The Ottawa Senators walked into Saturday night with a packed schedule, a battered lineup and a clear opportunity to bank another win. Instead, they left Xfinity Mobile Arena handing the Philadelphia Flyers their first victory of the season.
Ottawa was playing its fifth game in eight days, with back-to-back contests on Monday and Tuesday already piling up on tired legs. That wear showed. The Senators looked sluggish for stretches, and a game that should have been manageable slipped away as the Flyers played with urgency and finished the job.
The loss also fit a larger trend. Ottawa had opened the season with six wins in nine games, but the last stretch has been far less sharp.
The club has one regulation win and two losses in its past five, and the offense has gone quiet along the way. The Senators rank 23rd in the league in goals scored with 22, and Tim Stützle’s early-season burst has cooled considerably.
After scoring five goals in his first five games, he came away with only one assist on Saturday - his lone point in the team’s last three games.
The power play remains another problem the Senators can’t hide. With William Eklund and Jake Sanderson both sidelined by injuries, the man advantage has become a patchwork operation, and the results have not followed.
Ottawa has converted on just five of 39 power-play chances, a 12.8% success rate that ranks 28th in the NHL. Against Philadelphia, the Senators failed to score on either of their two opportunities, and Flyers forward Matvei Michkov made them pay by scoring the eventual game-winner on the power play.
André Burakovsky’s fit is still a work in progress, too. The offseason addition was expected to help in the top six, but through five games he has no points and only two shots.
His role has already grown because of the injuries around him, but the production still hasn’t come. On Saturday, he logged just 9:14 of ice time, his lowest total of the season so far.
The injury list keeps getting longer as well, with Thomas Chabot now added and his status unknown. Ottawa is hoping for some badly needed rest before its next test this week, when Brady Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers come to town. Jake Sanderson is expected back in the lineup, which would give the Senators a lift, though they could use both of their top defensemen.
The Senators will host Tkachuk’s return to the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday night.
In Other News...
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That backdrop matters around the league because goaltending remains such a fragile storyline, especially when a starter is unavailable and the spotlight shifts to the next man up. Ottawas Linus Ullmark has been one of the better early-season performers by advanced metrics, while Vancouvers waiver pickup Leevi Merilinen is also off to a strong start in that department. With other clubs finding ways to survive early turbulence in goal, the conversation around the Oilers keeps coming back to whether McDavid can keep forcing a much bigger question to the surface. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Just Made Their Belief In Travis Green Crystal Clear
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Ottawa did not stop with the head coach, either. The club also moved to keep Nolan Baumgartner, Ben Sexton, Mike Yeo and goaltending coach Justin Peters in place, a sign of continuity behind the bench as the Senators try to build on what Green has established. With the coaching staff now locked in, the focus shifts to how far this group can push the team in the seasons ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face Another Thomas Chabot Absence They Didn't Need
Thomas Chabots latest injury setback comes at an inconvenient time for Ottawa, with the Senators already leaning on their captain to steady the blue line. Head coach Travis Green said Chabot is dealing with an upper-body injury after leaving the game against the Philadelphia Flyers early, and the issue may have been lingering after the previous matchup with the New York Islanders.
For a defenseman whose availability has been interrupted before, the timing is especially frustrating for a team trying to keep its back end intact. The Senators will have to navigate the next stretch without one of their most important players, and the early exit against Philadelphia only adds to the uncertainty around how long theyll be without him. [Read more 🡒]