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Coaching mistakes/match ups continue to plague the Sens in 7-5 loss!

November 23, 2021, 1:18 AM ET [63 Comments]
Kevin Francis
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It was great to have the Sens back playing in-game action last night after a 9-day layoff, but the frustration level of Sens fans continues to escalate as Ottawa lost 7-5 in Colorado. On a night when Ottawa had no business being in the game, once again it was Filip Gustavsson who gave his team a chance to win when they were thoroughly outplayed for large portions of the game.

Ottawa fell behind less than a minute into the game after DJ Smith inexplicably started his 4th line and 3rd defense pairing and Colorado took advantage of the mismatch with the Avs top line burying their first goal of the night. It was the coaching staff's bizarre handling of the Sens bench that also led to the game-winner when yet again Victor Mete had no idea who his assignment was and the Avs made them pay scoring the game-winner with under two minutes left in the game. Josh Brown left the game early on with what appeared to be a hand injury, with Nick Holden being held out of the game for conditioning reasons, you can expect him to return to the line-up in San Jose on Wednesday night.

I know many Sens fans will say Ottawa deserved a better fate last night but when you get outshot 18-0 for the first 16 minutes of the 2nd period, you truly don't deserve to win. Gustavsson was the only reason Ottawa was in a position to keep this game from getting out of hand. There are very few games in which NHL teams score their 5th goal on their fifteenth shot to take a 5-4 lead in the third period but that's exactly what Ottawa did in Colorado.

Zach Sanford notched his second career hat trick but only after it was determined during the second intermission that he was credited for a goal that everyone thought Lassi Thomson had scored in the 1st period. So Thomson will have to wait for his first career NHL goal, but this rookie had another solid game notching 4 shots on goal(the blue line only had 7 in total) and he played some important minutes with Thomas Chabot. The shot that Thomson possesses is dynamite and it was fun to watch him get some PP time to use it. Ottawa scored on 2 of their 3 chances with the man advantage.

Puck management proved vital against Colorado as the Avs had 19 takeaways leading to numerous scoring chances. It was nice to see Ottawa split the faceoff battle for once as they have struggled in the dot all year. I was surprised to see Tkachuk take 10 draws which is the most he has taken all season in one game but his line combined to be a minus seven on the night! But that's what happens when you put all your top talent on one line and a team like Colorado matches up against your top unit and owns them. It sure would help to have some top-end talent down the middle and as I mentioned in my blog yesterday about potential UFA's, Nazem Kadri had a dominant night with 1G, 3A, 4 SOG, and after watching him more than I have all year he truly has the most to offer offensively with the group of UFA's set to hit the market this coming summer. Would Ottawa try to sign him to a long-term deal? Or is Kadri outpricing himself with the great numbers he's putting up? Let's face it, Kadri is insulated by a lot of talent in Colorado so he might not put up those same types of numbers on an offensively challenged team.

Ottawa now travels to San Jose to take on the Sharks tomorrow night. Will Ottawa grab any points on this road trip? I would love to hear from you Sens fans. Thoughts on what went wrong last night? Are you starting to believe that it will be hard to win with this coaching staff due to the same endless decisions they continue to make? Nothing like learning from last years mistakes, as they say!

Thanks for reading.

Kevin
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