Back to the Drawing Board: Senator Prospects Get Manhandled 9-1 in Buffalo Tourney Opener

Most analysts believe the Ottawa Senators have one of the thinner prospect pools in the NHL and on Friday afternoon, the club did nothing to prove them wrong.

In game one of the 2024 Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, Ottawa's first hockey game in 150 days, the Sens noobs got clobbered 9-1 by their New Jersey Devil counterparts.

Like everything else the turnaround of this ship, it's going to take some time for the Senators to restock their prospect cupboard. This summer, they traded away their third first-round draft pick in as many years.

Stephen Halliday kept up his scoring binge from last spring's AHL Playoffs, getting Ottawa's only goal at the midway point of the game. The Devils weren't really fazed by it since they'd already built a 6-0 lead.

"Definitely not the game we wanted," Halliday said. "A lot to learn and hopefully come back tomorrow and have a way better effort than that."

Tyler Boucher wore the captain's 'C', with Oskar Pettersson and Jorian Donovan his alternates. After the beating had ended, Boucher seemed suitably irritated.

"It wasn't a great start, it wasn't a great game," Boucher said. "I mean, I know we haven't played in a while, guys are shaking rust off, maybe a little bit nervous, but it was too much. Can't happen again."

The Senators take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon and vow to be better than they were in the opener. It would be hard to be worse.

"You got to turn the page," Boucher said. "Like I said, first game for a while for everybody. We got to put that behind us and we got two more games to win, so that's what we're here for."

The Sens opened the tourney by dressing two OHL goalies from last season, both here on amateur tryouts. Former London Knight Michael Simpson gave up six goals while Manotick's David Egorov came on in relief. Assuming he's healthy, expect the far more experienced Leevi Merilainen to play tomorrow.

While a 9-1 loss may be the least viewed content we post on this site all season, here are the "highlights."

Tomorrow’s game will be livestreamed on the Senators’ website.