Guy Boucher slams Senators' performance after loss at Ducks

Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher was not thrilled with how his team finished up their four-game road trip.

After a 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks that saw the Senators fire just 22 shots on goal, Boucher seemed upset with all facets of the group’s game.

“It was a no show all around. Not good. We wanted to rebound from yesterday. We played a hard game yesterday and it didn’t turn out our way. We didn’t give much to the opponent with playing a physical game and today we didn’t play a physical game at all,” Boucher said. “They out competed us, they out muscled us on the boards, they were first on puck and they had more of a shooting mentality than we did. They did a better job in front of our goalies net than we did in front of theirs. Our power play started strong but then after that we got away from it. All around not what you would hope for on the last game of the trip.”

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The Sunday loss finished off a back-to-back stretch where the team was outscored 9-2. The Senators fired 20 shots on goal in a 4-1 loss at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Ottawa finished this trip at 1-3-0 while allowing 19 goals over that span.

Against the Ducks, the Senators lost their footing after Ryan Dzingel tied the game at 1-1 at the 7:53 mark of the first.

Corey Perry scored at the 12:05 mark of the frame to put the game at 2-1 and then Antoine Vermette scored at the 19:13 mark to make the game 3-1. The Senators yanked goaltender Mike Condon after he made 10 saves on 13 shots on goal in the first to try to ignite the team with backup Andrew Hammond.

“If our players were in the game and playing good with the same score I probably would have done something different,” Boucher said of why he pulled the goaltender. “I saw right away our guys weren’t in the game so there is no use having him in there and let him have to live that after all the good stuff he has given us.”

Ducks forward Nick Ritchie scored in the second period and defenseman Sami Vatanen scored in the third to help Anaheim take over first place in the Pacific Division from the Calgary Flames with the victory. Hammond stopped 17 of 19 shots on goal overall.

“They were really good at attacking our zone on entries and finding guys,” Hammond said. “We were a step behind all night. We couldn’t get anything to sustain. They did a good job of getting rid of second and third chances. We have to find a way to get in there and take away the goalie’s eyes and create more chances.”

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Despite these struggles, the Senators remained in second-place in the Atlantic Division and will try to break out of this funk against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday at home.

“We wanted to play better than we did tonight. We knew the situation and we knew we wanted to get this one, but we didn’t,” Dzingel said. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, and there’s a lot of games coming up in these few weeks before Christmas. There’s nothing we can do now but look forward and clean up the things we made big mistakes on today.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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