The Ottawa Senators split their roster between two games on Wednesday. The side they sent to Toronto came out on the wrong end of a 6-1 decision against a Maple Leafs squad brimming with NHL experience and talent.
“Anytime you lose, it's frustrating. I think the way we lost — just too many mistakes, not detailed enough. They're letting us run around a little bit in our own zone, and they have some skilled players over there who can make some plays,” said Stützle.
“We’ve got to learn from them. Same mistakes over and over. They have good, skilled players over there, and if you play against a team like that, you can't turn the puck over. We did too much of that — also, me, in the first period. And then yeah, it took some time to get into the game… but we just weren't detailed enough, especially in the D zone, just running around.”
The Leafs evened the score just over a minute after Stützle’s opener and then made it 2-1 with less than a minute to go until the first intermission.
“I actually really liked the way we came out. Obviously, getting the first goal, thought we responded really well through the first period. You know, obviously, it's very intimidating for a lot of guys looking at the roster that they had tonight, but I thought that we jumped right into it,” said Senators assistant coach Mike Yeo, who was serving as head coach with Travis Green back in Ottawa.
“Kind of made a mistake at the end of the period. That's a real learning experience for us. You know, I think getting out of that period 1-1 would have made a difference.”
The Senators gave up three more unanswered goals in the second period, and then Auston Matthews added another just over six minutes into the final frame.
“I felt the game kind of slipped. The game was still moving along okay, but they scored that third, power play goal,” said Yeo. “It seemed like we sagged a lot. But I give a lot of guys credit. A lot of young guys, especially. It's a tough environment against a tough team, and they never quit.”
After the sixth goal, Yeo pulled Senators’ netminder Leevi Meriläinen in favour of backup Jackson Parsons, who saved all eight shots he faced in his 13 minutes of action. Yeo said that it was a reflection of the team’s play rather than an indictment of Meriläinen’s work.
“Absolutely nothing on Leevi. [I] went and talked to him afterwards. It was more [that we] didn't really like the way we were playing in front of him, to be honest with you — not that it was a matter of effort or anything like that,” said Yeo.
“It was just they had some guys that were ticking it around pretty good. It was more about his confidence and preserving that. I actually thought he battled hard all night. I know he gave up, you know, more than he'd probably say he wanted to, but not at any point tonight did I say that any of those were his fault.”
In the third period, the Senators made a push to get back in the game but would have benefitted from some better puck luck. Leafs goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky robbed Stützle on the doorstep during a 5-on-3 early in the frame, one of his 13 saves on the night.
Kasper Halttunen nearly had a goal when he batted a puck out of midair, but it rang off the post, and Oskar Pettersson rang a one-timer attempt off the crossbar just minutes later.
“I thought we battled there in the third to come back. I think we did some good things, but obviously, still a lot to work on,” said Michael Amadio, who finished the night with five hits and a +0 rating.
“I think we’ve just got to learn from it, kind of learn the areas we need to work on… one more game to go to get ready to go for the regular season, so we’ve got to make sure we bring our game.”
The Senators will again split their team on Saturday, sending a squad to Montreal and keeping a squad at home for 7 p.m. games. The Senators’ road game will be broadcast on TSN 5 in the Senators’ viewing region. The home game will be available to stream on NHL.com/senators.
