"Embarrassing hockey": Senators' captain Brady Tkachuk doesn't mince his words while addressing 'unacceptable' 4-2 loss against Dallas

Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk didn’t hold back after their 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday. The Senators were outshot 25-13 by Dallas and they also controlled the faceoffs with a percentage of 60.

Brady called the second half of the game "embarrassing" and "unacceptable." Ottawa allowed two goals in the second period. Jamie Benn tied the game 2-2 and Roope Hintz gave Dallas a 3-2 lead.

"I mean, definitely not the second half," Tkachuk said after the game, via CTV Ottawa's Jack Richardson. "Second half was embarrassing hockey, Just unacceptable."

Tkachuk gave credit to Dallas for playing well, but he emphasized that the Senators must control their own game.

"No, absolutely," Tkachuk said. "You've got to give credit. They played well." Tkachuk said. "I mean, they are a veteran team with a lot of great players on that team. The only thing we can control are ourselves and individual decisions, and that's just not the way we play."

Tkachuk helped Ottawa take a 2-1 lead early in the first period. However, Dallas took over with goals from Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene to win the game.

Tkachuk hopes the team will learn from this game and be better in their next outing.

"Yeah. Well, thank god, I played them well." Tkachuk said, "Able to move on from this one quicker. There's a lot of lessons to be learned in this game (4-2 loss to Dallas)."

The loss dropped the Senators' record to 19-16-2, remaining fifth in the Atlantic Division.

Dallas Stars dominated the Senators despite Brady Tkachuk tying the game early

The game between the Dallas Stars and Ottawa Senators started with Roope Hintz scoring at 4:39 in the first period. Ottawa answered quickly, with Brady Tkachuk scoring at 7:45 after a turnover by Dallas. Just 24 seconds later, Tkachuk set up Ridly Greig for a shot, putting Ottawa ahead 2-1.

Dallas tied the game at 10:19 when Jamie Benn's shot hit the crossbar and went in. Hintz scored again at 11:27 to give Dallas a 3-2 lead. Ottawa coach Travis Green talked about the team’s mistakes.

“We got what we deserved. We weren’t good enough tonight,” Green said, via NHL.com, “We didn’t play 60 minutes. Our power play wasn’t very good. We didn’t make enough plays with the puck. We weren’t sharp.

Matt Duchene added a final goal at 13:37 in the third period, securing the win. Tkachuk and the Senators will be back in action on Friday when they visit the St. Louis Blues.