Ottawa Senators, with great December, showing winning doesn't have to be pretty

Published Dec 30, 2024  •  4 minute read

Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) attempts a goal while Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson, center right, saves the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Sunday. Photo by Ellen Schmidt /The Associated Press

Maybe it’s not an impossible dream, maybe the long-standing notion Ottawa Senators fans can’t have nice things can soon be thrown out the window.

As the Ottawa Senators head into 2025, the dream of competing in the playoffs and playing hockey beyond mid-April, seems realistic. It may not happen, but at least it seems like it could.

There is hope for a team that’s showing style points don’t mean much. To quote former Oakland Raiders own Al Davis: “Just win, baby.”

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With an impressive 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, the Senators closed out 2024 with a record of 19-15-2. They’re sitting in eighth place in the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

If the playoffs began today, the Senators would be in.

That doom and gloom, here-we-go-again scenario that was being painted when starting goaltender Linus Ullmark’s back “tightened up” a bit more than a week ago, well, maybe this version of the Ottawa Senators really is different.

Maybe they’re built to fight past adversity.

“When you’re winning games in a row like we did, it’s important you’re re-setting,” defenceman Travis Hamonic, who has risen to the occasion with expanded ice time, told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson Monday. “It’s easy to say when you’ve lost a game you have to turn the page and re-set for the next day. Maybe it’s harder when you’re winning and doing well, but you do have to have that mindset.”

Maybe they can get by for a bit without the services of a goaltender who was re-establishing himself as one of the league’s best before being left at home when the Senators left for Winnipeg last week. While Mads Sogaard looked shaky in allowing a couple of soft goals in Ottawa’s 4-2 loss against the Jets, Leevi Merilainen, called up from Ottawa’s farm team in Belleville, looked sharp in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Minnesota.

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“It’s great to see how calm he is in there, the way he looks like he’s in control,” Senators winger Claude Giroux, who scored an empty-net goal against the Wild, said.

Calm is good. It’s a vibe that extends through the dressing room of a team that for years has been fraught with mental fragility.

“Every year is different, every group is different,” Hamonic said. “We have a group that really cares about one another. A lot of people say that, but with our group, it feels special. It’s all been nice and it’s been great, but for us, it’s about moving forward.”

There’s a long way to go — 46 regular-season games — but the Senators have done enough, especially in December, to make us believe this isn’t a team that’s going to fade away.

What the Senators are doing isn’t fancy.

That 200-foot game head coach Travis Green has been preaching seems to be coming together. In December, the Senators rolled to a 9-3-1 record. Compare that to a year ago when they plugged their way through a six-game losing streak.

Six times this month, the Senators have allowed one goal or less. Eight times, it’s been two goals or less. That’s how you win hockey games.

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With four wins in the first six games of their nine-game road swing, the Senators still have games in Dallas (Saturday), St. Louis (Sunday) and Detroit (Jan. 7).

Injured defenceman Artem Zub and goalie Anton Forsberg both practised Monday in Dallas.

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“It’s tough going to the rink by yourself, it’s something different being with the whole team on the road,” Forsberg said. “I’m not sure (when I’ll return). But it felt good. We’ll take it day by day, feel it out so I don’t do anything stupid.”

Maybe it’s a new system and a new head coach, maybe it’s a new dynamic in the locker room, maybe the younger players have finally grown up or maybe they’ve started believing winning more hockey games than they lose is do-able.

The 2024-25 Senators look different and they play different. Ottawa has effectively boxed out opponents and cut down their Grade-A scoring chances.

“We’re believing how we’re playing is going to get the job done,” Giroux said. “We’re not forcing things, we’re not playing high-risk hockey, we’re just trying to find ways to win.”

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Asked about Sunday’s win, where the Senators fell behind 1-0, centre Josh Norris said: “It was a really good road game. It wasn’t the prettiest game, it was a gritty win.”

Ottawa scored again on the power play Sunday after getting two with the man advantage Saturday. It had been an area of concern.

“Sometimes you go in waves like that where you get hot,” Norris said. “At this point of the year, teams are locking up defensively and it’s a lot harder to score so when the power play is going, it makes things easier.”

Asked if Sunday’s road win was about as good as it gets, Green said: “It’s right there, for sure. It was a solid game from start to finish. We have to carry it into Dallas.”

It comes back to one game at a time.

“We’ve played some good hockey of late,” Green said. “Whether you win or lose, you reset and get ready to do it the next night. Hopefully, the way you’ve played becomes your habits and it slowly evolves into that’s the way you are as a team.”

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