are going to need a commitment to team defence with the news on Monday that defenceman Artem Zub is going to be out for about a month with a broken jaw. Zub, Ottawa’s best defensive defenceman, took a puck to the face against the Rangers last Friday. Dillon Heatherington was called up Wednesday from Belleville to help fill the gaps.

A week ago, the Senators allowed goaltender Jaroslav Halak to earn his first victory of the season with a 3-1 win for the New York Rangers at the CTC.

And this week the Sens were generous with American Hockey League (AHL) goaltender Pheonix Copley, making his first National Hocley League (NHL) start of the season for the Kings. It was Copley’s first NHL victory since March 19, 2019, when he beat the New Jersey Devils while with the Washington Capitals.

Copley, who hails from the seemingly fictional locale of North Pole, Alaska, received a pre-Christmas win by making 31 saves on 33 shots, few of them difficult. Now 30, Copley has been known to have candy canes on his mask designs, a tip of the cap to his birthplace.

He has appeared in 32 career NHL games and was just called up by the Kings last week from the AHL Ontario Reign.

Power play scalding hot

Although the loss dropped Ottawa to 10-14-1 on the season, there is a bright spot: the crisp, effective power play.

With two goals against the Kings – Thomas Chabot scored the second goal – the Sens have scored six power-play goals in their past three games and have climbed into a tie with Vancouver for sixth overall in the NHL at 26.88 per cent.

The puck movement has been so fast, and the threats varied enough, that opponents don’t know where to focus. Goals are coming from the bumper spot, the crease and, lately, from the point shot of Chabot.

Chabot has four power-play goals on the season, a massive leap from the career total of three before this year.

Tkachuk treasures dads’ trip

As much as they wanted to play better in front of their fathers on Tuesday, the Senators will get a chance to make it up to them with efforts in Dallas and Nashville as the dads travel on the team charter Wednesday.

“Of course, it’s a tough start (vs L.A.) with them in attendance, but it’s always a highlight of the year when the dads are able to come,” Tkachuk said. “For everything they’ve done for us growing up, taking us to practice and all that, do whatever they could to get us to where we are today – now is the time to celebrate them and kind of honour them for everything they’ve done.

“For me, it’s the highlight of the year when we get to have these trips.”

 

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