The Ottawa Senators came out of Philadelphia with more than a loss. They also may have lost their captain.
Ottawa dropped a 3-1 decision to the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday, with captain Thomas Chabot not finishing the game after leaving the bench briefly in the second period. He returned and finished that frame, but did not play in the third. Afterward, coach Travis Green told reporters Chabot had suffered an upper-body injury.
That made the night sting even more for a Senators team that had already been trying to manage its blue line. Ottawa is expected to get Jake Sanderson back from an unspecified lower-body injury on Wednesday against Brady Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers at home, but the club has already used 10 defencemen this season. Losing Chabot for any stretch would be a major hit.
The only Senators goal came from Drake Batherson, while Linus Ullmark’s six-game winning streak ended in front of 27 saves on 30 shots.
Green wasn’t pleased with the overall effort.
“We weren’t very good to start the game and Philly came after us pretty hard,” Green said. “We took a couple of penalties, they got some momentum on their power play and I thought the first 12 minutes we weren’t quick enough.
“We got a little better as the game went on, but we pushed hard in the third and couldn’t find the tying goal. Normally, when we win, we have a group, like, the whole team play well. We win when the whole team plays well and I thought we had four or five guys who weren’t very good tonight.”
Ottawa did play with more urgency in the third and spent stretches pressing the Flyers, but the Senators couldn’t cash in when it mattered. A late power-play chance with about five minutes left came and went, and that miss loomed large.
The Flyers, meanwhile, came into the night at 0-6-3, the worst start in franchise history. Ottawa had beaten Philadelphia six straight times dating back to March 11, 2025, including a 2-1 win in its home opener on Oct.
- This time, the Flyers got the better of the Senators.
Ottawa’s only goal came in the second period when Batherson snapped in a perfect saucer pass from former Flyers captain Claude Giroux at 5:55. It was Batherson’s fourth of the season and the 153rd goal of his career, moving him past Radek Bonk and into ninth place on the Senators’ all-time list. Bonk, who scored 152 for Ottawa, was in the stands wearing Flyers gear to watch his son, Oliver, on the Philadelphia defence.
The game had already tilted by then. Ottawa went nearly nine minutes without a shot before Batherson finally converted, and the Senators were still chasing from there.
Philadelphia retook control later in the period when Matvei Michkov buried a rebound on the Flyers’ third power-play chance of the night with 1:27 left before intermission. Earlier, Porter Martone had tied it 1-1 at 9:03 of the second, tipping a puck on the doorstep after Ottawa struggled to clear its zone.
By then, the first period had already set the tone. The Senators were outshot 14-8 in the opening 20 minutes, killed off two Philadelphia power plays, and leaned heavily on Ullmark just to stay level. The teams were scoreless after one, but the Flyers had clearly carried more of the play.
Green had no interest in changing his goalie plans before the game, even with backup Samuel Ersson facing his former club.
“No,” Green said with a smile. “We don’t play our goalies based on whether they played in the city or not.”
Ullmark entered with a 1.20 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage, and with a 9-2-2 career mark against the Flyers. He also had a chance to set a franchise record with a seventh straight win to open the season. Instead, Trevor Zegras sealed it with an empty-net goal.
“It’s hard to win in this league when you don’t have all (20) guys going and tonight we didn’t have everyone going,” said winger Warren Foegele. “They were more desperate than us and it showed.
“The game is pretty simple: Win your battles and get pucks to the net, and beat your guy. They just won more puck battles than us.”
In Other News...
Marco Rossis Early Canucks Spark Has Turned Into A Real Concern
Marco Rossis early run with the Canucks has started to look a lot less like a fresh spark and a lot more like a problem the club needs to sort out. He has been moved through a fair amount of instability in linemates, and while his shifts still show some positive shot-attempt numbers, the offense around him has not followed. Vancouver has also had trouble turning his minutes into real pressure, especially when it comes to creating dangerous looks.
The deeper concern is that the production simply has not been there, and the slide has dragged on long enough to raise questions about fit and usage. Over the past stretch, the Canucks have struggled to finish off chances with Rossi on the ice, and his impact has fallen well short of what he delivered in the previous season. For a team already fighting to find more offense, that is not the kind of trend that can be ignored for long. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Bring A Brutal Slide Home After Another Late Collapse
The Canucks returned from a six-game road trip carrying the kind of frustration that tends to linger. Vancouver fell 4-2 to the Lightning on the heels of another game that slipped away after it had built an early lead, with Linus Karlsson and Elias Pettersson providing the scoring and Kevin Lankinen stopping 31 shots in a losing effort.
Defensive issues have been the bigger story through the slide, especially on the penalty kill, and the loss extended Vancouvers skid to seven straight. The trip ended without a win, and the Canucks now have to sort through a stretch in which the details have repeatedly gone against them, even when the offense has done enough to give them a chance. [Read more 🡒]
Daniel Sedin Explains A Canucks Move That Could Shape Their Depth
After Aatu Rty cleared waivers, Vancouver turned the transaction into a depth move by sending the center to Toronto and bringing back forwards Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr. It is the kind of trade that rarely grabs much attention at first glance, but it speaks to how the Canucks are trying to keep their organizational pipeline moving, especially with Abbotsford and the rest of the system always feeding the big club.
Daniel Sedin addressed the deal with a notable level of confidence in the two players coming back, and the early returns at least offered a quick glimpse of why the organization was interested. Rty has already posted an assist in his debut with the Toronto Marlies, while Quillan and Buhr have been sent to Abbotsford and Kalamazoo, respectively, leaving Vancouver to see how this reshuffling fits into the broader depth chart. [Read more 🡒]