Ottawa Senators Trample St. Louis Blues 8-1

NHL teams sometimes worry about their team's energy levels in their first game back from a road trip. But no one expects a literal power outage in the building.

That's how it was in Ottawa on Tuesday, where the city was hit by a pretty hard thunderstorm. But after a 30-minute delay to get the power back up at Canadian Tire Centre, player energy definitely wasn't an issue. The Sens jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead and cruised to an 8-1 trampling of the St. Louis Blues.

Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, and Adam Gaudette each had two goals in the win. Stutzle, Claude Giroux, and Drake Batherson each added two assists, while Linus Ullmark got his first win since opening night.

Fresh off a 1-2 road trip out west, the Sens opened the scoring at 1:04 in the first when Josh Norris took advantage of a soft back check to beat his man to the net. Claude Giroux fed him a centering pass from the boards and Norris tipped it past Blues' goalie Joel Hofer.

Three minutes later, in his first game of the season, Zack Ostapchuk picked up his first NHL point on Noah Gregor's goal. Michael Amadio finally got his first point of the season on a nice pass out front to Gregor.

Near the end of the period, the Sens were effectively rewarded for getting caught up ice, setting up an odd man rush. But the Blues coughed it up at the Ottawa blue line, and because Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk were so late getting back, they were in perfect position to transition to a 2 on 1. Stutzle kept it all the way and scored just inside the far post.

The Sens went right back to work in the second period with two quick power play goals on shots by Brady Tkachuk. The first was off a quick pass to the slot from Drake Batherson. The other was a shot from the right point that made it 5-0 and ended Hofer's night. In Hofer's last game in Ottawa back in March, he was the game's first star, a stark contrast to his five goals allowed in 28 minutes tonight.

Jordan Binnington was welcomed to the game with an Adam Gaudette goal on the first shot he faced.

The Blues went down to 11 forwards early in the second period. After a big hit by Zack MacEwen, Blues winger Kasperi Kapanen, the former Leaf, had to leave the game.

Stutzle got his second of the game early in the third on a great patient pass from Thomas Chabot who saw the young German arriving late to the scene. Stutzle one-timed the puck past Binnington on the short side.

But Dylan Holloway's power play one-timer broke Ullmark's shutout bid with about 11 minutes to play.

Gaudette added another goal on a horrible Blues giveaway late in the third and eight was enough for one night. It was the Blues' worst loss in almost four years.

The Senators improve to 5-4 and their next game is Friday night in New York against the Rangers.