Unless their power play finds a sign of life, their season likely is on the verge of being over.
Nobody expected the Carolina Hurricanes to be up 3-0 in this series, which is where we are after Ottawa’s 2-1 loss at the Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
While the games have been tight, the Senators have been hit by injuries and luck has fallen Carolina’s way.
In spite of it all, one area in particular has thrust the Senators to the brink of elimination.
“The power play lost us the game tonight,” said captain Brady Tkachuk.
If the Senators were even two-for-12 on their power play in this series instead of being blanked, they’d likely be in a better spot.
“You get a goal or two on the power play, it’s a little bit of a different game,” said coach Travis Green following his team’s 0-for-5 showing with the man advantage.
Their five-on-three in the second period was an example of how not to execute a power play.
They had trouble entering even the zone. It was legitimately one of the worst sequences of hockey you’ll ever see.
The Senators mustered only four shots on five power-play chances, with all of one shot on the five-on-three.
“Fourteen power plays, and we maybe have one good one,” said Tim Stutzle.
It’s 12, but the point is valid.
It led to Green benching Stutzle and Tkachuk when they began the third period on the power play.
Green called both his top forwards “average.”
Neither has tallied a point this series. It’s why the Senators are averaging one goal per game in the playoffs.
No team can have its best players silent and win playoff games consistently.
Both have struggled, except for stretches in Game 2.
Stutzle hurt his team defensively, too. His awful giveaway led to Sebastian Aho’s short-handed goal in Game 2.
In Game 3, Stutzle was watching the puck on Carolina’s first goal and had a soft play on Taylor Hall leading to Carolina’s second goal.
Tkachuk, meanwhile, took a bad penalty in the third period.
Carolina has a 3-0 series lead while scoring only seven goals because Ottawa’s stars aren’t doing enough..
As if things aren’t bad enough, the Senators also may be missing their best defenceman in Game 4.
Jake Sanderson was on the receiving end of a head shot from Hall, which somehow only resulted in a minor penalty.
Green didn’t provide an update on Sanderson post-game.
“It’s a blatant hit to the head,” said Green
There wasn’t any review from the officials on a day where commissioner Gary Bettman praised his officiating crew league-wide.
“I just don’t understand why there’s not a five-minute major called on the hit to the head,” Green said post-game. “It’s a blatant hit to the head. The kind of hits you don’t want to see. It’s ridiculous there wasn’t a review.”
Green also noted that Tkachuk was called for a five-minute major in the third period that was reduced to a minor upon review.
“They call a review on Brady on a penalty that I don’t even know what the penalty was. Then, they totally missed the review that … I mean I’d be shocked if there isn’t some kind of review from the league on that and something done.”
But officiating is not why the Senators lost.
Sanderson left the bench as the five-on-three was about to begin. That didn’t help.
Watching Sanderson exit, immediately followed by the deflating five-on-three, was a double whammy for Senators fans.
“Felt like the last three months. Every time we get someone back, we lose another one,” said Stutzle.
Sometimes, you can have too much adversity.
Despite Tyler Kleven returning for Game 3, the Senators will likely never have a blueline in this series without at least two of their top five defenceman shelved.
Sanderson and Artem Zub, who left midway through Game 1, were one of the top five pairings in the league analytically all season. The duo has played a combined 5:55 this series.
The Senators’ injury woes also have contributed to their inability to score.
Late in the third, Nikolas Matinpalo was on the ice in the dying minutes as the Senators were trying to score. No shade whatsoever to Matinpalo, but creating offence is not his game. He’s on the ice because the team is down bodies.
You’d think Linus Ullmark would be struggling if the team was in a 3-0 hole. Instead, it’s been the goaltender’s best three-game stretch as a Senator.
“It’s been a tight series,” said Green. “Game 1, they get two bouncy goals that go in. Game 2 goes to double overtime. Tonight we lost 2-1. We’re right there. They’re right there. They found a way to win. We haven’t. It’s not very complicated.”
If there’s any hope, it’s that the Senators have lost each game by the slimmest of margins. At the same time, Game 3 was their worst showing, and they are likely to be without Sanderson and Artem Zub next time out.
For the Senators to stay alive they will need to power through their adversity, beginning with their power play.