The single strongest aspect of the Ottawa Senators game so far this season has been their top of the league penalty kill. Such was not the case on Saturday afternoon, as the Vegas Golden Knights put on a power play clinic, scoring on 3 of their 5 man advantages with a fourth coming just moments after a penalty expired and before the player could get back into the play.
I don't know if the Senators took the Golden Knights and their fourth string goalie lightly, or if their minds were already on a plane to Sweden, but there was a distinct lack of any sense of urgency on the Senators' part until the last three minutes or so. The fact that they had just 12 shots through 40 minutes is evidence that they weren't on their game in a situation where jumping on an inexperienced goalie would have been the play.
As the Senators do, they were part of another player's first, as Maxime Lagace posted his first career win despite allowing a couple of late goals to make it close.
Mark Stone continued his dominance in a losing effort, with a goal and an assist and Erik Karlsson got his long awaited first goal of the year, but it wasn't enough.
The Senators were their own worst enemy in terms of taking penalties, although you could argue that there were a couple of soft calls and the Knights took full advantage of their opportunities.
Craig Anderson allowed 5 goals on 34 shots, and although it is tough to fault him directly the fact is that he has let in 3 or more goals in six of the last 7 games he has played, with a .874 SP since returning from the Western Canada road trip. The fact is it is a goalie's job to stop the puck, even some of the ones he shouldn't. I don't know that it is being done and it might be time to give Mike Condon some more action.
The club will now leave Monday night for Sweden where they will play the Colorado Avalanche in back to back games Friday and Saturday.