Yahoo Sports Ottawa Senators Head Coach Travis Green: 'We've Got To Find A Way To Score Some Goals'
The Ottawa Senators have spent most of the past month enjoying the view from above .500 in the standings. That ends on Saturday afternoon if they can't rediscover their scoring touch against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After losing four games in a row – and scoring a combined four goals in the process – the Sens are now just one game above .500 and starting to sink again in the Atlantic.
Thursday night's loss against the Buffalo Sabres was troubling. The Senators had just returned from a nine-game road trip, happy to be playing at home again, and hosting the only team in the Atlantic Division that's worse than them, at least in the standings.
For the second time in three games, the Senators were shut out, 4-0.
The Sabres made the most of their limited chances, and goalie Anton Forsberg wasn't able to bail the Sens out. Yes, Forsberg's play has been a factor in this slump. This still-young team has a history of getting frustrated and rattled when their goalie isn't stepping up.
But no goalie can help you win if you can't score.
The Senators were blanked on Thursday night despite outshooting the Sabres 35-21 and leading 69-36 in shooting attempts. Ottawa missed the net 19 times, which is also 19 missed opportunities for potential rebounds.
Head coach Travis Green addressed the scoring outage when he was asked by Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch in Friday's post-practice availability what the Sens need to do to get back on track.
"We need to score a bit. There's no denying that. We haven't scored enough.
"It's hard to win games 1-0 or 2-1 all the time. We've got to find a way to score some goals."
What the Senators have yet to master is the sweet spot between generating offense and lock-it-down defense. As they commit more to team defense and playing the right way, it's only natural the offense, as we know it, might suffer a little.
The transition can't be easy for some of these players.
The players who generally supply the offense on this team are being told to play differently this season, like racehorses being ordered to plow the field. Not every racehorse is cut out for that, particularly after they've been allowed to run free in the past and paid handsomely for doing so.
And the ones that do embrace the life of a workhorse might sometimes struggle when you need them to run.
In hockey terms, if you pound it into a player like Tim Stützle or Drake Batherson that their first instinct always needs to be defensive positioning, or backchecking a million miles an hour on every shift, that can't help but affect their push on offense. At the very least, there's going to be a transition period while they remove bad habits of the past, commit a little more to defense, and still be able to bring most of the offensive excellence that got them to the NHL.
At the moment, it feels like they're stuck a little too far on the defensive side, which becomes an even tougher, less fun style to play when you're not getting rewarded with wins anymore, partly due to the absence of your star goalie.
"I don't think our defensive game has really slipped too much," Green told the media. "But you are going to give up some chances when you're chasing the game a little bit, much like Friday night. You know, uncharacteristically, we gave up some outnumbered rushes, but a lot of those probably come from pinching and whatnot, being down in the game."
Green says slumps happen and the Sens just need to stick to their game plan and trust they will get out of this.
"The best players in the world sometimes go through slumps. And we've got a few guys going through it. Sometimes it's just going to the net, getting a greasy goal that kind of gets you off the schneid a little bit. And, you know, but we've got to stick with it."
A return to health would certainly help. Green says injured wingers Michael Amadio and David Perron will not be ready to return for the back-to-back games this weekend. Ullmark skated on his own a little bit on Friday. His status of "week to week" with a back injury hasn't changed.
The Senators are in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., then back home to host the Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.
This story comes from The Hockey News Ottawa website. For more Senators coverage all season long, check out THN Ottawa. Recommended articles include:
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