The Senators gave up six goals on the first 14 shots in a 6-3 loss in Washington
The Ottawa Senators continue to be a hard team to figure out.
After some impressive play last week against some of the game’s best teams, they put up a stinker in Washington on Monday night, falling 6-3 to the Capitals.
Gatineau-born Hendrix Lapierre scored twice for Washington while Aliaksei Protas had a goal and two helpers. Brady Tkachuk and Shane Pinto each had three points in a losing cause for the Senators.
The first period was pretty much void of the impressive defensive details that the Senators have been generally displaying of late. And certainly, based on the low shot count, Ottawa’s goaltending wasn’t on its game either. Goaltending is quickly rising to the top of the team's list of concerns moving toward next season.
Protas opened the scoring for Washington, 6:30 into the first period, cashing in on a 2 on 1. Two minutes later, John Carlson’s power play wrist shot made it 2-0. But Ottawa quickly tied things up on goals by Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto.
Batherson showed tremendous patience on his goal, waiting for a clear shooting lane, and letting Darcy Kuemper squirm for a bit before easily lifting the puck over top of him. Pinto then batted a puck in out of the air to tie the game at 2. It was initially ruled a high stick but replays showed it wasn’t even close to being an illegal goal.
It was the third time in four games the Senators had fallen behind 2-0 and then rallied to tie things up. But that’s where Washington flipped the script, scoring two more goals (Max Pacioretty and Beck Malenstyn) to take a 4-2 led to the first intermission.
After 20 minutes, the Senators replaced Anton Forsberg with Joonas Korpisalo and they quickly struck first on a goal by Brady Tkachuk following a 2 on 1 with Vladimir Tarasenko. But Hendrix Lapierre scored twice to make it 6-3 and put the game out of reach before the second period was over. Lapierre hadn't played in over a month.
There was no scoring in the third period and Tkachuk’s frustration was evident during an end of game shoving match with Kuemper and Trevor van Riemsdyk.
The Senators will need to move on quickly from the hot mess in Washington. They'll be in Nashville Tuesday night.