The Sens held a high-paced practice yesterday at Canadian Tire Centre before traveling to Pittsburgh and it was pretty clear that Sens head coach Guy Boucher wanted to ramp up the compete level.
"Sometimes it's good for you to do some battle drills," said Derick Brassard following the skate. "We're playing one of the best teams in the league and the defending champs the last two years so we have to be ready to play a solid game."
After a disastrous start to Saturday's game in Toronto that saw the Sens give up 3 goals in the first 12 minutes, Brassard and the Sens know that they need to "start the game on time" and not put themselves in such a deep hole early on. Despite the issues in the first period, the Sens did respond and close the gap over the final 40 minutes but weren't able to overcome the 3-0 deficit.
"We had a good push in the second and the third," recalled Brassard about the Sens' 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs. "But in the first period, for whatever reason, we didn't have our legs."