Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Ottawa Blows A Three Goal Lead In Loss To Arizona

12/20/2023 at 12:53am EST

from Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun,

Jacques Martin was back behind the bench in his first game as the interim head coach of the Ottawa Senators, but this time with his former captain and Hockey Hall of Famer Daniel Alfredsson standing beside him, instead of sitting in the front row as a player.

Making their debut with the Senators after D.J. Smith and assistant Davis Payne were fired on Monday, the club’s new coaching duo found out quickly that Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day as the club blew a three-goal lead and dropped a 4-3 decision to the Arizona Coyotes.

While goalie Joonas Korpisalo was the club’s best player most of the night, he couldn’t do it all by himself as the Senators collapsed in the third. The Coyotes’ Michael Kesselring scored the winner with 3:33 remaining on a fortunate bounce off defenceman Travis Hamonic’s skate.

Two goals in 33 seconds erased a two-goal lead for the Senators in the third. They were on their heels for most of the period, then paid a price. First, it was J.J. Moser to pull the Coyotes to within a goal, then Clayton Keller tied it up at 9:47....

“We had a good effort and we did some good things. I thought our puck possession, especially in the offensive zone, was excellent,” Martin told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson after the game. “There’s a couple of areas where we need to be better.

“I addressed the team after the game, the effort was there, but we need to understand our puck management has to be better and there’s a couple of other areas we have to address. I’ll break down the video that we have three or four areas that we have to be better Thursday night.”

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Below are the game highlights

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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