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SABRES 4, SENATORS 0
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No place like home?
The Ottawa Senators were booed off the ice in their first appearance on home ice in 26 days because of the 2025 IIHF world junior championship.
On a throwback Thursday, the Senators turned back to the bad old days with an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in front of 16,276 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
“It just wasn’t good. There’s no way around it,” said alternate captain Thomas Chabot, who was a whopping minus-4. “Nobody can hide from it. From top-to-bottom the whole team was just not good enough. It’s as simple as that.”
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LPGA superstar Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls was on hand to drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoff, and if the Senators have many repeat performances, they’ll be joining her on the golf course in April … again.
The club is now 1-5-1 in its last seven games.
Maybe it was just bad timing, but the Senators were wearing their road white jerseys and playing their first home game since Dec. 14. Teams usually do that once or twice a year, however, it looked odd.
The Senators were trying to atone for a 5-1 loss to the Sabres on Nov. 5 at home and that didn’t happen.
Goaltender Anton Forsberg wasn’t good enough and he was no match for Buffalo netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made the necessary stops.
You knew it would be tough after a lengthy stretch on the road but nobody saw this coming.
“Usually the first game after a long road trip is a tough one, but I didn’t think it would be this tough,” Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer told TSN’s Claire Hanna after the second period.
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BREAK THE SLUMP
The loss of goaltender Linus Ullmark hasn’t helped, but he’s not counted on to put the puck in the net.
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The Senators had plenty of players that needed to step up with the Sabres in town. Josh Norris, Shane Pinto, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux and Drake Batherson had to step up offensively to get the job done.
Your best players have to be your best and this was the second time the club has been shutout in three games.
Coach Travis Green tried to shake up his lines midway through the second period but at that point, the Senators were well on their way to their sixth loss in seven games.
Norris moved to the wing to play with Stutzle and Giroux, however, nothing was happening.
“We talked about it before the game, we’ve been gone a long time now and we wanted to have a good game. We didn’t,” said Norris.
They trailed 4-0 after 40 minutes and it could have been worse.
Trying to get back into it in the second, a terrible turnover by Nick Jensen resulted in a 3-0 lead for the Sabres. Dylan Cozens was the recipient of the giveaway and beat Forsberg at 4:10.
The Senators can’t afford those errors given all the other issues they have and Ryan McLeod padded the lead at 10:22 of the second.
The club also lost winger Noah Gregor to a lower-body injury.
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NET ISSUES
If the Senators are to ride out this injury to Ullmark then Forsberg has to carry the ball.
Rookie goalie Leevi Merilainen has been fine in his three appearances, but the Senators need the veteran to get the job done. He stopped 30 shots in a 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit on Tuesday and was solid.
His numbers against the Sabres weren’t bad coming into this one. He had posted a 4-4-0 career record in nine appearances with a 2.,29 goals-against average and a solid .929 save percentage.
The Senators outshot the Sabres 13-6 in the first and were down 2-0.
Former 67’s forward Jack Quinn scored twice in the first on five shots to open up a two-goal lead for the Sabres at 13:16 of the first.
He came out of the penalty box, took a pass from McLeod after he blocked a shot by Thomas Chabot and beat Forsberg under the crossbar.
Quinn’s sixth of the season with 9:43 left in the first. He fired it by Forsberg on the stick side and that was only Buffalo’s third shot of the period.
HOME ON THE RANGE
The Senators closed out the nine-game stretch on the road on Tuesday with a 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit, finishing with a 4-4-1 record, and they are in the playoff mix as they hit the mid-season point of the schedule on Saturday.
“You’re going to get frustrated. It’s hard not to,” said Green. “If you don’t get frustrated you’re in the wrong business. Guys are upset and frustrated but it’s how you handle that frustration.”
Unfortunately, the Senators didn’t have much going and they were lucky the final score wasn’t worse.
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