Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators has cooled off with some talented teammates on the sidelines. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

The Ottawa Senators continue their five-game road trip in Atlanta on Tuesday night, hoping to snap their worst skid of the season.

Ottawa (22-20-4) is coming off a 4-1 loss in Carolina on Sunday. Chris Kelly opened the scoring in the second, but it was all Hurricanes after that, with Pascal Leclaire stopping 29 shots on net.

The Senators looked back on the first period as one of lost opportunity, unable to beat Cam Ward despite a 16-5 shot advantage.

It was Ottawa's fourth consecutive defeat, each by a margin of three goals. The Senators have been outscored 16-4 during the losing streak.

The fact that the team has achieved the somewhat rare statistical feat of playing three consecutive games without a power-play goal scored or allowed shows that the effort is there, but the talent cupboard is a bit thin with key injuries to skilled players.

Coach Cory Clouston said centre Mike Fisher is bearing the weight a bit too much with the injuries to Daniel Alfredsson, Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza.

Production slips

With those players out of the lineup, Fisher is more frequently facing the opposition's best checkers. After averaging nearly a point per game through his first 28 games, he has just four assists to show for his last 13.

Clouston had Fisher on the point on the power play in Monday's practice, trying to kill two birds with one stone.

"I know he's played back there a couple of times in the past," said Clouston. "Hopefully, if and when he gets the opportunity, he can pull the trigger."

With the injuries, the club has recently resembled the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League, with the likes of Zack Smith and Martin St. Pierre forced to play some minutes.

Clouston had praise for Peter Regin, who was expected to be with Ottawa this season, but not in such a prominent role.

"He's playing a first- or second-line role and if you told me that he was going to have to do that at the start of this year I would have said not a chance, that's asking too much of him right now."

Leclaire is expected to start for Ottawa, who enter Tuesday's NHL slate tied for seventh with Montreal in the Eastern Conference.

Thrashers fall

While the Thrashers have won more recently than the Senators, they are just 1-7-3 in the last 11, falling out of the top eight in the East as a result.

Like the Senators, Atlanta (19-19-6) couldn't connect on a bevy of shots in the first period period last time out. Instead, the Thrashers were down 3-0 despite outshooting Washington 18-6 in the opening period.

The Capitals stomped Atlanta 8-1, victimizing both Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec in net. Maxim Afinogenov was the lone goal scorer for the Thrashers, with Pavel Kubina assisting to extend his point streak to three games.

Team star Ilya Kovalchuk was a team-worst minus-3 in the game and is in his first three-game pointless drought of the season.

"This team is having trouble scoring goals," coach John Anderson said. "Our big guns, they have to start scoring goals. We have some guys on the team that are underachieving in the scoring category."

Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but general manager Don Waddell said Monday he's not actively looking to trade the Russian, who with 25 goals is on track for his sixth consecutive 40-goal season.

The Thrashers also announced that Angelo Esposito will undergo a second major knee surgery on his right knee Tuesday and is out for the season. Esposito, 20, reaggravated his knee last month in an AHL game. Once touted as a "can't miss" prospect, Esposito has already been traded in his career and has yet to play an NHL game.

The Senators and Atlanta are playing for the third time this season, having split a pair of games in Ottawa in October.

The Senators continue their road trip Thursday against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.