As the Ottawa Senators try to snap a five-game losing streak on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre against the San Jose Sharks, it appears the cavalry is on the way.
The club announced at their game-day skate that Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, and Shane Pinto would all be returning from their various injuries. The timing is perfect. Not only have the Senators dropped five games in a row, but they’ve also fallen out of the current Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Heading into tonight’s game, they’re four points behind the two wild card holders, the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the Senators do have one game in hand.
The Senators won’t be sorry to see February go. Back on February 3rd, they had won five straight games and looked like they were in great shape to finally break their seven-year playoff drought. However, they failed to win a single game for the rest of the month and didn’t earn a single loser point.
This has cast them back into the sloppy bowl of playoff jambalaya.
The Senators skid allowed Columbus and Detroit to pass them in the standings. As of now, the Senators are in a clump of six also-rans tied with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers at 62 points, one point up on the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens, and two points up on the Philadelphia Flyers.
Unfortunately, the injury news isn’t all good for the Senators. Tyler Kleven suffered an injury against the Winnipeg Jets, probably in a fight with the towering Jets captain, Adam Lowry. The Senators will go with two right-shot defensemen in their bottom pairing: Travis Hamonic and Nick Holden. Jacob Bernard-Docker is listed as a healthy scratch.
Linus Ullmark will get the start, still looking for his first victory of 2025. Senators’ line combinations at morning practice looked like this:
Brady Tkachuk — Tim Stutzle — Claude Giroux
David Perron — Josh Norris — Drake Batherson
Noah Gregor — Shane Pinto — Michael Amadio
Angus Crookshank — Adam Gaudette — Matthew Highmore
Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot — Nick Jensen
Travis Hamonic — Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
Anton Forsberg
Scratched: Jacob Bernard-Docker
Injured: Nick Cousins (knee), Tyler Kleven (lower body)
The Sharks are currently leading in their annual dogfight with the Chicago Blackhawks for the moniker of the worst team in the NHL, but they did take first place Winnipeg to overtime this week.
For Ottawa, given the state of the standings and their five-game losing slide, Saturday’s game is as must-win as it gets – at least by regular season standards.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
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