Kicking off the second longest road trip in franchise history with a 7th straight loss, to a divisional rival is not something you want to do, but is exactly what the Ottawa Senators did on Wednesday night.
Yet again, the Senators failed to cash in on chances, and they have been taking the path of least resistance on the rush. By that I mean taking what the other team gives and putting themselves right where their opposition wants them - in areas where it is difficult to generate offense.
The Senators have now gone 151 minutes without scoring a goal at 5 on 5, since Mike Hoffman's second period tally against Columbus on Friday night.
Aside from Mark Stone's shorthanded unassisted breakaway goal on Carey Price Wednesday, the closest they came to scoring might have been Gabriel Dumont's shoot-in that took a weird bounce and nearly caught Price wandering, making him scramble back into the crease for the save.
Craig Anderson and Mike Condon have done their best in the past two games, holding their opposition to 2 in each of the last 2 games, but the Senators inability to generate at the other end has left no margin for error. No goalie in the world is making the save on the Jonathan Drouin penalty shot that tied the score at 1, and the Senators never found an answer to pick their goalie up.
Carey Price is back in form after struggling earlier in the season and missing time due to injury, but the Senators didn't give him much of a test, primarily keeping to the perimeter and making questionable pass/shoot decisions once again, a trend that seems stuck on repeat.
Now Guy Boucher will be looking for answers as the Senators head to Brooklyn to face the surging Islanders Friday night, riding the league's longest active losing streak (officially 5 games but in reality it is 7) and the only current losing streak longer than 2.
I don't know what the answer is, other than cloning Stone 11 timesand playing 12 of him up front, because right now he is the only thing that is working with any type of consistency. It is not like it is one thing can be changed and everything will be good, it is a matter of every player on the roster giving more than what they currently are. We will wait and see if they can flip some kind of switch against the Isles.