TORONTO — Whether the Ottawa Senators decide to make personnel changes for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs remains to be seen.
There is one adjustment, regardless of who is in the lineup, the Senators agree must occur.
“Obviously if you give them so many power plays,” forward Tim Stutzle said Monday, “their skill will take over and they have a lot of good players who can make plays, so we just have to stay out of the box.”
Special teams made the difference in Ottawa’s 6-2 loss in Game 1 on Sunday, when Toronto went 3-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN2).
“It’s a fine line,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “Playoff hockey is emotional, competitive. I like to think we have a physical team and yet there is a fine line between crossing the line and taking penalties.”
The Senators outhit the Maple Leafs 56-30 in Game 1 but many of their key young players including forwards Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig and Dylan Cozens, and defensemen Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot and Artem Zub each played their first Stanley Cup Playoff game.
Did inexperience lead to undisciplined play? Maybe.
“I think we were definitely a little bit nervous coming in,” Stutzle said. “The atmosphere was awesome, and it was definitely fun to play in that game, in those kind of situations. I felt like 5-on-5 we played a pretty good game, but we have to stay out of the box and capitalize on our chances.”
Goalie Linus Ullmark, who has made the playoffs each of the past four seasons, the prior three with the Boston Bruins, thinks getting a taste of playoff hockey will help those who experienced it for the first time.
“It’s not as bad as you think it is, in a way,” Ullmark said. “Now you’ve done the first one, got that one out of the way, you know how it feels.
“You got the jitters or butterflies out. Now it is what it is. It’s fun if you have any nerves, it just means you care. It’s a good thing to have these nerves but you can’t let it take over yourself and let it change the way you play. Now we can come out and feel a little bit better about ourselves in the second one and keep grinding.”
