D.J. Smith on Opening Loss: "There's Some Guys That Probably Wish They Had Better Games"

The Ottawa Senators have opened the 2023-24 NHL regular season with a 5-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Brady Skjei's third period goal stood up as the game winner for the three-time division champs. 

Ottawa may still have been in Canadian Thanksgiving mode, giving up a penalty shot, six power plays, several turnovers and an ugly game winning goal.

The Senators opened the game very strongly, looking clean in their own end and outshooting Carolina for a long stretch in the period. Mathieu Joseph scored the first goal of the season, tipping in an Artem Zub shot from the point. Leading up to the goal, Parker Kelly made a pair of excellent, poised passes to draw an assist. 

Joonas Korpisalo made a fine save on a Jesper Fast penalty shot to help preserve the Sens 1-0 lead after one. It was a borderline call on Thomas Chabot, whose stick tap didn't influence Fast's original scoring attempt. 

Early in the second period, things began to unravel for the Senators with some costly errors. 

With Tim Stutzle off for another soft slashing call, Michael Bunting tied things up for Carolina. Jake Sanderson and Travis Hamonic seemed to get their wires crossed, losing track of Bunting down low, allowing him to easily skate to the front of the net and even the score.

That sparked Carolina, which opened things up in the middle frame. Teuvo Teravainen's one-timer gave the 'Canes their first lead as the Senators were caught out of position and tired in their own end. 

Carolina extended their lead early in the third as Jordan Staal sidestepped Thomas Chabot's poke check attempt and his backhander made it 3-1.

Joseph and Kelly struck again on the penalty kill to cut the lead to 3-2 as Joseph returned Kelly's earlier favour with a nice pass of his own on a 2 on 1. Tim Stutzle tied the contest with a nice solo effort down the left wing, beating Freddy Andersen with a wrist shot.

But two minutes later, Brady Skjei put the game away with a long shot from the point that Joonas Korpisalo never picked up, vainly trying to backhand the puck with his trapper. Jaccob Slavin added some insurance with a nice snapshot upstairs on Korpisalo.

"I thought we came out great," head coach D.J. Smith told the media. "Second period, a couple of big turnovers end up in the net, but then we get it to 3-3 in the third. And then a couple get in the net there, but, you know, six penalties is too many. On the road, you can take no more than three and it takes every chance you have to come back.

"In the end, there were some good things, but there's some guys that probably wish they had better games."

Carolina is a great opening act. The 'Canes are now 5-0-1 in season openers under head coach Rob Brind’Amour. But that will be all the home cooking they'll enjoy for a while. The Hurricanes play their next six games on the road.

As for the Senators, who played the game a man down, they'll return to Ottawa for their home opener Saturday at 1pm against the Philadelphia Flyers.