{"id":243752,"date":"2025-10-27T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243752\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T08:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:38:09","slug":"senators-playing-the-right-way-after-slow-start-to-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243752\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators \u2018playing the right way\u2019 after slow start to season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senators didn\u2019t do enough of that at the start of this season and allowed 30 total goals in going 2-4-0 in their first six games. With captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a> out 6-8 weeks following surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, they were in danger of falling into an early-season hole that would be difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your leader, one of your best players is out, it\u2019s tough, but other teams go through it all the time and you\u2019ve got to try to pick up the slack as much as we can,\u201d Ottawa forward Drake Batherson<\/a> said. \u201cYou can\u2019t really replace a player like that, but we\u2019ve just got to do our best without him until he\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Senators, that meant getting back to the approach of trying to win low-scoring games. It helped them turn their fortunes around following a 10-12-2 start last season. Beginning with, coincidentally, a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 5, Ottawa went on an 8-1-0 surge that propelled it back into the playoff race and eventually qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

The Senators\u2019 2-1 win against the Flyers, in which they allowed 23 shots on goal, provided a reminder of that winning formula, but their rededication actually began in their previous game, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Although Ottawa fell behind 2-0, it didn\u2019t abandon its defensive structure against one of the NHL\u2019s top offensive teams and scored twice in the third period to force overtime.<\/p>\n

The Senators built on that effort Thursday and followed up with a complete performance Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the outcome we wanted [against the Oilers], but I thought it was a really good response [against the Flyers],\u201d defenseman Nick Jensen<\/a> said. \u201cThe mentality that we have is to win those tough games, especially against Philly, a team that works hard and is all over you all the time, winning those games with a 2-1 mentality. And we actually won 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think that was a big game for us and, hopefully, we can continue to lay those foundational blocks and keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senators\u2019 offense got most of the headlines against the Capitals with Batherson and forward Dylan Cozens<\/a> each getting two goals and an assist, and the power play producing three goals. But the start to their season provided a needed reminder that their success starts with defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we got humbled a little bit in some of the first games with letting in that many goals,\u201d forward Lars Eller<\/a> said. \u201cThe scoreboard clearly showed that our game without the puck wasn\u2019t where it needed to be. So, I think the last couple of games we have gotten a lot more commitment without the puck from everybody from the top of the lineup down to every last man. That\u2019s starting to show on the scoreboard now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo. those are probably the ways that we\u2019re going to have to win a lot of games. If we\u2019re going to win, it\u2019s going to be like 2-1 and 3-2 or that style of game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senators didn\u2019t do enough of that at the start of this season and allowed 30 total goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-243752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}