OTTAWA – After 68 games, the Ottawa Senators still aren’t getting the message.

Coming off an ugly 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday, the Senators found themselves talking — again — about the need to manage the game better.

The loss leaves the Senators (31-30-8) six points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild card with the Penguins holding three games in hand.

“Obviously (Thursday) night definitely hurts,” said veteran Chris Neil. “I thought we played a pretty decent first period and then the wheels came off. At this time of year you can’t have that.

“It was too many individual plays cost us the game. It’s not simplifying it and it’s not just one person, it’s everyone. It was a rippling effect (Thursday) night.”

Once again the Senators were their own worst enemy. Tied 2-2 midway through the second Ottawa gave up two goals 14 seconds apart and never managed to recoup.

With so few games remaining, the Senators realize such collapses are inexcusable.

“Last night wasn’t pretty,” said Marc Methot. “I know that we had other losses earlier on that were just as bad. Teams go through that. Unfortunately for us, we can’t afford to do that right now. It’s magnified. You can pick and choose what games you think are uglier. You’re not going to win every game. I didn’t like the effort. At least, I didn’t like the way we played.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron was far from impressed with his team’s performance following the game saying that “the stubbornness has been killing us all year.”

For Cameron the stubbornness is failing to rely on the system and not managing the game. Too often players are making high-risk plays rather than keeping things simple.

Friday, the Senators chose to hold a meeting rather than take to the ice and while the message of managing the game better has been given more than once, Cameron believes it’s still getting through.

“My meeting today with players, when we talked about managing the games, I liked their response,” Cameron said. “I liked what they told me. In this business, its half talking and the other half is listening. It’s never about who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s about what’s giving you the best chance. I like what the players told me today.”

Players say the onus is on them to get the job done. At this point of the season no one should need to be reminded of what’s at stake.

“It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve addressed it,” said Zack Smith. “We’ve talked about it a lot, but it’s on us. We know exactly what to do. We talked about the first half of the year, the coaching staff puts in plans and systems, and it’s up to us to execute it and we didn’t do that especially the last two games.”

Smith’s performance was one of the few highlights to come from Thursday’s game as the 27-year-old hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career with his first-period goal.

“It was nice to get No. 20,” Smith said. “My experience is when you’re stuck at nine, the tenth one is always the hardest so it was nice to get over that hump. For me, it’s a nice feather in the cap to be a 20-goal scorer. It’s not easy in this league, especially nowadays, so I’m pretty happy with it personally.”

Smith has been Ottawa’s top forward of late with seven goals and four assists in his past ten games.

The Senators will look to rebound immediately as they host the Toronto Maple Leafs (22-33-11) on Saturday night.

Lineup changes could be made as Cameron had yet to decide on his roster for Saturday.