OTTAWA — Many Ottawa Senators fans had already made their way to the exits by the time the final horn sounded, a long, frustrating game finally over. Sens fans booed their team off the ice at the Canadian Tire Centre, only to be drowned out by the handful of Edmonton Oilers fans who stayed and cheered.
That frustration still lingered in the Senators’ locker room once postgame media avails commenced. A blowout loss is bad enough. But the remaining schedule for November has the potential to doom the Senators again if they can’t right their ship.
“I think everybody around here knows that, we know that, we’re a good team,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. “It’s just a matter of doing it day in and day out and just no more bulls–t excuses.”
The Senators spent most of the game chasing the Oilers’ best players Tuesday night in a 5-2 loss. Connor McDavid scored twice in the first period and added an assist. Leon Draisaitl scored and added two helpers of his own. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored as well. The Senators got goals from Tim Stützle and Josh Norris in the loss, but they rarely looked like a team that could seriously come back and give themselves a chance.
Not to add more to the downpour, but Tuesday was also Linus Ullmark’s fourth game of the season where he allowed five goals.
“Their top guys were good tonight,” Stützle said. “I didn’t score enough goals.”
“Flat,” Senators head coach Travis Green said when asked to assess his team’s performance tonight. “Not a lot of energy, not sharp with our execution. We looked flat tonight.
“It’s frustrating for sure. Thought we had a flat practice (Monday). I thought it carried over to our game today.”
Four minutes into the game, Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard scored a goal-of-the-year candidate after undressing Thomas Chabot with a toe drag before beating Ullmark. Bouchard too finished with two assists.
EVAN BOUCHARD 🤯
What a way to open the scoring! pic.twitter.com/UsESaYaFs3
— NHL (@NHL) November 20, 2024
Chabot told the media afterward that his first two periods of the game were “the worst two periods” he played. He also said didn’t feel like himself and wasn’t ready to go. Chabot was one of three defencemen, alongside the Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub pairing, who were on the ice for two goals at five-on-five. By the third period, Green split up Chabot from his usual partner Nick Jensen — their first such split this season.
“That just can’t happen if I’m going to play those minutes and have that big of a role on a team,” Chabot said when asked about the Bouchard goal. “You just can’t let that happen. And you know what? It’s on me, and you got to move on and learn from it.”
When asked why the Senators have been so inconsistent in their game throughout the season, Tkachuk tried to sum it up in one word: immaturity. The Senators are feeling the pressure of not adding more wins to their record after letting some early games slip by them. A lack of consistency, and that immaturity, is keeping them from showing off the identity they want to play on a regular basis.
“We talk about it in here all the time,” Tkachuk said. “There’s just been too many moments, too many opportunities that have been missed so far. I know and I believe that it’s going to get corrected. But it needs to get corrected.”
“Look at the record,” he continued. “Look at the games where we’ve lost or should have won, (or) should have gotten the point at least, and our record looks completely different. I don’t know. Just being kind of stuck around .500 right now is probably a part of it, and the nerves that go into each game. Now, if you give yourself a cushion, maybe the games we know we lost but should have won, if we won those, then we have more of a cushion.
“But right now, it feels like every game is a must-win, so we’re just learning how to handle that, process that and be comfortable and confident.”
The Senators have now lost three in a row for the first time this season, trending downward in a month that hasn’t been kind to them in recent years. Ottawa hasn’t posted a winning record in November since 2016. They haven’t won more than four games in November since 2019. In a division where the best teams (Florida, Toronto and Tampa Bay) are threatening to pull away again, Ottawa cannot afford to fall back further.
| NHL season | Record |
|---|---|
|
2023-24
|
4-5-0
|
|
2022-23
|
4-9-1
|
|
2021-22
|
1-10-1
|
|
2020-21
|
N/A
|
|
2019-20
|
8-8-0
|
|
2018-19
|
7-7-1
|
|
2017-18
|
3-7-1
|
|
2016-17
|
9-5-1
|
But their upcoming schedule gives them few breaks. The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Pacific Division penthouse and they’re in town Thursday on the second night of a back-to-back. The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames have also kept pace with Vegas in their division. Next week, the Senators wrap up the month in California where they’ll see the Sharks, Kings and Ducks.
“These are the games. These are the moments that can change the season around. And we just need all of us to take charge and take hold,” Tkachuk said.
The Senators only have three wins in November this year and there’s a serious chance they could end the month with another losing record, at risk of falling behind and landing in the Atlantic Division basement. Of the division, the Senators only have a slightly better points percentage (.472) than Detroit (.444) and Montreal (.421) — the latter of whom beat the Oilers on Monday.
But wins over some tough opposition this week, and overcoming previous road struggles next week, will go a long way to help keep their season afloat. Ottawa’s ship remains upright, but there is a risk of it teetering into a familiar feeling of despair.
(Top photo of Linus Ullmark: André Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)
