The Ottawa Senators lost 4-3 to the Arizona Coyotes under the new Jacques Martin and Daniel Alfredsson coaching duo in a comeback win at Mullett Arena. Down 3-0 halfway through the game, the Coyotes scored four unanswered goals to stun the Sens in regulation.
Normally, this would’ve been a routine Tuesday night game between two teams that rarely face each other during the regular season. But as we know, nothing has been normal for the Senators this season. There is a lot to unpack in a game that showed us two different versions of a Senators team having now lost five games in a row.
Senators vs. Coyotes: Part 1
The first version of the story starts with a wholesome moment for a young Senators player. Early in the first period, Angus Crookshank scored his first career goal in only his second NHL game on a nice deflection from the point to beat newly emerging starting goalie Connor Ingram. Crookshank, a fifth-round pick in 2018, had 10 goals and 21 points through 24 games with the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League (AHL) before being called up by the big club.
Apart from his first career goal, his play reflected that of the Senators as a whole in the first half of the game. In other words, we saw an intense, emotional and most importantly, motivated Sens team on the ice. Soon after this goal, Brady Tkachuk fought Matt Dumba following a heated battle along the boards. The Tkachuk family and the rest of the crowd watched as the Sens captain got a majority of the punches on his opponent.
This fight sparked something in the Senators as Josh Norris and Dominik Kubalik scored two quick goals to make it a 3-0 game at the end of the first period. Up until the middle of the second period, everything was looking good. In fact, the next words I was supposed to write in this article were the following: “The Senators would hold on to the lead to give their new interim head and assistant coaches their first wins of the season.”
Unfortunately, the 4-3 score shows that this is not the fairytale ending that was expected after coming out of the gates strong. The two franchise legends would see their team have a complete meltdown.
Senators vs. Coyotes: Part 2
If there’s one thing that’s for sure, Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny knows how to motivate his troops to start a third period. After a Jack McBain rebound goal in the second period, it was J.J. Moser’s turn to score a goal after some good offensive zone pressure by his team.
Senators goalie Joonas Korpisalo was solid throughout the game until Clayton Keller surprised him with a short-side shot on a broken play to tie the game up a few minutes into the third period. He must’ve still had the missed Coyotes cross-checking call before the second goal in mind because he seemed distracted from that point on. To make matters worse, Korpisalo didn’t get much help on the game-winning goal either, as the puck found its way in the back of the net after a bad bounce off Travis Hamonic’s skate.
Related: Senators Fire Head Coach D.J. Smith
The Senators fell short of a win they would’ve had in their back pocket had they played like they did in the first 40 minutes. It looks like only the Coyotes got the memo that hockey is a three-period game.
The Learning Curve
As mentioned a few times, the biggest headline going into this game was the Senators’ coaching changes. Firstly, the headlines were all about the return of Martin behind the Senators’ bench. The 71-year-old not only coached the most games in Senators history, but also has the most wins. His first stint saw him appear in 692 games and boast a 341-255-96 record. Secondly, the addition of Alfredsson as an assistant coach with the Senators also made a lot of fans happy. The former captain is the only player to have put up 1,000 points with the Senators and still leads them all-time in that category, alongside goals and assists. On and off the ice, he represents everything the Senators organization aspires to be with his class and passion for the game and the city of Ottawa.
If you’re a fan of the team, it’s easy to want to hit the panic button after this game. Yes, the team is playing pretty bad and it will take a miracle run to make it to the postseason. However, it’s not as bad as it may seem. The Senators are in the midst of a road trip and have had very little practice time as of late. Martin and Alfredsson have taken over on the fly and need time to settle in. Once they do, they should make an impact.
One way to see it is that this game was a chance for them to see what they’ll be working with over the next few months. They saw an offence that clicked despite having an abnormally low amount of shots on net. They saw a goalie in Korpisalo that 一 apart from the third Coyotes goal 一 didn’t look too bad. Finally, they saw the infamous 2023-24 Senators defence that still scrambled in their own zone and made some questionable breakout pass attempts.
Luckily, Martin is known as a tactical and defensive-minded coach (from ‘Look for defence-first mentality from interim Senators coach Jacques Martin, Ottawa Sun, 12/18/2023′), so he’ll be able to address the redundant mistakes his team has been making over time. He and Alfredsson are also proven winners and should help current players get into that mindset.
Hopefully, the Senators can give Martin his first win of the season in their next game against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (Dec. 21). At the same time, they could prove that the so-called “coach bump” that has already helped the previously underperforming Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues so far this season is real.