Four Senators takeaways from dominant win over Blues: 'We're having fun out there'

OTTAWA — It was easy to think a power outage at Canadian Tire Centre during pregame warmup was a Halloween prank. Until it happened again.

Twice in the span of a few seconds, the lights, electronic billboards and tickers and scoreboard went dead. Broadcast crews went quiet as the building ran on emergency power until everything that required a power source rebooted. The Ottawa Senators’ game against the St. Louis Blues was delayed 30 minutes and the players took a second, shorter warmup before puck drop.

“One second you’re thinking that you might not play the game in case they can’t get the power working,” Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark said. “All of a sudden you start thinking ‘Oh shoot, maybe there’s some people locked in an elevator’ at the time. And you start thinking about that a little bit. Once they came in and had some news for us that was good, it was all fine.”

One team certainly wasn’t hampered by the outage once the game started. The Senators defeated the Blues 8-1 for their best win of the season so far. It was the second time in two weeks the Sens scored eight goals in a game.

“Just wanted to rebound, bounce back from a game where we weren’t mentally dialled in,” Senators forward Brady Tkachuk said. “We really wanted to have a rebound effort and a full 60-minute effort.”

Here’s how the Senators played their best game of the early season.

The offence fired on all cylinders

Ottawa dominated the game at five-on-five, won the high-danger chance battle 10-4 and found success on the power play. Five players recorded multi-point games in the victory. They were about as perfect offensively as they could be.

There may have been no bigger star than Tim Stützle, who had a four-point night. It was his third multi-point game of the season, extending his point streak to five games. Entering Tuesday night, Stützle was already trending toward being a 100-point player, according to Hockey Reference. Those projections have undoubtedly changed thanks to his best individual output of the season.

Stützle flashed the skill set and talent that make him the best offensive talent the Senators have. He produced at five-on-five and on the power play with two goals and two assists and once again threw his body around with three hits.

Tim Stützle makes it 3-0 Ottawa with a nasty goal! #GoSensGo

All three goals came at 5v5. Statement period. pic.twitter.com/d36NoRem93

— Everyday Sens (@EverydaySens) October 30, 2024

“I think Timmy’s worked hard and he’s trying to become a more complete player that can win when it matters,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “And that’s not just Timmy, that’s our whole group.”

Not to be outdone, Tkachuk scored twice on the man advantage while working near the net in high-danger areas. Even at five-on-five, Tkachuk found a home for himself in the Blues slot and had chances on goal. The Senators captain now has back-to-back multi-point games.

Ottawa now has the NHL’s second-best power play with a 42.9 success rate and has scored on the power play in all but two games this season.

“Mike Yeo and (Daniel Alfredsson) have done a good job with them,” Green said. “They’re putting the puck in the net right now. Hopefully they can keep that up, it’s helped us a lot this year so far.”

Giroux is playing at a high level

Claude Giroux is one of the league’s hottest players right now. With an assist on Josh Norris’ game-opening goal in the first period, the NHL veteran extended his point streak to seven games (five goals and 11 points in that span). Only four players have longer point streaks than Giroux right now (Carter Verhaeghe, Jared McCann and Tage Thompson are also on seven-game point streaks): Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Kyle Connor and Troy Terry.

Giroux has spent most of the season on the top line alongside Stützle and Tkachuk, but Green adjusted ahead of Tuesday’s game. Ridly Greig took Giroux’s spot on the right side alongside Stützle and Tkachuk, bumping Giroux down to a line with Norris and Drake Batherson. It took Giroux about a minute to hustle for a puck that reached the offensive zone and pass it to Norris, who then scored.

“Our line is connecting,” Giroux said. “It’s our first time playing together, all three of us. We’re having fun out there. We feel like we have a little chemistry going right now. Saying that, we’re just trying to help the team. If that’s playing good defence or scoring goals, we’re trying to do that.”

Giroux ended the night with two points, also assisting on a goal from Stützle in the third period.

“He just does it every year,” Stützle said. “I think that’s the most impressive (thing). Seeing him come to the rink every day, how hard he works to get ready for the games.

“Just the commitment he has to the city, to this team. I know one person who doesn’t care about a seven-game points streak, it’s him. All he wants is to win. I’m super happy and thankful we have him on our team.”

Ullmark needed a game like this, and so did the defence

The Senators’ top players dominated the Blues, including Ullmark who made 26 saves in a near-shutout performance had it not been for Dylan Holloway’s goal in the third. Ullmark looked confident and poised and made the most of not being consistently tested in the first period of a game that had already gotten out of hand for St. Louis.

Linus Ullmark squeezes to make a save on the PK. #Sens #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/jeXgQKYh7i

— Pesky Sickos (@PeskySickos) October 29, 2024

“We did a really good job of being in the right place at the right time and getting clean breakouts which kind of helped me get the flow of the game,” Ullmark said. “Once the shots came, they did a very good job of keeping the guys on the outside and giving free lanes. There’s going to be some cookies here and there sometime during the season. But we all make mistakes. It’s nothing that we have to worry about, we came out scot-free today. I’m sure that the people who do go through and make mistakes know already, so there’s no need for me to tell them.”

It was the best way to rebound after his last start. Ullmark took full responsibility for his team’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights last week in his first game back after a lengthy injury absence due to a strain. The Senators allowed three goals in under 90 seconds during the third period for a 6-4 loss.

“If they had a capable goalie, I think, in there today they would’ve won 4-3, I would say,” Ullmark said after the Vegas loss. “Way too sloppy to be in this league. This is the type of game where you have to rely on your goaltender to shut the door, not letting in those two at the end to cost us to lose the game. I take it upon myself. That’s always what I do. I never try to put any blame on anyone else. I try the very best in front of me. And then it’s my job to make the saves when it’s needed.”

Following the game, Ullmark met with Green, who imparted some words of wisdom to his netminder.

“He said ‘You’re not as good as you think you are and you’re not as bad as you think you are,’” Ullmark remembered. “I was in a good mood at that point so I took it as a little bit of a joke as well. But it’s very true. It’s a very humbling league and you never know what’s going to happen. Look, today, I let in one and they let in eight.”

“I’m sure some coach told me (that quote) years ago,” Green said. “It usually just makes sense. I know as a player when I played sometimes you thought you were really good and you probably weren’t that good. And sometimes when you were really bad, you could magnify it a little bit because you wanted to play as well. And you’re probably not as bad, and I thought that was a good example.”

By extension, the Senators defence also deserves major credit. They only allowed one goal while holding the Blues to four high-danger chances. The Thomas Chabot-Nick Jensen pairing, which has been leaky with chances against this season, shined particularly well against the Blues.

While the Blues were flat the entire night, much of it had to do with how the Senators played them. You can only beat the teams in front of you.

Gaudette is having a sneaky good start to his season

Adam Gaudette scored twice against St. Louis and now has four goals this season. Green even trusted Gaudette near the end of the game with power-play time, hoping he’d get his first-ever NHL hat trick. Gaudette recorded the Senators’ best Corsi-For rate against the Blues (66.67 percent). In his last three games, he’s recorded high-danger chances and expected-goals-for and Corsi-For rates all above 50 percent.

Gaudette has been an early feel-good story for the Senators on the fourth line. He spent most of last season with AHL Springfield, the Blues’ minor-league affiliate, and played only two NHL games last year in St. Louis, registering no points. He scored four goals in 50 games in 2021-22 with the Senators.

— Advanced statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

(Top photo of Tim Stützle celebrating a goal with teammates: Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)