For 20 minutes, the game had gone as well as Jacques Martin could have dreamed in his first game coaching the Ottawa Senators in nearly 20 years.
The Sens had an early lead against the Arizona Coyotes on a goal from rookie Angus Crookshank, his first in the NHL, causing new assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson to clap his hands enthusiastically behind the Senators bench.
A power-play goal followed, a Josh Norris tally so quickly into the man advantage it was as though Alfredsson had waved a magic wand over the moribund PP unit.
Then a Dominik Kubalik tip-in for a 3-0 lead.
What could go wrong now?
Well, these are the 2023-24 Senators, so, plenty.
The old Martin teams of the late 1990s and early aughts would have locked this game down.
But not having had a single practice session before the game at Mullett Arena, Martin inherited a mistake-prone team that was not going to change with the flip of a switch, or in this case a coach, from D.J. Smith to the interim Martin.
While the Coyotes don’t have Ottawa’s talent, they play fast and organized under the superb coaching of André “Bear” Tourigny, the former Ottawa 67’s head coach and a Team Canada head coach at multiple international events.
The ‘Yotes kept coming and despite some spectacular saves by Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, including a stretched leg stop on Matt Dumba in alone, something had to give.
Turned out to be Ottawa’s lead. Bit by bit.
Arizona got one back in the second period and then another approaching the midway point of the third. This is when the agonizing moment presented itself, all too familiar for Senators fans.
On the heels of goal two, goal three — the tying goal — just 33 seconds later.
The rest was predictable. The Coyotes buzzing in Ottawa’s zone, Senators bodies chasing the puck and one goes in off the skate of defenceman Travis Hamonic.
Game over.
Arizona outshot Ottawa 38-22.
Oddly, yet another opposing goalie left the game early, though not due to injury this time. Tourigny had seen enough after the Senators’ third goal and hooked Connor Ingram in favour of Karel Vejmelka, who got the win.
Martin was calm throughout the game and afterward.
“We had a pretty good effort, we got the lead and our puck possession, especially in the first period was excellent,” Martin said, leading with the positives post-game.
“Our puck management needs to be better. And there’s a couple other areas that we’ll address.”
Not that there’s much time for training school. The Sens are on the tail end of a five-game road trip and are in Denver on Wednesday for a Thursday meeting with the Colorado Avalanche.
The Senators are losers of five straight while the Avs will be grumpy after losing to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. The Hawks are in last place in the Central Division.
The Senators return home for a Saturday date with Pittsburgh, the last game before Christmas.
This team will not be fixed overnight. And the old Peterborough high school teacher, Martin, will be conducting class when he can.
Martin, who loved to teach players via video lessons in his earlier incarnation as head coach in St. Louis, Ottawa, Florida and Montreal, promises to sit his players down to watch and learn in the coming weeks.
“We have to make some adjustments technically to not spend so much time in our zone,” Martin said.
The man hasn’t been behind a bench as head coach since 2011 with the Canadiens, but Martin said he felt “comfortable” in his first game back and had good meetings with his assistants prior to the game.
It was Alfredsson’s first game behind a Senators bench since his cameo appearances during the Global Series in his native Sweden.
You could see a difference back there, both Martin and Alfredsson giving feedback to players right after a given shift on the ice.
When fourth liner Mark Kastelic skated behind the Arizona net and then did a drive-by as a Coyotes defenceman cleared the puck, Alfredsson was waiting for Kastelic at the bench when he returned. “You’ve got to finish that check,” Alfredsson told him.
Martin believes Alfredsson, his former captain, will make an excellent assistant because of his own work ethic.
“He was a sixth-round pick,” Martin said. “He got everything through hard work, commitment, working at getting better on a daily basis and he brings those elements to our team.”
Back at you, coach.
Alfredsson said earlier in the day that Martin will tighten up the Senators play.
“Consistency in the messaging is very important, no matter what your style is,” Alfredsson told the media in Tempe.
“I’ve been around Jacques a long time. I know what he stands for, what message he brings and I feel very comfortable being on this staff.
“We had a lot of success, making the playoffs year after year (1997-2004 under Martin). You don’t do that if you don’t pay attention to details and get everybody playing for each other.”
There is far greater parity in today’s NHL than when those earlier Senators could pencil in victories over lesser opponents.
Today’s Senators are finding every night a challenge. Martin is going to try to provide some structure in the weeks ahead as a building block for this group, while not overloading players with a massive change in systems.
“It’s going to be a process, it’s not going to happen all in one day,” Martin said. “But I want to see progression as we move along here.”
