Red-hot Senators look to hold playoff spot as lengthy road trip begins
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The Ottawa Senators enter play Tuesday holding the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after winning five of their past six games.
Ottawa's ability to stay in that spot will be tested with a nine-game road trip, eight of which will come against Western Conference teams, that starts Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken.
It will continue with stops against the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues before finally coming to an end with an Eastern Conference battle against the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 7.
The Senators have missed the playoffs in each of the past seven seasons, a drought that dates back to the team falling in double overtime of Game 7 in the Eastern Conference final against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017.
After starting this season 8-11-1, the Senators have caught fire with a 7-2-1 record in their past 10 games to jump into the playoff picture. Their standing remains precarious though, with the Philadelphia Flyers equal at 32 points with one more game played and the New York Rangers one point back with the two teams equal in games played. The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders are also just one point back with two more games played in the competitive playoff race.
The Senators have given up just three goals during their current three-game winning streak as off-season addition Linus Ullmark has found his stride with the team. The 31-year-old goaltender has a 5-0-1 record in December with a .956 save percentage and a 1.31 goals-against average. His save percentage over nine games in November sat at .878.
“He looks like the goalie we envisioned,” Senators head coach Travis Green told TSN 1200 on Monday. “He’s got lots of confidence and any time your goalie is playing well, it gives your team a lot of confidence as well.”
“I always say a goalie’s success is a team-based effort,” Ullmark countered. “I don’t want to take credit for what we’re doing as a team. I haven’t been the one scoring goals, my job is to stop pucks.”
Ottawa has a 5-7-1 record on the road this season which will need to be improved upon during the upcoming stretch. Ullmark revealed Monday that the team's goal is to get "50 per cent of the" 18 points available over the next nine games.
Green talked simply of carrying over the team's recent stretch of play to continue to see results.
“We talk about our game, win or lose, how we’re playing, good or bad, how we need to play to have success,” Green said. “Even though we’re winning, we need to make sure we understand why.
“Just because you’ve won a game or two games or whatever it is, you have to keep doing the things that got you the wins in the first place and that starts (Tuesday night).”