Senators come up flat as power play fizzles

The Ottawa Senators suffered a rare setback Tuesday night, falling 7-2 to the St. Louis Blues in a game defined by a struggling power play and an overmatched blue line. Captain Thomas Chabot did not mince words when assessing his team's performance, stating bluntly that the Senators simply weren't good enough. While the loss represents an outlier in what has otherwise been one of the franchise's strongest starts in more than a decade, it exposed several underlying concerns — chief among them a power play that has converted on just 15.2 per cent of its opportunities through seven games. With key defencemen sidelined and an inexperienced corps being asked to log heavy minutes, the Senators face growing pains as they look to sustain their early-season momentum. Thomas Chabot, who carries the responsibility of evaluating his team's performance as captain, delivered a stark verdict after the 7-2 defeat. "Not good, not good at all," he said. "There's no other way to put it." Chabot acknowledged that the team had competed for stretches but lacked execution. "We had a game for a bit and we just didn't have it, or the execution wasn't great," he said. "We're aware of it as a team, as a group, as players, and that's all that matters and we'll make sure we answer back." Despite the lopsided score, the Senators sit at 5-2-0, marking one of their best starts to a season in over a decade. The most pressing concern for Ottawa has been its power play. The Senators were 1-for-4 with the man advantage against St. Louis and have now converted on just five of 33 power-play opportunities (15.2 per cent) through seven games. Head coach Travis Green pointed to fundamental execution failures as the root cause. "They're not executing their passes first of all," Green said. "Simple passes. We're passing pucks that are rolling instead of passing it flat. I think it's just the simple things. You've got to do those things well before you even start doing anything about the rest of the power play." The power play was overseen last season by assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson, who departed for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ben Sexton has since taken over special teams duties. Compounding the power-play struggles is the absence of defenceman Jake Sanderson, who has not played since opening night. Green expressed hope that Sanderson could return this week, but his absence has been particularly noticeable on the man advantage, where the Senators have struggled to move the puck out of their own end. Chabot was candid about the unit's inconsistency. "At times we've had some chances and at times it hasn't been great," he said. "Let's call a spade a spade. We're going to keep on nailing down details and maybe keep things a bit more simple and get some guys some traffic." Chabot emphasized that the onus falls on the players to find solutions early in games. The St. Louis Blues made Ottawa's special teams pay, scoring a short-handed goal to open the scoring. Blues head coach Jim Montgomery credited his team's penalty kill and overall special teams play as decisive factors. "Yeah, I mean that's a really good hockey team over there, and they're 5-2 for a reason," Montgomery said. "But getting that short-handed goal was really key. Our penalty kill has been very good. I thought both special teams were good for us tonight, which is a really pleasant sign in our growth as a team." The Senators' defensive depth has been severely tested. Already without Sanderson and Artem Zub, Ottawa also lost Nikolas Matinpalo on Monday. That left the Senators to rely on an inexperienced blue line Tuesday, with Carter Yakemchuk, Jorian Donovan and Hoyt Stanley combining for just 18 games of NHL experience. Yakemchuk finished the game at minus-5 but logged 22:25 of ice time. Green acknowledged that young players are being asked to play significant minutes in a challenging situation. Veteran forward Claude Giroux said the team must learn from the defeat. "You've got to take the feeling that we have right now and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said. Ridly Greig left the game midway through the third period. Green said Greig was dealing with a bit of a strain and that the coaching staff felt it was best to keep him out for the remainder of the contest. Ottawa has played seven games over 11 days and was competing in the back half of a back-to-back. The Senators will take Wednesday off before returning to action Thursday against the New York Islanders, giving the coaching staff a brief window to address the issues exposed in the loss to St. Louis.