Talk of the Senators slipping after Brady Tkachuk was dealt to the Florida Panthers in June has not matched what Ottawa has shown on the ice.
The Senators pushed their record to 8-4-0 with a 7-4 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre, finishing a three-game homestand with two victories. Ottawa has now banked eight wins in October for only the fifth time in franchise history and will head into a five-game trip that begins Tuesday at 10 p.m.
ET against the Vegas Golden Knights. That road swing also includes stops in Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Buffalo.
The noisy predictions of a drop-off looked overdone then, and they still do now. Ottawa has started fast for a few clear reasons, though there are still spots that need attention.
Tim Stutzle has been the engine
Stutzle has played like a top centre who has kicked his game up another notch. The 24-year-old has eight goals and 16 points in 12 games, has picked up points in 11 of Ottawa’s 12 contests, and sits No. 11 in NHL scoring.
He has also had a hand in 42 percent of the Senators’ 38 goals this season. Against the Rangers, he stretched his scoring streak to four games while continuing to make his presence felt at both ends of the ice.
Coach Travis Green has used the Senators’ top pick from the 2020 NHL draft in every situation, and the workload shows it. Stutzle is averaging 21 minutes and 52 seconds per game, which ranks second on the team. He has been impossible to contain so far, though the sample is still small.
Linus Ullmark set the tone in net
Ullmark’s start has been just as important. He’s 7-1-0, which is the most wins by an Ottawa goalie in October since Martin Gerber went 7-1-0 to begin the 2007-08 season.
There is still some uncertainty around his status after he left the Senators’ 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 17 with an undisclosed lower-body strain. Green said he is one to two weeks away, but Saturday marked seven days since the injury.
Ullmark traveled with the team, though, which at least leaves the door open for a return sometime in the next 10 days. First, he has to get back on the ice.
In the meantime, Samuel Ersson and Jonas Johansson have handled the work. Ersson has gone 0-3-0 in five appearances with a 4.59 goals-against average and a .835 save percentage. Johansson picked up his first Ottawa win Saturday after making 24 saves, though he still finished with an .857 save percentage after giving up four goals.
Ridly Greig is making life miserable
Greig missed Ottawa’s first two games because of a suspension for a sucker punch in the playoffs this past spring, but that has not slowed him down. He has turned into exactly the kind of nuisance opponents hate facing.
He has drawn 13 penalties, the most in the league, and his game has been built on skating, physicality and constant pressure. As Green put it, “He’s physical.
He’s hard to play against. I don’t know if there’s an area of the game he doesn’t touch,” Green said of Greig.
The next step is offense. Greig is getting meaningful ice time and working on the second power-play unit, so the Senators need more than agitation and disruption from him.
He has had chances, and plenty of them. If the scoring catches up to the edge and energy, Ottawa will have a useful two-way forward for years.
Dylan Cozens and the need for more support
Ottawa’s No. 2 center finally scored his first goal of the season against the Rangers and now has one goal and six points. He’s also had to deal with a rotating cast of linemates.
That situation brought to mind a memory from the Senators’ first season in 1992-93. The writer and former colleague Chris Stevenson used to stop by winger Andrew McBain’s locker in the corner of the room at the old Kanata Recreation Complex almost every day.
The spot became known as “Scoops Corner” because of the stories, the gossip and the laughs that were shared there. One day, Stevenson and the writer stopped by to check in on a struggling McBain.
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