The Ottawa Senators will be looking for a better fate on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, less than 24 hours after a loss to the Washington Capitals. The Senators outchanced the Capitals for most of the game but were thwarted by Logan Thompson and his posts numerous times.
“Sucks right now, I think we still had enough chances,” said Stützle, who made the score 2-1 late in the third before the Capitals potted two empty netters.
“You’ve got to give their goalie credit, I think he made some big saves. But especially on the power play, we’ve got to get to the net, we’ve got to screen the goalie and not just be on the side. That goes for all of us, and also five-on-five we’ve got to be net-front and get shots through.”
Stützle, Thomas Chabot, and Travis Green each pointed to needing to be better in the second period, when the Capitals took advantage of the long change and leapt to a 2-0 lead.
“I thought obviously 10 minutes, we weren’t good in the second, and that kind of cost us the game,” said Chabot.
“But I thought just in general, just not good enough, simple as that. But this time of year, this point in the season, it’s that playoff mindset… we [didn’t] like our game tonight, but we get a chance to go right back at it, and tomorrow’s game’s a big one and we’ve got to respond like we’ve been doing.”
The Islanders, meanwhile, come into Thursday night rested after playing in Toronto on Tuesday night.
“It happened, it is what it is, and we’ve got to answer here as a group tomorrow night at home,” said Chabot.
