OTTAWA - After 20 games, the inconsistent Ottawa Senators are still struggling to find their identity. When they score first, the Senators have a 5-0-1 record, but when they give up the first goal, they are a disappointing 3-8-3. "Well have some bright flashes, well look good for a couple games and win a couple of games and then I dont know," said Zack Smith. "Its getting a little frustrating. Theres still a lot of games left, but at the same time you want to establish an identity and find some consistency in our games." Two years ago, the Senators were known for their ability to come back in games, often in the final minute. Last year they showed resiliency advancing to the second round of the playoffs despite playing most of the season without Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Jared Cowen and Craig Anderson. For whatever reason, this years group hasnt shown the same ability to overcome adversity, especially after giving up the first goal. "Maybe were waiting around at the start of games to see what other teams are doing," said Marc Methot. "I dont think were really initiating the play the way that we probably should be, especially here at home with our fans behind us. We seem to be getting down on ourselves and thats contagious and that happens when you start losing games. Its one of those things that we just have to work our way out of." Senators coach Paul MacLean believes the team would see some overall improvement if they could just find a way to spend less time in their own end. "We play in our end all the time and thats still to me the biggest issue we have is our lack of execution and we play too much in our end," MacLean said. MacLean also talked of the importance of a shift after a goal and admitted the Senators havent been good at all. Too often the team has been guilty of turnovers and poor defensive coverage. "That eats away at your confidence and your mental strength," said MacLean. Following a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday, Senators coach Paul MacLean admitted all aspects of the teams preparation would be examined, but Spezza believes its more an issue of mental preparation. "We have to make sure were mentally prepared to have that urgency that we seem to be lacking," said the Sens captain. "We have big emotional games, big emotional wins and then we follow them up with games where we look like we lack a little bit of jump." Spezza admitted there are games that are easy to get up for and then there are those that require a greater awareness. And while its easy to say that for the most part this is the same group of players from the past two seasons those who are new dont have a lot of experience to draw from. "I think we might be showing that were a little bit of an inexperienced team maybe with some of the expectations," said Spezza. "Experience comes with knowing that certain games you need different types of urgency and different types of starts and different approaches to the game." Spezza, along with alternate captains Chris Phillips and Chris Neil will be looked upon to ensure everyone is ready to play. "Were going to lean on them heavy, if we havent already, were going to make some demands of them," said MacLean. "As individuals do a better job of getting themselves prepared and getting the team prepared to play." On Tuesday, the Senators take on the Philadelphia Flyers, who just one week ago shut out the Senators 5-0 in Ottawa. Spezza says this is exactly the kind of game the team needs to be properly prepared for, especially considering what happened last week. "It should have us on notice that we can get licked if we dont show up," he said. "If you thought it was going to be an easier game or a different game because of what their record is that 5-0 game shows us that we better be ready to go into that rink (Tuesday)." After last years success, theres no doubt expectations for this team were high and Smith cant help but wonder if thats actually been part of the problem. "Maybe we thought we were going to be that much better of a team and we wouldnt have to play the team game or work quite as hard," said Smith. "If thats the case well weve been proven wrong. You still have to work hard and work as a team … for some people maybe we overachieved (last year), but I think this year were definitely underachieving to this point." Notes: Phillips was not at practice due to the flu, but will travel with the team to Philadelphia and is expected to play Tuesday. No decision was made on Tuesdays starting goaltender. Neil will play his 800th career game Tuesday night. He has spent his entire career with the Senators. 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Watch the action live on TSN and TSN GO at 7pm et/4pm pt. This is a replay of the 101st Grey Cup from November, when the Roughriders delivered a convincing 45-23 thrashing of Hamilton in front of nearly 45,000 fans. The Riders, led by head coach Corey Chamblin, would like nothing more than to get off to the same type of start that they had a year ago when they rattled off five straight victories and captured eight of the first nine outings overall. The team did stumble slightly down the stretch with back-to-back defeats to close out the regular season and suffered a four-game slide during the month of September, but the club proved to be resilient, finishing 11-7 overall, but taking home the Grey Cup when all was said and done. The third-leading passer in terms of yards last season with 4,154, Darian Durant is back under center for Saskatchewan as it begins the quest for back- to-back titles, something that has happened only once in the last 15 years. Durant, who has been with the Riders for his entire nine-year CFL career, tossed a personal best 31 touchdowns and finished with an efficiency rating of 95.7. In 2013, Durant had a trio of top-notch receivers who he relied heavily on, but one of those, Weston Dressler has since signed with the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, leaving Chris Getzlaf and Taj Smith to carry more of the load this time around. All three posted at least 1,000 yards through the air, with Dressler leading the way with nine touchdowns. However, Getzlaf and Smith both landed in the end zone seven times and the former averaged a hefty 16.6 yards per catch. Another major change for the Riders is the departure of running back Kory Sheets, the most valuable player of the Grey Cup, as he signed with the NFLs Oakland Raiders. Sheets was second in the league with 1,598 yards and tied for the lead with 12 rushing scores, which means theres a huge void to be filled in the backfield for the club. A couple of newcomers, Keith Toston and Anthony Allen will be tasked with producing on the ground moving forward. Saskatchewan has to be pleased with the fact that they owned the toughest scoring defense in the CFL a year ago, allowing only 22.1 ppg, but that wont be easy to duplicaate after losing Alex Hall.dddddddddddd. The defensive lineman placed second in the league with 16 sacks, but like many successful CFL performers, he too has latched on with an NFL squad (the Carolina Panthers) for the time being. On other side, the Tiger-Cats were the opposite of Saskatchewan through the first month of last season, winning just a single game in five tries. But the group did finish strong with four wins in five opportunities before, putting up a 10-8 mark, before defeating Montreal and Toronto in the playoffs. Kent Austin, the head coach, general manager and vice president of football operations for Hamilton, does have a major issue to clear up this time around with respect to his quarterback. Last year he watched Henry Burris tear up defenses for a league-best 4,927 yards, but this time around he will have to find a leader in either Zach Collaros, Dan LeFevour or Jeremiah Masoli. Collaros has the most experience of the three after spending a couple of years with Toronto, but he is still a major work in progress. LeFevour finished with almost as many rushing yards (317) as passing (394) with the Cats last year while Masoli attempted a grand total of just two passes for the program in 2013. At least for this week, it doesnt help that receiver Andy Fantuz is on the injured list, because he was one of the top pass catchers in the game with 65 grabs for 896 yards. That leaves Bakari Grant as the primary focus down the field after he posted 69 receptions for 947 yards, but a mere two touchdowns a year ago. Running back C.J. Gable is capable of adding another dimension to the offense, having gained 782 yards and scored seven times on 130 carries in his first CFL campaign, but the squad will have to be careful not to run him into the ground too early. From a defensive perspective, there is plenty of work to be done for the Tiger-Cats after they finished with a minus-13 in the turnover department. The squad logged just 14 interceptions, second-fewest behind only a hapless Winnipeg group, which they turned into a league-low 142 return yards. Hamilton was also last in the CFL in sacks with just 35. Stretching back to 1961 and focusing only on games that took place during the regular season, Saskatchewan holds a slight advantage in the series with the Cats at 42-38-4. The Riders have taken four of the last five and a startling 17 of the last 20 matchups with Hamilton. ' ' '