A month into return, Senators coach Martin looking for consistency

Article content

The more things change, the more they have stayed the same for the Ottawa Senators this season.

Article content

It’s been exactly a month since Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, sent head coach D.J. Smith and assistant Davis Payne packing Dec. 18, and interim coach Jacques Martin returned with former captain Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant.

Article content

Preparing to host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators have a 4-9-0 record in the 13 games since Martin took over and the club is coming off an ugly 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Lately, every loss feels like a rinse and repeat. The Senators play well for portions of the game, find a way to let it slip away with costly mistakes and then end up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

Martin’s mandate when he took over was simple: Bring structure to the club’s game and help the Senators play better defensively by focusing on the details.

Article content

“One (goal) was to change the culture,” Martin said following the club’s skate Wednesday. “And to get us to play more of a pressure game, where we spend less time in our (defensive) zone. There’s been good progression, especially as far as our offensive zone time.

“So, there’s some progress. The area that we need to improve is our ability to be more resilient at times. I feel there’s several games that we’ve lost where there’s moments that we give up what I call “gimmes” where we give up goals that we shouldn’t give.

“Whether that’s through mistakes, not competing or not executing enough sometimes. Those are different factors, but it’s a work in progress. I think we’re making progress, but it hasn’t really shown on the scoreboard by winning the number of games that we should win.”

Article content

The loss to the Avalanche was the perfect example of what Martin is talking about, and in his post-game discussion with the media he pointed to the fact that a mistake on the fourth goal by Colorado’s Miles Wood at 4:04 of the third period to tie it up 4-4 was a backbreaker.

“It was a lack of determination and a lack of commitment,” Martin said Tuesday night.

A look at the video indicated winger Vladimir Tarasenko tried to poke check Wood instead of trying to be physical, and defenceman Travis Hamonic didn’t look good on that goal, either.

That goal against was likely the motivation for Martin switching a couple of lines for the skate Wednesday. Mathieu Joseph was on the second line with Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson while Tarasenko was moved to the third unit with Rourke Chartier and Parker Kelly.

Article content

It’s not known if the club will make any changes on defence. It would make sense to get Jacob Bernard-Docker back into the lineup at some point during this stretch of three games in four days. Erik Brannstrom was minus-3 against the Avalanche.

One of the tools Martin can use to send a message is to cut back on a player’s ice time. Tarasenko has been one of the club’s better players since Martin took over, but there’s a price to pay when a lack of second effort results in allowing the opposition to take over the game.

Martin said the Senators’ issues aren’t just physical. This group has to learn how to handle the highs and lows of each game. Once the Avalanche tied it up, you could just see the Senators were going to let the two points slip away because it’s happened so much this season.

Article content

“That’s part of it, the mental component, but also the execution and making sure when you’re ahead like that you’ve got to understand game and time management,” said Martin. “You have to make sure some of the decisions you’re making are in favour of keeping a lead and then gambling and trying to make a poor-percentage play.”

The Senators have to show more resilience when the going gets tough.

“The game before (against San Jose), we did a great job of that,” said winger Drake Batherson. “They scored late, but we didn’t let it bother us, we came back with a few good shifts and then got the winning goal.

“It’s just a matter of doing it more consistently every single game, rather than two out of four nights. The quicker we can do that for 60 minutes, then the better we’re going to be.”

Article content

BACK ON ICE?

Centre Josh Norris wasn’t on the ice for the second straight day and there’s no timetable for his return.

After leaving the ice following a 30-minute skate Monday, Norris didn’t skate Wednesday, but Martin suggested he could be back on the ice as early as Thursday.

Norris will miss his fourth straight game Thursday with the Habs in town.

“He had an off-ice workout and we’re still in the process of evaluating how he feels after a workout,” Martin said. “Hopefully, maybe by the weekend (he’ll feel better) and skate. Then, we’ll see.”

If Norris does skate Thursday, that would be a good sign that he’s closing in on a recovery from the ailment he suffered after falling on his neck and back nine days ago against the Calgary Flames.

BGarrioch@postmedia.com

Article content