Unless things change, it’s going to be a long season for the Ottawa Senators. Tonight’s 7-1 defeat at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. The Senators failed to create offence, fell apart on defense, and couldn’t get a save any time they needed one. Here are tonight’s thumbs:

Thumbs Down: Matt Murray’s Rebound Control
Especially in the first period, Matt Murray was handing out juicy rebounds like Halloween candy. Pucks were bouncing off his pads, glove, and blocker with astonishing frequency, which allowed Vancouver to generate sustained zone time on more than one occasion. There was no better example of this than on the Canucks’ first goal of the evening; it came after Murray missed his grab on a soft, long-distance shot. The story coming out of tonight remains the same: The Senators need more from their goaltending if they are going to win games this year.

Thumbs Down: Erik Gudbranson’s Positioning on Vancouver’s First Goal
Murray’s rebound control was bad, but it was far from the only problem on that 1-0 play. Erik Gudbranson seemed to completely forget about the puck and Brandon Sutter’s stick, which allowed the Vancouver forward to pop the puck past Murray while he was sitting on the ice. It was bad all around.

Thumbs Down: The Rest of Murray’s Game
Yikes.

Thumbs Up: Jim Benning’s Job Security
The Senators just helped to turn the temperature down on his seat by at least a few degrees.

Thumbs Up: Connor Brown’s Quiet Competence
He didn’t show up on the scoreboard, but I thought Connor Brown had a quietly solid night. More than most of his teammates, Brown was using his feet to create opportunities for himself; a breakaway chance in the first and a good off-wing charge to the net in the third stick out, in particular.

Thumbs Down: The Third Period Fights
Can we really even call them fights?

Thumbs Down: Stützle’s Demotion
By the time the third period rolled around, Tim Stützle had been taken off the man-advantage unit and essentially relegated to the bench at even strength. While it’s true that the power play had been quiet all evening, this team will be better served in the long-term by giving Stützle reps in that spot right now. When things don’t work, he’ll learn. When things do work, he’ll gain confidence. Sitting on the bench just means we’re deferring those learning experiences.

Thumbs Down: Staying Up Late for… This
I’m lucky in that I’m out West-ish, so staying up for this game doesn’t really constitute a late night for me. To those of you in Ottawa who postponed bedtime: I’m so sorry. This wasn’t worth your time.

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Same opponent, a little bit earlier on Wednesday. Hopefully the process and result look different.

As always, thanks for reading.

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