The Ottawa Senators opened the preseason with a 4-3 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. Toronto dressed a mostly AHL-laden game roster. Meanwhile, 16,254 fans turned out to Canadian Tire Centre for the exhibition opener.
The Maple Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead on goals from Calle Jarnkrok, Nick Robertson, William Villeneuve. Toronto scored all three goals against Senators netminder Linus Ullmark. Mads Sogaard replaced Ullmark at the start of the middle frame.
Ridly Greig deposited a Drake Batherson rebound to put the Senators on the board in the second period. Later, Matthew Barbolini notched a short-side marker past Sogaard to restore the Maple Leafs three-goal lead.
Newcomer Arthur Kaliyev one-timed a Greig pass from the edge of the crease to put his team within two. Another free agent signee, Olle Lycksell, knocked in a rebound of a Brady Tkachuk shot. The puck went off the skate of Leafs goalie Vyacheslav Peska during a Senators power play. The tally cut the deficit just 4:33 into the final period.
However, despite outshooting Toronto 14-5 in the third and 35-20 overall, the Senators couldn’t find an equalizer. They did, however, generate plenty of quality opportunities.
Tyler Kleven went down the tunnel midway through the third after taking a hard spill behind the Senators net. Head coach Travis Green had no further update on the status of the burly defenseman.
Game Thoughts: Senators Exhibition Opener
Linus Ullmark leaves after 20
A notorious slow starter in the preseason, Ullmark allowed three goals on eight Maple Leafs shots in his 20 minutes of action.
Ullmark told the assembled media, including Hot Hockey Stove, the plan was for him to play only 20 minutes. It didn’t matter how many shots he faced or goals he allowed.
“The first [game] is just kind of, get your routines in. I got a feel for the game a little bit. After that, you’re kind of making a little assessment. It’s hard to make an assessment when you only do one (period) here. If I play three periods, and if I got 20 more shots, could save all my shots,” Ullmark said.
“So I don’t take too much out of playing just one period. It’s good to get it out of the way, even though that we didn’t get the results.”
It was notable Ullmark didn’t return to the bench for the remaining 40 minutes. According to the 32-year-old, however, this was a management decision made by “higher ups.”
The backstop spent some of the remaining minutes of the game “lifting” in the gym.
Green stated Wednesday during his camp-opening media availability, Ullmark is his number one goalie, but is confident Leevi Merilainen can push for the job. Ultimately, the tandem’s play will determine their number of starts made.
Ridly Greig lines up at centre
Greig spent the latter part of last season lining up on the left side of centre Shane Pinto on the Senators shutdown line. He thrust into the spotlight on Sunday, filling a pivot role, slotting between David Perron and Drake Batherson.
The 2020 first-round pick produced a stellar outing. He notched a goal and an assist, registered four shots on goal (16:15 TOI), and saw special teams ice time.
Greig is no stranger to the position, playing centre in his junior career for the Western League Brandon Wheat Kings and has seen time with the Senators in his two-plus NHL campaigns up in the middle for the club.
Green noted he was “comfortable” with Greig playing centre, at least for this game. While the Alberta resident who spent part of his summer with workout partner Sabres d-man Bowen Byram in Lethbridge, echoed his coach’s words.
“I think it took me a period to settle in there, but I got comfortable, and then kind of went from there. I was happy with my game. You know, obviously, offseason training, I thought I did a good job. But other than that, I thought I had a good game. And I was like, one game, but yeah.”
Having notched 13 goals, 21 assists in 78 games last season, Greig wants to add more to a goal-starved offense, especially five-on-five.
“I think offensive side of things, I think I can do more. My defensive side and details are pretty well [established. I think I can provide more offense,” he said.
Playing Greig at centre on occasion provides the Senators head coach one more tool in his toolbox if he so chooses.
Fighting for a job
Barring injury, the Senators likely have their starting 12 forwards pencilled into their lineup with the lone decision being which players eventually comprise the fourth line and who completes the roster as the 13th man?
Lars Eller will centre the trio, expecting Nick Cousins and Michael Amadio as his flanks, which leaves one forward spot available.
Stephen Halliday, Jan Jenik, Arthur Kaliyev, Olle Lycksell and Zack MacEwen are all fighting for in essence, one job.
Halliday is likely served as one of Belleville’s top forwards, earning large minutes in the American League.
Lycksell, Kaliyev, MacEwen all showed well in their first preseason outings.
Zack Mac steps up
MacEwen had a pair of shots on goal, one point blank in the third when the Senators trailed by one. In addition, the right wing dropped the gloves with Maple Leafs Marshall Rifai who attempted to lay a high hit on Greig which was fortunately dodged.
Heading the final year of his three-year contract, MacEwen drew praise from Green, “I thought Zack was pretty good tonight. I liked his overall game. Obviously, he sticks up for his teammates. People just take it for granted anytime you go out and get into a fight, but it’s not. The kid he fought was pretty tough too. It was a good fight, good for “Mac.””
Olle Lyckell and Athur Kaliyev
As with MacEwen, Lycksell is a former Philadelphia Flyers player. For Lycksell and Kaliyev, it’s more about adding offensive depth plus defense, especially with Lycksell’s ability to play on both sides of the puck. The Swede is an accomplished AHL scorer. However, he has mostly played on the fourth line in his brief NHL stints to date.
Lycksell and Kaliyev each contributed a goal and drew penalties. Meanwhile, Lycksell appeared to save a sure goal, clearing the puck out of the crease in the nick of time.
On the play of Lycksell and Kaliyev, Green told Hockey HotStove postgame Sunday, “I thought they were both pretty solid tonight. A little bit of different players, one is a bit more of a darter, skater (Olle Lycksell), “Kally (Arthur Kaliyev) is a bigger body, has a good shot. For their first game, I think they did okay.”
For his part, Lycksell knows what he needs to do to impress his coach.
“I’m just trying to compete out there. I know I’m in a spot where I really have to work every day for for being a part of this team. That’s what I try to focus on and try and improve myself every day.” Lycksell said.
“Just be a great guy in the team. Show what I can do with the with the puck, try to be an offensive threat, and just tryi to play solid defense. I mean, those basic things gets you a long way. That’s probably my main focus.”
Kaliyev was just happy to be on the ice after an injury-plauged (two broken clavicles) 2024-25 season which saw him being waived by the Los Angeles and playing only 14 games for the New York Rangers, tallying three goals, one assist.
“It’s pretty weird. I haven’t played much last year and a half, so it’s been it’s great to be back out there after tough injuries last year..Just the timings and the game, the game feeling, and everyone going hard, and everyone and all those sort of things being back in the game stuff. So it’s been quite a while for that,” explained Kaliyev.
It was really tough last year with all brutal injuries, and hopefully try to stay healthy throughout the year this time.”
Roster cuts, off day on Monday
Of note; defensemen Gabriel Eliasson (Barrie OHL), Eerik Wallenius (Moncton QMJHL), Blake Vanek (Wenatchee WHL) were all returned to their prospective junior teams prior to yesterday’s game.
The Senators have a full day off Monday and return to the practice ice Tuesday morning prior to a short flight to Toronto for a preseason game versus the Maple Leafs in the evening.
