OTTAWA – In the beginning of the month, the Ottawa Senators had been solely two factors again of the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place within the Atlantic Division.
Now, 22 days and a 4 Nations Face-Off break later, that hole is eight factors. The principle cause is 4 straight Senators’ losses, together with a 5-2 defeat Saturday to the Montreal Canadiens of their first recreation again from the NHL’s two-week break.
“Rusty. Not excellent with the puck. It wasn’t a really fairly recreation,” was the way in which Senators coach Travis Inexperienced described the competition that noticed the Senators play with out captain Brady Tkachuk and forwards Shane Pinto and Josh Norris.
“They’re massive components of our crew. Three of our prime gamers, three expert gamers, and we want different gamers to be on the highest of their recreation, and I don’t suppose we had been on the highest of our recreation.”
Now the Senators are out of the highest three within the Atlantic and tied with the Detroit Purple Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets for the ultimate wild-card berth, only one level forward of the Boston Bruins.
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“It simply goes again to what we’ve been speaking about all season. Whether or not you win or lose, you consider your recreation and you progress on and prepare for the subsequent one,” Inexperienced mentioned.

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Goaltending has been a difficulty because the Senators have surrendered 19 targets of their previous 4 video games, together with 5 in every of the final three.
What hasn’t been an issue is the play of Tim Stutzle who had a purpose and an help Saturday and has a nine-game factors streak. However the crew is dropping so he’s laying blame on himself.
“It doesn’t matter. We should always be capable to win these video games and I’ve obtained to be higher,” mentioned Stutzle, who leads the crew with 58 factors.
“Clearly it’s actually disappointing. We’re simply not sharp sufficient. We didn’t make any passes, we simply flip the puck out. Generally you must try this however generally you must make tape-to-tape passes and unfold the puck out. We didn’t do sufficient of that.
“There’s 25 video games left to go and we need to play our greatest each evening. We’ve obtained to practise laborious, bounce again and get again to the way in which we need to play.”
If the Senators need to be participating within the playoffs for the primary time since 2017, they might want to proper the ship and quick. That received’t be straightforward as their subsequent opponent would be the league-leading Winnipeg Jets.
“We all know that, however we’ve simply obtained to get higher. It’s irritating however we are able to’t get too pissed off. We simply should maintain taking part in and be higher. It’s as straightforward as that, we simply should be higher as an entire group and bear down,” Stutzle mentioned.
Defenceman Jake Sanderson, who performed for Group USA on the 4 Nations Face-Off, is aware of time is slowly changing into the enemy of the Senators.
“Standings are so tight proper now. Each recreation issues, each level, so we simply should have that subsequent recreation mentality,” he mentioned. “Successful the day. It doesn’t matter what you do exactly maintain going and put your head down,” mentioned Sanderson.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 22, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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