The Ottawa Senators opened Saturday with general manager Steve Staios holding a morning media availability and ended it with a 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Defenseman Thomas Chabot netted a pair of goals. Drake Batherson and Claude Giroux added singles, while goalie Leevi Merilainen made 21 saves for Ottawa in the win. Adam Lowry shorthanded, and Kyle Connor scored for Winnipeg. With an assist on Batherson’s marker, Tim Stützle extended his point streak to 12 games.
Chabot left the game late in the second period briefly when he was hit in the face with the puck on a Jets clearing attempt. He received multiple stitches to his chin, returning in the third period donning a full face shield.
In an ugly incident, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was sucker-punched by Jets strongman Logan Stanley. Stanley had removed Tkachuk’s helmet and reached around the linemen, punching Tkachuk. Stanley received a double minor. Tkachuk was assessed a misconduct penalty for presumably using excessive language. The Jets d-man may be looking at some form of discipline from the NHL’s Department of Safety.
Senators head coach Travis Green noted postgame, “If the refs had to call it again, they’d probably make a different call.”
Staios talking points
Parity rules the East
With the midpoint of the 2025-26 campaign coming for the Senators on Monday, when the team faces Detroit, GM Steve Staios touched on several subjects prior to leaving for amateur scouting meetings.
The club is two points ahead of last season at this juncture. Staios recognizes his squad requires improvement, but shows belief in the Senators’ positive side of analytics.
“There’s a lot to like about this team using the underlying numbers to confirm what we’re seeing with our eye.We’ve improved in some of the most important categories. When you look at the numbers and you know, and perspective is this, I think we went through a 2-7-1 stretch where, when I was watching our team play, felt pretty good about the way we’re playing, and we weren’t getting the results. So, keeping with the theme of being process driven. I think those are some of the things that I look at to make sure that we understand exactly what we are as a team. The other thing, I think, is that is unique, and we’ve talked a lot about it, is the parity in the league, and in particular in the Eastern Conference and in the Atlantic Division,” noted the Senators GM.
“I think the margins are tighter than they’ve ever been. And you know, we got to be up for the challenge, got to bee up for the challenge to be able to get through some of those areas and improve on our game.”
Addressing Senators goaltending
Staios on the Senators current goaltending situation, “You know, we live in reality. There’s a couple areas of our game that aren’t up to expectation. And we can talk about goaltending. And if our goaltenders were in here right now, they would be honest that they haven’t played to expectations. Now I think the optimism comes from over the last month or so, they have played to expectations. So it wasn’t the best of starts for them, but it has stabilized. And I would feel comfortable saying that it’s going to continue to not only stabilize, but move in the right direction…We have full belief in Linus (Ullmark) and along with Leevi (Merilainen), who’s a good young goaltender who continues to develop, along with our depth with Mads Sogaard and Hunter Shepherd.”
Staios reiterated that the team offers Ullmark their full support during his leave of absence. The timeline for Ullmark’s return remains unknown, while the Senators GM offered a “no comment” when asked by Postmedia if he’s requested cap relief from the NHL. Ullmark’s $8.25 million salary is currently included within the club’s salary cap hit.
Senators PK slowly improving
Ottawa entered Saturday evening as the league’s second-worst-ranked penalty kill. However, the team’s PK sits ninth on home ice.
“I’m in and around the coaches room. I see how hard they work, and it’s not just on one coach, like they all work together on all these areas. They recognize that it’s an area that needs to improve. There’s no panic in it. We go through a process to try and find ways, whether it’s personnel, who’s playing where, defense pairings, how we deploy them. All of that comes in, I think, from a structured perspective.most of the league plays it the same way we do now. We just have to execute better. Certainly we live in reality. The penalty kill hasn’t been giving, but it’s not like there hasn’t been adjustments along the way. It’s seen a little bit of an improvement in that area. And you don’t want to make it a thing as well. I think the players that go out there for the penalty kill take a ton of pride in it, and I’m hoping, with some of the adjustments that we’ve made and some confidence you get on the other side of it,” explained Staios.
Staios has “full faith” that both the club’s goaltending and PK will improve.
On contending and trade possibilities
Last season, the Senators broke a seven-year playoff drought. With that expectations are high for the team to forge further this season.
The Senators GM recognizes this, but is aware the team is still building towards a bigger goal.
“We’ll contend when we’re ready to contend. And I think that we’re continuing to build towards that. I think that putting a timeline on when our contending window is, I think we have a good young team that continues to develop.”
Staios admits to continuing to scour the market to improve his club. However, with little divide in league standings, it’s tough to identify “the sellers.”
“With the standings being so tight, I think that puts another variable into how the conversations are going to go. Typically, when you see a little bit more of a divide, you have teams that are looking to recoup some assets and move on. And it’ll be interesting, for sure. There’s been lots of dialog, even leading into the the holiday freeze.There’s been some dialog, but I sense that a lot of teams are sort of just in the middle right now, trying to continue to evaluate where their group is. There’s just not many sellers.”
Pinto didn’t get the call for the US
After an impressive Gold medal performance at the2025 IIHF World Championships, (two goals, eight assists in eight games), Shane Pinto received an invite to USA’s Olympic Orientation Camp during the summer.
However, Pinto was one of several solid forwards including Cole Caufield, Alex DeBrincat, Jason Robertson, Alex Tuch who didn’t receive the call from USA GM Bill Guerin, and won’t join Senators teammates Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson in Milan.
Pinto is one the NHL’s predominant shutdown centres who adds offense to his repertoire. The 25-year-old has registered 12 goals, 11 assists in 30 games this season, having recently returned from injury after missing 10 games.
After the Senators pregame skate versus the Jets, Pinto said, “I think you obviously want to go there. That’s a very cool experience. But, you know, there’s gonna be other opportunities, obviously still gonna root for “Sandy” and “Chucky” pretty hard. So as an American, I’m so proud to be part of that country, and my time will come. And yeah, I wanted to make it, but as part of it, there’s a lot of good players in the US. It’s all good. I’m still gonna cheer for them, and hopefully they win.”
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