Part of that is being without Tkachuk, who had 463 points (213 goals, 250 assists) in 572 games over eight seasons in Ottawa, but part of that is also about being better than they have been.
Last season, the Senators started 2-4-1 in their first seven games.
The season before, it was 6-7-0 in their first 13.
“We didn’t like the way we started the last couple years,” Tim Stutzle said. “We always had to dig each other out of a hole. We were always down points trying to make the playoffs and it was really important for us to have a good start. I think two games is nothing. We’ve just got to keep going, keep making those team efforts, and then we’re gonna keep winning.”
As Stutzle pointed out, two wins in two games does not mean that the Senators are set for this season, especially not after they saw goalie Linus Ullmark taken out after the second period on Monday after a collision with JJ Peterka in the crease, something that coach Travis Green called “precautionary.”
But it is a start.
“It had nothing to do with the offseason, but we did talk about our start this year,” Green said. “We kind of revisited how we thought we played last year and had gotten away from our game that made us successful the first 10 games of the year last year, put an emphasis on it. But we’ve still got to go out and play and play the right way.”
They did. And so, again, they won.
“It’s huge,” Batherson said. “It’s probably one of our best starts in the last nine years since I’ve been here. So it’s obviously big.”