After losing a game they deserved to win against the Winnipeg Jets earlier in the week, the Ottawa Senators lost a game they deserved to lose twice against that same opponent tonight. The 4-1 result flattered a Senators team that looked undisciplined, disorganized, and committed to players that had no chance at delivering. Here are tonight’s thumbs:

Thumbs Down: The Ice Time Allocation
Especially early on in the game, DJ Smith was leaning on players who simply don’t give this group its best chance to win. While things evened out as the night carried on, the ending TOI chart tells a story. Six forwards played more than Brady Tkachuk, this team’s undisputed best forward. Cedric Paquette’s time-on-ice total was closer to Tkachuk’s than Tkachuk’s was to the forward TOI leader.

Fans of this team are more than willing to be patient with mistakes from players like Josh Norris and Drake Batherson, but that patience will start to run thin if the mistakes are coming from below-replacement-level veterans who were brought in for “leadership” and “presence” in the room. Mistakes from Norris, as an example, are tolerable because they are growing pains – and there’s always a chance that he’ll make up for it with something spectacularly entertaining. Mistakes from someone like Austin Watson don’t come with that same trade-off.

Thumbs Down: Matt Murray’s Continued Struggles
Another night, another four goals allowed by Ottawa’s starting goaltender. Murray is now rocking an .880 save percentage through four games, with a corresponding 3.79 goals against average. Four games obviously constitutes a tiny (read: meaningless, in the grand scheme of things) sample size, but the early returns are anything but positive. The Senators need more from their investment in the crease. I’m ready to see Marcus Hogberg get a start.

Thumbs Up: Nikita Zaitsev’s Continued Success
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three and four times, though? Maybe you’re not fooling anymore. Four games into the season, Nikita Zaitsev continues to impress. While I’m not quite ready to declare him a changed player, it is really nice to see Zaitsev string together a multi-game run of solid performances. Tonight, he once again looked like a defender who can use his feet and who has the ability to move the puck up ice with regularity. His fifth (!) assist of the season was a perfect example of those attributes in action, as he used his feet to break into the zone cleanly and then knew to move the puck towards the Winnipeg net.

Thumbs Down: The Braydon Coburn/Josh Brown Pairing
This can’t be a thing moving forward. There simply isn’t enough foot speed for these two to function as an NHL-quality pairing together. The Jets absolutely demolished them in the defensive zone tonight. It looked ugly on the television, and it looked ugly on the stat sheet. Per Natural Stat Trick, neither player cracked 10% (!!!) in either five-on-five shot attempt share or expected goal share. Regardless of where you think Erik Brannstrom is in his development, or where Christian Wolanin fits long-term, there’s little reason to believe that they wouldn’t be some kind of an upgrade on the minutes DJ Smith has been getting out of pairings like this.

Thumbs Down: Evgenii Dadonov’s Silence
I don’t know how to accurately describe it, but the best I can come up with is this: Dadonov just seems to be a half-second behind his teammates when it comes to making the right decisions, getting into the right spots, and contributing in the right ways. Considering the hefty investment the Senators made to bring him in, it’s been a disappointing start to the season. There’s still plenty of time to turn things around, but it’s easy to think that an early goal or assist from the team’s premier free agent acquisition on a night like this could have kickstarted the team and pushed this game in a more competitive direction.

Thumbs Down: Score Effects
Don't let the third period push fool you.

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Burn the tape. Ottawa will get one more chance at these Jets on Saturday.

As always, thanks for reading.

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