The Detroit Red Wings would like to distance themselves from a tough loss over the weekend.
Their first opportunity to rebound comes Tuesday (7 p.m. pregame, 7:30 face-off on FOX Sports Detroit) in Ottawa, where they've found tremendous success in recent years.
Detroit (6-2-3) fell 3-2 in a shootout Sunday at Buffalo, handing the team with the NHL's fewest goals just its third win of the season. The Red Wings peppered the Sabres with 38 shots - 17 in the third period - but failed to pull ahead, eventually ceding a game-tying goal with less than seven minutes to play.
"We had opportunities right from the get-go," coach Mike Babcock said. "But we let them hang around. We had to get the second one. We had lots of opportunities to do that."
The Red Wings have had much better luck in Ottawa, where they are undefeated in their last four trips - including two wins by a 10-3 margin last season in the clubs' first as Atlantic Division rivals.
Johan Franzen, who returned to Detroit's lineup Sunday after missing six games with a groin injury, has especially thrived at the Canadian Tire Centre. In the Red Wings' winning streak there, Franzen has 11 goals - five of which came on Feb. 2, 2011.
"You go around the league, you get guys who score a lot, you put their numbers up against certain teams and they have teams they score on," Babcock told the Red Wings' official website. "I don't know if it's the feeling or the rhythm or you get in something. I don't know the answer to that, but they know who he is."
The Senators will also have to deal with a red-hot Pavel Datsyuk, who has 10 points in six games since returning from injury. He scored his fifth goal in four games Sunday.
"Franzen is a world-class player, but Datsyuk and Zetterberg can make a lot of people good," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean told the team's official website. "They're multipliers. They're going to be a handful, they work hard, they take away ice and time and space."
Craig Anderson will be tasked with stopping Detroit's attack, and though his 2.38 goals-against average is fairly pedestrian, his .934 save percentage is among the league leaders. The Senators are conceding 35.9 shots per game, among the most in the NHL.
Robin Lehner saw 30 shots on Saturday as Ottawa (5-3-2) fell 4-2 in Boston. Erik Karlsson was a minus-4 in the loss, tying the worst mark of his career.
"If I evaluated every game I've played and let myself down in the games I didn't play good enough in I think I wouldn't be here right now," said Karlsson, who has seven assists in six career games against Detroit. "I'm just going to have to turn the page and move forward. I don't really care what happened last game."
Now the Senators begin a four-game stretch at home, where they're 2-0-2.
"We've built some momentum at home with the start to our season," MacLean said. "We need to come out (Tuesday) night and have a game. We have a good opponent so we should be fired up to play them and, again, we want to build some momentum. We can't look to Sunday, we have to make sure we stay in today, get ready for (Tuesday's) game and come out and play to win."
Jimmy Howard makes his fourth consecutive start for the Red Wings. He owns a 1.95 GAA this season and has picked up a point for Detroit in eight of his nine starts.
In the Red Wings' last meeting with Ottawa, Howard was pulled after allowing three goals in just over 14 minutes. The Senators scored three more times after Howard's departure, winning 6-1.
