{"id":579680,"date":"2026-04-03T13:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:55:13","slug":"senators-move-into-wild-card-spot-prevent-sabres-from-clinching-in-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579680\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators move into wild-card spot, prevent Sabres from clinching in win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa Senators<\/a> had good reason to celebrate, and just as much to worry.<\/p>\n

Ottawa (39-26-10) moved back into the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> on Thursday, but lost yet another defenceman.<\/p>\n

Tyler Kleven joined a growing list after taking a shot up high and leaving the game in the first period. When asked for an update post-game, head coach Travis Green didn\u2019t seem overly optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still getting checked out,\u201d he said. \u201cHope for the best, not expecting it to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa’s blue line has been decimated since March 7.<\/p>\n

The bad luck started with Jake Sanderson going down with an upper-body injury, followed by Nick Jensen suffering a torn meniscus. Dennis Gilbert was next with an upper-body injury, then Thomas Chabot broke his arm and Carter Yakemchuk entered concussion protocol after a big hit.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has now used 13 different defencemen amid the injury parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is some of the most insane things I\u2019ve seen,\u201d said captain Brady Tkachuk. \u201cIt truly is just unfortunate. This is probably the most adversity that we\u2019ve faced as a group. It\u2019s crazy what keeps happening, but credit to the guys that have been called up and guys that have had to elevate their roles. Everyone\u2019s stepping up and playing really solid for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being short-handed, the Senators found a way to win Thursday. Jordan Spence led the way on the blue line, playing a career-high 30 minutes 48 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cA real unbelievable effort out of our defence,\u201d said Green. \u201cAsking a lot out of a lot of players. Players we don\u2019t know very well and, man, they all played well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green added there\u2019s a lot of coaching happening on the fly, with players taking on new roles and adjusting to the developing circumstances.<\/p>\n

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, meanwhile, rued the missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all we talked about,\u201d said Ruff. \u201cThey were down to five, and we didn\u2019t stress them out enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the Senators hold off the Sabres (46-22-8), Ottawa’s victory prevented Buffalo (46-22-8) from clinching its first playoff berth since 2011, the longest drought in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took over the game the last two periods,\u201d said Ruff. \u201cThey outskated, they out-competed. Their desperation level was higher than ours, as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing their last three games, the Senators rose to the occasion, as did goaltender Linus Ullmark.<\/p>\n

Ullmark has been under scrutiny after choosing not to play against the Tampa Bay Lightning last Saturday because he needed a rest. He was then pulled Tuesday after allowing five goals on 16 shots against the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Ullmark was solid, stopping 21 shots and coming up with a huge save on Bowen Byram at the end of the second period with the game tied 1-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a gutsy win,\u201d said Ullmark. \u201cThe five \u2018D\u2019 that were still in the game did a great job of defending together with our forward core, and I think that we, you know, kind of deserve this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

With seven games remaining and a playoff berth far from locked in, the Senators will need similar efforts down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Green admitted he challenged his team following two subpar efforts in Florida \u2014 and liked the response.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t win games like this unless you\u2019ve got everyone playing the right way,\u201d Green said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just playing to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa plays back-to-back home games this weekend against the Minnesota Wild and the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators had good reason to celebrate, and just as much to worry. Ottawa (39-26-10) moved back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":{"0":"post-579680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ottawa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579680","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=579680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}