{"id":564597,"date":"2026-03-27T15:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/564597\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:33:08","slug":"senators-vying-for-every-point-in-tightly-contested-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/564597\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators vying for every point in tightly contested East"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 The Ottawa Senators<\/a> are hoping the season won\u2019t come down to a single point.<\/p>\n

With 10 regular-season games left, every single point holds increased value. On Thursday, the Senators lost what could be a valuable point falling 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in a shootout. <\/p>\n

And while a win would have been ideal, picking up a single point could prove crucial through these last three weeks of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Following a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> earlier in the week, the Senators found themselves in the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. But Thursday\u2019s defeat put them back on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we obviously want to get two,\u201d said forward Drake Batherson<\/a>, who scored a pair of goals and set a career high in goals, 29. \u201cWe\u2019ll take the point and we\u2019ve got another big one against Tampa Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference is a highly contested battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows the situation that the East has become,\u201d said Pittsburgh\u2019s Erik Karlsson<\/a>. \u201cEvery game feels like a must win. You win you\u2019re in, you lose one you\u2019re out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Penguins are one of a handful of teams the Senators are battling for playoff positioning.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has managed to remain competitive despite missing its top two defencemen, as well as two depth defencemen.<\/p>\n

Jake Sanderson<\/a> has missed the last 10 games but could be poised to return if he continues to progress. He will travel to Florida with the team. <\/p>\n

Thomas Chabot<\/a> will miss the next four to eight weeks after undergoing surgery on his forearm Thursday. Dennis Gilbert<\/a> is expected to miss three weeks. Lassi Thompson will also travel to Florida, but like Sanderson, remains questionable.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Senators recalled Carter Yakemchuk<\/a> and Jorian Donovan<\/a> from their American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville. Both made their debut Tuesday in Detroit.<\/p>\n

While head coach Travis Green<\/a> is the face of the team, assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner<\/a> deserves huge credit for managing Ottawa\u2019s blueline through this challenge.<\/p>\n

A former player, with stints in both the AHL and NHL, the 50-year-old Baumgartner has helped Tyler Kleven<\/a> and Jordan Spence<\/a> elevate their game as they take on additional minutes and is working closely with Yakemchuk and Donovan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working overtime right now,\u201d joked Green. \u201cOn the bench during the game there\u2019s a lot of juggling going on. Obviously, if you\u2019re coaching against us, you\u2019re maybe trying to get certain lines out against certain defencemen, and that\u2019s the on-ice game. And the off-ice part is lots of video trying to fast track some of these young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their first game, both players were used somewhat sparingly. Donovan played 4:42, while Yakemchuk logged 12:46 of ice time. On Thursday, Donovan saw his ice time double to 9:22 and Yakemchuk played 17:42 and was even given a shift in overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was solid,\u201d Green said of Donovan. \u201cHe\u2019s going to make a few mistakes here and there but I thought he gave us some solid minutes and that\u2019s all we can ask of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Yakemchuk, Green admitted he and Baumgarter had a quick conversation about whether or not they would use him in overtime and how to guard him against certain players. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to learn a lot,\u201d admitted Green. \u201cHe\u2019s a young guy. He\u2019s played two hockey games. There\u2019s lots to learn. He\u2019s a good hockey player.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 The Ottawa Senators are hoping the season won\u2019t come down to a single point. With 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-564597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}