OTTAWA — If you’ve been following the Ottawa Senators since the beginning of the year, their special teams have been a big part of their season, for the wrong reasons.

Through the first month of the season, it was their diamond formation penalty kill that caused frustration and led to the Senators’ PK unit plummeting to the bottom of the NHL. But at least the Senators’ power play saw success. It was tied for fifth-best in the league through the first month after scoring 13 goals, second-most in October. Ottawa even strung together five consecutive games with a power-play goal and scored seven over two blowout games against the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins at the end of that month.

Fast forward to Saturday night, where the Sens’ power play and collective offensive group experienced the most frustrating day of the season. Forty-two shots on goal, one goal scored. That goal was a power-play goal, but it was their lone power-play goal on seven power-play opportunities and 14 shots.

A power play so frustrating, some Sens fans booed and audibly groaned at it.

“Just in the first period, we had eight minutes of power-play time and not really any results to go with it,” Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson said.

Oh, and of course, the St. Louis Blues’ first goal of the night was scored seconds after their power play expired. That goal was inevitable to everyone at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

The Senators’ power play, just like the penalty kill once was, has now become the “hot topic” around the team.

“They’re just not getting the job done,” Senators head coach Travis Green said following his team’s 2-1 loss to the Blues on Saturday night. “(We’re) on the outside a lot. The execution hasn’t been good enough either.”

Here is a statistic to highlight how much Saturday’s game was not a sole aberration. Including Saturday’s totals, the Senators have scored seven power-play goals on 45 opportunities since Nov. 1. That is a 15.6 percent rate since the beginning of last month. And many of the Senators’ best players have had limited contributions on the power play during that span.

Days ago, before the Senators played against the Montreal Canadiens and won, the issue was cleaner zone entries and getting set much sooner without having to “claw” back for possession on the power play. They accomplished that feat, even if they didn’t score on the man advantage that night. Two nights later, the Senators scored twice on the power play in a loss to the New York Rangers. Even in a loss, the power play was a positive. It was the first time the Senators scored more than one power-play goal in a game since Oct. 27 against the Bruins.

Saturday’s game should’ve been a momentum generator for their power play, a focus for the Senators entering this week’s games. But they were held along the perimeter and couldn’t complete enough plays. They were rendered ineffective against the NHL’s 26th-best penalty kill (they jumped up from 27th after Saturday).

And now it feels like they’re back to square one.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re just a little bit too much on the outside and trying to make that pretty play,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. “Where sometimes we just need to grind one out, grease one out. But we’re building, we’re learning, and we’ll get better.”

“I don’t think it’s complicated,” Green said. “We’ve liked our game. We’ve lost two home games. Got to find a way to score. We’ve got to bear down around the net, and our power play has to be better. It’s not that complicated.”

But at least the team knows what needs to change. Mercifully, after six failed attempts, they “greased” one out thanks to Fabian Zetterlund whacking away at the puck in the slot before beating Blues goalie Joel Hofer. That came after the Sens flipped out Jordan Spence on the second unit in favour of more Sanderson power-play time. (The defender played a game-high 31:04 in the loss, the most he’s played in a game this season.)

Fabian Zetterlund – Ottawa Senators (6)
Power Play Goal pic.twitter.com/Cxeh6VEAm1

— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) December 7, 2025

But even Zetterlund couldn’t be too happy about it.

“We’ve (got to) make it harder for the goalie,” Zetterlund said. “We shoot a lot of pucks, but sometimes we don’t have (a) net-front presence. We need that in this league.”

Zetterlund clearly knows his team has one of the best net-front guys in the league in Tkachuk. But it’s more about imposing themselves with said presence and getting more opportunities in the slot near the net. And even Tkachuk himself knows that, as he explained earlier in his assessment. The Sens even found ways to score power-play goals without him in his absence. With him back in the lineup, they should be more formidable on the power play.

Now, with just two wins in their last seven games — and four power play goals on 22 opportunities in that span of time — it would be a great time for the Senators to make whatever adjustments necessary to get their power play back on track as it was in October.