Heading into this weekend with a 7-4-0 record, the Ottawa Senators continue to be a work in progress. While the team opened well, earning victories in five of their first six games, the Senators have only two wins over the past five outings.
Senators content is powered by Betalytics. Offering a free five-day no-strings trial with monthly plans starting from $9.99, Betalytics provides the best sports predictive data available. Use Promo Code: HHS to receive a 50% Fall discount.
There’s been several great individual performances and team performances three weeks into the 2026-27 NHL campaign, including Wednesday’s penultimate effort defeating the Florida Panthers in convincing fashion in Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa.
Stützle shines
Tim Stützle is taking his game to a higher level.
The 24-year-old plays in all situations, power play and penalty kill included. Stützle is averaging exactly 22 minutes of time on ice per game, a personal high pace through 11 games. After playing 26:06 in a shootout win over Nashville on October 10, Senators head coach Travis Green noted, Head coach Travis Green stated, “I’ve got to watch Tim’s minutes all the time because he likes to play a lot.”
Stützle continues to improve his work on faceoffs. Last season was his first winning more than 50% (53.0%) of his draws in six years in the league. Stützle currently possesses a 53.5 percentage within the dots. Not to mention his offensive numbers, Stützle’s seven goals, eight assists puts on pace to eclipse 100 points, his career high is 90 accomplished in 2022-23.
Maybe all of his early season success can be attributed to having “a chef at home”?
And where would the Senators be without the stellar goaltending of Linus Ullmark?
On the “Mark”
Slow starts out of the gate have plagued the Senators netminder during his first two seasons in Ottawa. But after a strong second half and postseason performance, Ullmark, like Stützle’s play, is on another level.
The 33-year-old tied a pair of franchise highs. Earning 10 straight goalie victories, albeit cumulative over two campaigns, tying Andrew Hammond (2015), plus opening this season posting six consecutive wins, equaling Ray Emery’s start in 2005-06.
Ullmark currently ranks top league-wide in Wins (7), Save Percentage (.945), and second in Goals Against Average (1.33).
Unfortunately for Ullmark and the club, the Senators number one goaltender sustained a lower-body strain after making a pad stop Wednesday. Deemed to be out of the lineup for one to two weeks, the team now has to rely on backup Samuel Ersson to round out his game quickly.
It’s been a small sample size, only three starts, but it’s imperative if the Senators are to make a run this season, Ersson’s game needs to improve. While he likely would’ve last season if not for a leave of absence, Ullmark has never made more than 49 starts in one season over his NHL career.
This is just one item which is a work in progress for the team.
Ersson laments
To be fair, each of Ersson’s three starts has come on the second night of back-to-backs, and all resulted in Senators’ losses.
And now with Ullmark on the shelf, the reliance on Ersson is even greater as Ottawa is set to face the Rangers Saturday, followed by a tough five-game road swing (Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim, Buffalo).
Ersson told assembled media postgame Thursday, “I mean it’s fun you want to play, but I obviously got to play a whole lot better. It’s not been good, not near good enough. So, yeah, it sucks. I mean, the guys are fighting like crazy. So you want to play for them and try to help the team. So I just gotta be better.”
“It’s just about finding a way. That’s what it’s all about. It’s finding a way to win. So it’s up to me to show that now,” added the Senators backstop.
Senators Special Teams need to be special
The Senators finished the 2024-25 season 29th on the penalty kill (75.7%). This season to date, there’s been marked improvement; the team currently ranks 20th league-wide at 78%. This sounds good on the precipice. However, last season’s 75.7% would put them in 22nd this season.
A consistent facet plaguing the team is spending too much time in the box. Only Florida (4.18), Columbus (3.75) spend more time on the penalty kill per game than Ottawa (3.72).
The Senators rank 24th (2.64) in goals scored. A majority of this can be attributed to the power play, which is the NHL’s third-worst (12.2%). Ottawa’s PP ranked top ten all last season, ultimately finishing eighth (24%).
It’s not that Ottawa’s PP unit hasn’t many opportunities. The Senators have spent the second-most time with the man-advantage (81:06), but have only 62 shots on goal during this time, four of which are considered High Danger, 34 Medium Danger.
With Daniel Alfredsson moving on, assistant coach Ben Sexton was handed the reins to guide the club’s PP. The hope with the addition of Jake Sanderson off injured reserve, the unit will start producing positive results sooner than later.
Home › Forums › Senators Remain A Work In Progress
Tagged: nhl, Ottawa Senators