Tonight’s game was an ugly one for the Senators, with virtually nothing positive to glean from it. Ottawa struggled all night to make simple passes and when in the offensive zone they were reluctant to shoot the puck. I won’t repeat the box score (link), but I will take a brief look at who was responsible for the goals scored against.
1. Hejduk‘s second goal was created by Milan Michalek leaving his position to chase a bouncing puck
2. Landeskog‘s goal starts with an Erik Karlsson turnover, but if Mika Zibanejad gets better body position or takes the stick of the Colorado rookie there’s no goal
3. Lindstrom‘s first goal comes off an unfortunate bounce from Rundblad‘s stick, but it’s not the rookie’s check who scores the goal–Chris Phillips is late coming back to check to Colorado scorer
4. Duchene‘s goal comes off another Karlsson turnover, but if Chris Phillips simply keeps proper positioning the goal doesn’t happen
5. Winnik‘s shorthanded goal is scored on a 2-on-1 against Rundblad; the rookie stays with the potential pass, leaving the shot to Anderson, but becomes a screen for the scorer as he gets backed in too far
6. Jones‘ rebound goal is a product of Anderson over committing to the shot and Bobby Butler not coming down low to support the D
7. Lindstrom‘s second goal is courtesy of a great pass, but Jason Spezza is far out of position as the penalty killer and doesn’t have his stick in the lane
The point of all this is that while there were rookie mistakes tonight, a lot of the problems were caused by the team’s veterans. It’s also not too early to say that Craig Anderson needs to get his act together. He needs to make a save now and again to help his team out. I also don’t think the coaching staff are going to be happy with the late, dumb frustration penalties taken by Chris Neil and particularly Zack Smith (the likelihood of Smith being suspended for his hit on Landeskog seems high).
There weren’t any great performances tonight, but a few players were worse than others:
Bobby Butler – I think if he was on a two-way it wouldn’t have been Filatov going to Binghamton; he struggled again tonight
Chris Phillips – mental errors cost his team goals when the game was still in doubt
In the post-game interview (link) Paul MacLean gave Colorado a lot of credit for the win. He said he wasn’t happy with special teams, but didn’t single any players out for playing badly.
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eyeonthesens 
the team looked a mess. the coaching staff needs to go back to basics Lemaire style and get the team organized. start with defence first. get the positioning and structure down then offence.
yes anderson needs to be better but he’s the least of the problems right now.