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The Ottawa Senators have come back down to earth following a six-game winning streak, and looked mortal against the Dallas Stars in Texas on Thursday night. The Sens were doubled up 4-2 by their cross-conference foes, and captain Brady Tkachuk was not at all happy with his club's effort.
“The second half was embarrassing. Embarrassing hockey. Just unacceptable,” the 25-year-old said postgame. “The only things we can control are ourselves and individual decisions, and that's just not the way we play.”
Ottawa trailed Dallas 1-0 before scoring two goals in 24 seconds to open up a 2-1 lead halfway through the opening frame. But the Stars would go on to score three unanswered tallies afterwards to complete the comeback.
Tkachuk continued: “First one, we were able to capitalize on a turnover and it was a great play by [Shane Pinto]. Second one was just a forecheck. That’s our identity is getting on the forecheck and being able to swarm and being able to quick strike on plays like that. Just a lot of offense happened in 24 seconds, we’ve just got to find a way to create more.”
After winning six straight between December 11-21, Ottawa has now lost three times in four tries, falling to 19-16-2 and holding onto the final wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference by just a single point.
Senators have been struggling since holiday break
Senators head coach Travis Green also wasn't overly pleased with his team's effort on the road.
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“We got what we deserved. We weren’t good enough tonight,” the bench boss admitted, per NHL.com's Taylor Baird. “We didn’t play 60 minutes. Our power play wasn’t very good. We didn’t make enough plays with the puck. We weren’t sharp with the puck when we needed to be. We took a lot of penalties as well that we can’t take against a good team. I just didn’t think we looked sharp tonight.”
The Stars controlled just 37.97 percent of the five-on-five expected goals in the first period, per Natural Stat Trick. That number improved to 62.51 percent in the middle frame and an eye-opening 92.53 percent in the third.
“We just kind of lost focus, a little immaturity there. Have to be better,” Pinto said, per Baird. “You have to give them credit, they played well, but we have a lot better than that. We really didn’t respond in either the second or the third.”
Tkachuk admitted the Senators have “a lot of lessons to be learned from this game.” After a fantastic couple of weeks, Ottawa quickly needs to right the ship, or else it'll be back to being on the outside looking in for a potential first playoff berth since 2017.
“Thank God we play tomorrow,” said the captain.
Ottawa will head from Texas to Missouri to play the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Friday night. Puck is set to drop just past 8:00 p.m. ET.
