“After waiting 573 days to welcome fans back to the Canadian Tire Center, although around 1,000 watched his rookie game against Montreal on September 18, the Senators would have liked a better performance than their 4-fold loss. -0 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. ”
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MAPLE LEAVES 4, SENATORS 0
Even a preseason loss at the Battle of Ontario hurts a bit for the Ottawa Senators.
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After waiting 573 days to welcome fans back to the Canadian Tire Center, although around 1,000 watched his rookie game against Montreal on September 18, the Senators would have liked a better performance than their 4- loss. 0 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. .
The last time the Senators had more than 1,000 fans in the building was on March 5, 2020, in a 4-3 victory over Jean-Gabriel Pageau and the New York Islanders. The players were hoping to have a few people back in the building as the club prepares to open the season against the Leafs on Oct. 14 at home.
This game was listless and the throwback level has to be better in the last preseason games of the club.
Former 67 goalkeeper Petr Mrazek recorded the shutout for the Leafs.
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“We weren’t very good,” Senators coach DJ Smith said. “Thank God it’s an exhibition game. We didn’t have much of the puck, we didn’t shoot much, we just didn’t play anything the way we wanted to play.
“It’s good in the long run because you don’t want that to happen in the regular season where you play like this. That is not the way we play. We had no physicality, we never went inside and we didn’t shoot discs. The other night we had a bunch of hungry guys to be there. Sometimes when you’re older you forget how hard it is to get a shot, get through traffic, and go online. “
Trying to get ready to start the year, Senators are catching a glimpse of Chris Tierney between Connor Brown and Tim Stuetzle. Newcomer Zach Sanford skated with center Colin White and winger Nick Paul. Sanford was acquired Saturday from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for winger Logan Brown.
Until restricted free agency winger Brady Tkachuk signs a new contract, there will be no shortage of line changes. Tierney is pushing for a spot as a second-line center, but he didn’t do much to set himself apart. That has to change if he’s going to be used in that role and Shane Pinto has been pushing for the longest.
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This was nothing like the usual Leafs lineup. In fact, it wasn’t even a close facsimile. There was no John Tavares, Mitch Marner or Morgan Rielly. Auston Matthews is still out of the game after undergoing offseason wrist surgery; he has just resumed skating with the club and the hope is that he is ready to start the year.
Naturally, with those players out, that makes the evaluations a bit more difficult. But general manager Pierre Dorion Smith, head scout Trent Mann, assistant Peter MacTavish and senior vice president Pierre McGuire, along with the rest of hockey operations, have to determine if any young players can take the next step.
But when senators sit down to make decisions, games like these will play an important role.
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Trailing 3-0 after 40 minutes, the Senators needed to look no further than their special teams.
Don’t blame goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson. He allowed three goals on 25 shots in the 40 minutes he played and, for a long time, it was the only reason Ottawa was in this game. Mads Sogaard took over in the third.
The Senators were 0 of 3 with a men’s advantage, including back-to-back chances in the second. Now, there was no Thomas Chabot in the lineup, but the Senators had a hard time landing a shot.
“It was hard. When you come in after the second period and you have 12 shots, it’s not good. You can take it as a preseason game and remove the rust, but there is a lot to learn, ”said Paul.
Toronto scored twice on the power play in the second period, and that was pretty much all it wrote for the Senators in this one. Michael Bunting scored his second of the game by deflecting it past Gustavsson at 5:52 p.m.
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With Tierney in the area due to a crackdown on cross controls, Bunting gave Toronto a two goal lead at 3:41 pm of the second. He went to the net and was able to deflect a Josh Ho-Sang pass from Gustavsson low on the side of the glove.
Trying to determine where everyone fits in the organization, the senators dressed defenders Erik Brannstrom and Lassi Thomson for the second game in a row. They both dressed in Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on the road. There will be decisions to be made at the end of the camp.
“It’s all part of the evaluations, a lot of these alignments were done previously, with some moving parts here,” Smith said. “The first four games are kind of a set, then you move some guys in and out.”
Outgunned 10-7 by the Leafs in the first, the Senators didn’t prove Mrazek enough.
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The Leafs opened the scoring at 1:25 p.m. of the first. While Gustavsson had made a good save early in the sequence in the Ottawa area, David Kampf was at the gate to slide him down the fifth hole.
The Senators finished the game without center Clark Bishop. He left in the middle of second period and did not return with a lower body injury. He had been hit in the corner before leaving the game.
The senators are in the midst of a three-game streak in four days. They will face the Montreal Canadiens in back-to-back games starting Friday. Then decisions will be made. The club’s AHL affiliate will open its camp in Belleville on Monday, and up to 20 players could be reassigned on Sunday.
Twitter: @sungarrioch
Reference-ottawasun.com