2 quick takeaways from Senators' ugly 5-1 loss in Buffalo against Sabres
The Ottawa Senators had their third game in five nights as they hit the road to Buffalo to take on the Buffalo Sabres in the first of four meetings this season.
The Senators entered the game with momentum after a 3-0 shutout win in their last game on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken. However, tonight's game against the Sabres was anything but phenomenal.
The Sabres defeated the Senators 5-1 at KeyBank Center to drop the Sabres to 6-6-0 on the season and worsened the Senators' road record to 1-5-0.
Nothing went right in the Senators' fourth consecutive road loss except Ridley Greig scoring his scoring his second goal of the season with Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk picking up the assists. Tonight was the worst loss of the season so far for the Senators.
2. Slow starts in every period are hard to get out of
In the Senators' last road game on Friday night against the New York Rangers where they fell 2-1, the Senators started the first period and third period slow when the Rangers scored early into the period. Tonight, the Sabres did the same thing with getting off to a fast start in each period.
JJ Peterka scored a powerplay goal 6:37 into the game, and the Senators couldn't find momentum for the rest of the first period.
Seventeen seconds into the second period, Bowen Byram scored to make it 2-0 Sabres. Momentum appeared to be on the Senators' side after Greig scored over seven minutes later after Byram scored to start the second period.
The third period went beyond ugly for the Senators. Byram scored 21 seconds into the period to score his second goal of the game. Just 16 seconds later, Tage Thompson scored to make it 4-1. Two goals in a span 16 seconds to open the third period is just a momentum killer, and the Senators couldn't dig themselves out of it. Peterka scored another powerplay goal in the third period to make it 5-1 to make it a third period to forget for the Senators.
1. The wrong goaltender started between the pipes
It's always important for a head coach to ride his hot goaltender as much as possible. In the Senators' last game against the Kraken on Saturday night, Anton Forsberg recorded his second shutout of the season.
Instead of riding his hot goaltender, head coach Travis Green opted to start Linus Ullmark against the Sabres. While Ullmark did allow two goals in his last start against the Rangers, Forsberg was the hotter goaltender coming into Buffalo.
Ullmark shook off the Sabres jumping out to an early 1-0 lead in the first period by making nine saves in the first period. However, Ullmark allowing a goal just 17 seconds into the period to Bowen Byram is a momentum killer to start the period.
The decision to start Ullmark immediately backfired on Green when Ullmark allowed in two goals in a 16-second span in the opening 37 seconds of the third period. The Senators trailing 4-1 too early in the third period shut down all confidence.
While Ullmark finished with making 29 saves, he was outperformed by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen who finished with 37 saves. Ullmark's five goals allowed is the most he's allowed in two of his six starts this season.
The Senators will return to action Thursday night as they host the New York Islanders at Canadian Tire Centre. Puck drop for the game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.