The Ottawa Senators blew three different leads on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 5–4 decision to the New York Islanders at Canadian Tire Centre.  The Islanders were outshot on the day, 33-23, and their first lead of the afternoon didn't come until just over a minute left in regulation when Anders Lee snapped a 4-4 draw.

In what looked like a harmless retrieval in his own end, newcomer Jordan Spence failed to protect the puck at all. Lee chased him down, easily stole the puck, walked in on Linus Ullmark, then with almost nothing to shoot at, Lee spun around and crammed it between the goaltender's pads for the game winner.

The Senators surrendered leads of 2–0, 3–2, and 4–3 in this one. Tim Stützle, Drake Batherson, and Thomas Chabot helped lead the Sens offense with two points each. 

Ottawa opened the scoring on the power play when David Perron’s wrist shot from the top of the left circle trickled through Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin. It was the first time this season the Senators scored first in a game.

But that was only possible because of Ullmark’s incredible save early in the first period.

Ottawa native J.G. Pageau had a nearly open net to shoot at, but Ullmark stretched over with the paddle of his stick and made a fabulous save to keep the game scoreless.

The Senators ran into penalty trouble at the end of the first following back-to-back penalties by Nick Cousins and Artem Zub. That gave the Islanders a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity—but the Senators’ much-maligned penalty kill took care of business. Zub even had a great chance when he jumped out of the penalty box, leading a 2-on-1 up the ice with Ridly Greig, but neither man could capitalize on the shot or the juicy rebound.

Ullmark was on his game again, at least in the early going, stopping Bo Horvat on a clear breakaway attempt. 

Just over five minutes into the second, with Ullmark on the bench during a delayed penalty, Shane Pinto one-timed one past Sorokin to make it 2-0 Ottawa. The goal was Pinto's NHL-leading seventh of the year. He now has more goals in the first six games of a season than any Senator in history.

But less than five minutes later, the 2-0 lead was gone, erased by two quick goals by Emil Heineman and Bo Horvat. Horvat's goal was partially the result of a bad Ottawa line change.

The back-and-forth continued at the end of the second period. Tim Stützle's wrist shot finished off a nice passing play with Drake Batherson and Nick Jensen to make it 3-2 Ottawa. A minute later, Max Shabanov tied it for the Islanders, and a minute after that, Dylan Cozens restored the lead. 

Pinto had another prime scoring chance early in the third period but was taken down on a breakaway by Matthew Schaefer. Pinto crashed hard into the goalpost but was able to get up and take the resulting penalty shot.

He aimed low glove side — a spot he admitted on Thursday is his go-to move in shootouts — but Sorokin read it perfectly and made the stop.

Moments later, the Islanders tied the game for the third time, as Matt Barzal went end to end, then dropped a pass to Kyle Palmieri, who fired a wrist shot past Ullmark. The score stayed tied at 4 until Lee put it away with 1:03 to go.

Sens' head coach Travis Green spoke calmly after the game but he was probably as critical of his team as he's been in a long time.

"Disappointing," head coach Travis Green said. "For starters, I thought our game got too loose when we had the lead, and a lot of things that we took pride in last year, we weren't good in tonight. 

"We're on the wrong side of the puck, we're not making hard plays. It's loose plays, loose passes, losing puck battles in certain areas of the rink, joining the rush when maybe there's no time to join, different things like that. Or trying to make a play inside the blue line when it's not the time or place or you have the lead. You (need to) keep making a team come 200 feet and create offense with your forecheck. That's when we're a good hockey team.

Green then went to the silver linings playbook for a moment. For example, the much maligned penalty kill went 3 for 3 on the day. But the book then closed up pretty quickly.

"We did a lot of good things tonight. I think we created 18 to 20 chances, five on five, but I thought our mindset was a little bit loose, and we should have closed that game out. It's probably a different story if we get into overtime.

"It hurts that we didn't get a point tonight, and I think our game's a little sloppy right now."

The Senators drop to 2-4 on the young season and have some time to work on some thing at practice. They're now off until Tuesday, when they host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

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