After shutting out the Anaheim Ducks 2-0 Saturday, the Ottawa Senators capped off a successful weekend, defeating the San Jose Sharks 7-4 Sunday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The pair of victories upped the Senators’ season record versus Pacific Division opponents to 13-2-2. But more importantly, the wins keep Ottawa’s postseason chances at 56.1% per MoneyPuck.
In a tight Eastern Conference playoff race, the Senators trail current Wildcard teams, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings by three points and the third-place Atlantic Division Montreal Canadiens by five. When the dust settles Monday evening, Ottawa will hold one game in hand on Boston and two on Detroit pending their results versus the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames respectively.
As for the Senators, they control their destiny. With only 16 games remaining in the 2025-26 campaign, Ottawa will meet the Red Wings in Detroit March 24. However, the club has already completed their season series’ versus Boston and Montreal. Then there’s the pesky Columbus Blue Jackets who are also attempting to get into Lord Stanley’s dance. The Blue Jackets sit two points ahead of the Senators in the playoff chase. But they are setting their eyes finishing second or third in the Metro Division challenging Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders.
Regardless, Senators head coach Travis Green has his players doing their utmost in making a run. Ottawa holds an 11-2-2 record over their past 14 games.
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This weekend highlighted performances throughout the Senators line up and had fans chanting “We want playoffs.”
Senators’ weekend performers
Shane Pinto who assisted on each of the Senators’ two goals in Saturday’s outing against Anaheim, held the NHL’s fifth-leading point-getter Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini (95 points) to just one assist Sunday in his shutdown centre role.
While the Senators’ penalty kill of which Pinto plays a key role was a perfect six for six in shutting down the opposition. Since assistant coach Mike Yeo was handed the reins January 24 handle Ottawa’s PK, the club has killed 31 of 36 penalties (86.1%). The league average is 79%.
The unit also tallied a shorthanded marker versus the Ducks from an unlikely source, defenseman Thomas Chabot.
It was Chabot’s second shortie of his career. Elevated to the top ‘D’-pair due to the absence of injured Jake Sanderson, Chabot is eating up minutes.
The past three games have seen Chabot’s time-on-ice, 28:32, 27:24, 28:29. At the time of his injury, Sanderson ranked seventh league-wide at 24:49 TOI per game.
Underrated forward Michael Amadio opened the scoring Saturday and added two assists Sunday. Amadio surpassed his career high 27 points produced in each of his past three seasons, and is now up to 29.
Drake Batherson continued his hot streak, notching his fourth multi-goal game in eight. His pair of goals Sunday were unconventional; one a deft behind-the-back pass towards Tim Stützle redirecting off Sharks defender Mario Ferraro; the other, a puck hitting his elbow from an Artem Zub point shot.
Unlikely sources Warren Foegele and Fabian Zetterlund contributed some fourth line magic. Zetterlund’s blast from the blue line on the power play tied the Sharks at three providing his team with momentum. Just over a minute later, Zetterlund set up Tyler Kleven for what was the go-ahead goal at the time.
Foegele attributes the line’s success to simply communication, “Those guys have been great for me, just trying to get my feet wet, and, you know, I think we’re getting better each game, and just their communication with me, understanding the style and building some chemistry as well.”
Adding, “I think with the Olympic schedule, there really isn’t much time to practice, so you’re kind of just thrown out there, and they’ve been awesome on the bench talking to me, and then on the ice. The more we can communicate with each other, easier to get reads and things like that. So I think we’re building our game and just getting better.”
“(They’re) good players (Foegele, Zetterlund). They understand. Especially the guys on our fourth line, they might not be playing quite as much as they’d like to. We talk to them a lot. There’s going to be a time when they’re going to need to come up big for us. We have faith in them,” noted Green.
“When you’ve got faith in your fourth line, it makes it a lot easier for a coach. We’re blessed considering we haven’t had a lot of practice time.”
In his first home game as a Senator, Foegele registered one goal, one assist, showing why he was acquired by general manager Steve Staios at the trade deadline.
And finally goalie Linus Ullmark was victorious in both starts of the Senators back-to-back games. It was expected, James Reimer would start on his 38th birthday Sunday, but Green elected to go back to Ullmark after recording a 23-save shut out, the 14th of his career Saturday.
As for playoffs, there’s still plenty of work to do and the Senators can’t take anything for granted, but Shane Pinto is in total agreement with “Sens fans.”
I think we’re too good of a team not to make it. But we still have work to do, and just got to take it one game at a time.”
