OTTAWA — Travis Green hasn’t been behind the Ottawa Senators bench very long, but he could see what has been carried over from years past with the team.

The Senators (8-10-1) lost their fourth straight game Thursday night, despite putting together a valiant effort against the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-2 loss.

The Golden Knights (12-6-2) jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Green knew his team was starting to get a familiar feel, and not the kind he wants them to be comfortable with. The Senators are 1-9-1 overall when allowing the first goal and seem to have a hard time dealing with the adversity of playing from behind.

“I think there’s a little bit of carry over from previous years and here we go again here,” Green admitted. “And I think you can only worry about the present, don’t worry about the past. Control what’s in front of you, no, you can’t control what’s behind you.

“And our group still has to learn. And I could feel it when it was 2-0 tonight that it’s a little bit, ‘Oh boy, we’re in trouble now,’ and we have to learn to play from behind and not be a team that don’t panic or start taking big risks, just keep playing.”

There was a lot to like about the Senators game last Thursday, but a few mistakes proved costly. Ilya Samsonov also had an impressive performance with 38 saves for Vegas.

“He was just outstanding today for us,” said Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev of Samsonov. “He made a lot of saves against a really good team. He obviously kept us in the game as well. They had a lot of good looks and he was just really good for us.”

Green and management are well aware of their team’s struggles with adversity and are working with players to get through it, but the players also need to take some responsibility.

“You have to be honest with yourself, individually, as a team,” forward David Perron said. “That’s what coaches do. For the players, you look at yourself a little bit individually, you look at what the team can do better, and you just have to be honest with the assessment, win or lose.

“You have to find a way to get better.”

Vegas, coming off a 3-0 loss to Toronto the night before, opened the scoring in the first when Linus Ullmark made a diving save and couldn’t get back into position, giving Jack Eichel a wide-open net for his sixth of the season.

Brett Howden made it 2-0 midway through the second with a goal that beat Ullmark, who stopped 30 shots, under the arm.

Ottawa made a game of it when Adam Gaudette finally beat Samsonov early in the third with two seconds left on the power play to cut the lead in half. But two minutes later, Pavel Dorofeyev scored.

Drake Batherson kept the Senators within reach, scoring on a Jake Sanderson rebound with just over seven minutes remaining. However, Ottawa couldn’t complete the comeback despite throwing 18 shots at Samsonov in the third.

“I thought we controlled the pace of the game in the first half,” Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought it was important for us not to have to chase the game.

“To me, that’s the biggest thing when you’re on a road trip and playing a lot of hockey — try not to put yourself in a position to chase the game so you can use your whole bench and guys can feel good about their game. That’s what that happened.

The victory was memorable for Cassidy, who is an Ottawa native, as it marked his 400th career NHL win.

“It feels amazing,” Cassidy admitted. “You never know where your numbers are going to end up, but I’ll tell you: in this business, I’m only worried about No. 401 right now.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on November 21, 2024.