It's no secret: the second period has been a problem for the Senators this year. To date, they've been outscored in the middle frame 36 to 65 through 43 games for the worst differential in the league while also allowing the most second period goals on average (1.51 GAA in the second period) in the NHL.
"We have to find a way to manage and support the puck better in the second period," said Sens centre Derick Brassard. "We need to spend more time in the offensive zone because it feels like we're spending so much energy just defending."
The Sens allowed three unanswered, second period goals on Thursday against the Blues and at yesterday's practice they spent time working on the fundamentals of dealing with the longer changes that occur in the second.
'Scotty Bowman used to work on his changes like that all the time so it's just a reminder," said Sens head coach Guy Boucher. "Those long changes should be the same as the short ones but you have to be even more aware because your wide defenceman and winger are stuck so far that with no redline now and the transition is so quick that the minute that you're stuck in between that change...you're done."
While the coach noted several reasons for their issues in the middle frame, he specifically touched on the team's proclivity to turn down shooting opportunities in favour of making complicated passing plays.
"The big reason is that we don't have a shooting mentality anymore," shared Boucher about the second period woes. "We're looking for option B and C and sometimes even D and that's not the NHL."