The Ottawa Senators took one final skate at the Bell Sensplex to close out 2025 on Wednesday morning.
The Senators will begin to try to climb out of the hole they’ve dug themselves after waking up ranked No. 15 in the Eastern Conference on New Year’s Eve, but sitting only four points out of a playoff spot.
Winless in three straight, the pressure is building on the Senators to get their act together if they want to make the playoffs for a second consecutive year. They begin a busy 16-game schedule in January with a visit from the Washington Capitals at 1 p.m. at the Canadian Tire Centre.
One of the opponents the Senators have to catch is Alex Ovechkin and the Caps.
“There is pressure. It’s the NHL, there is supposed to be pressure,” coach Travis Green said Wednesday. “You have to embrace it, like it and enjoy it. There is pressure to win, and, this year, there is a little more.
“The whole league is tight, especially on our side. There’s going to be pressure the whole way through (the season), but you’re also not going to win every game. That’s a reality. There will probably be 10 games left (in the season), and there will be pressure.
“Is there pressure to win tomorrow? Yeah, I love it. That’s what you want as a hockey player, but you’re not going to panic when you lose a few games. The league is tight. You play awesome some nights and you lose. I think we’ve played better than our record. We’ve got to find a way to win those games.”
The Senators have had enough time to lick their wounds after a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. The skate on Wednesday was focused a lot on touch drills and competing in small spaces. That didn’t happen enough against the Jackets.
“It’s an opportunity for us to start the new year off on the right foot,” captain Brady Tkachuk said. “There is definitely a lot in that last game that we’re going to learn from and be better because of it.”
Judging by the club’s lines and defensive pairings during the skate, Green will make a couple of changes versus the Caps. Forward Stephen Halliday will return after being scratched in favour of Shane Pinto. It would appear that rugged winger Kurtis MacDermid will sit.
Veteran blueliner Nick Jensen, who sat out the visit by the Jackets, will return. Green admitted it wasn’t an easy decision to tell the 35-year-old he was sitting, but the club has seven defencemen, which means somebody has to sit when they’re all healthy.
It would appear that Nikolas Matinpalo won’t play against the Caps and Jensen will face his former club.
“It’s a tough decision,” Green said. “When you’ve got seven guys on the back end, you’re going to have someone sitting out that isn’t happy. That’s part of the NHL.
“I don’t expect Jensen to be happy. He’s a good player in the league, and he’s been a good player for a while. It could very well change from game to game.”
With injuries, you need seven defencemen at all times.
“I’m not worried about any kind of response from Jensen,” said Green. “His game has been fine. I don’t look at it like he’s been terrible. It’s just the way we wanted to go. We like all seven, and someone’s not going to play.
“But I’m not looking for a response from Jensen, I’m looking for a response from our group.”
The Senators have to give Leevi Merilainen a helping hand.
The backup has been thrust into the role of the club’s top goaltender after the sudden departure of Linus Ullmark, who the organization gave a leave of absence on Sunday.
Your guess is as good as mine on when the 32-year-old Ullmark makes his return to the club’s roster, but until then the Senators will have to rely on the 23-year-old Merilainen to shoulder the load.
He wasn’t at his best Monday night, surrendering four goals on 22 shots against Columbus, but neither was anybody else, so we’ll give Merilainen a mulligan on that one.
“It was a difficult game,” Merilainen said. “Not a lot of shots, not a lot of easy situations for the shots I faced. A lot of rush plays, screens, breakaways and stuff. I feel like I have to find a way to make a save or two more.
“But it’s tough when stuff bounces around, and bounces in. We’re not getting the luck right now. That’s hard, but that’s the game, and we’ve got to find a way to be better.”
Goaltending has been an issue for this club all season, and Ullmark’s absence has put an area that was already a concern under the microscope.
The Senators are ranked No. 32 in team save percentage at .872. The club is ranked 22nd with a 3.22 goals-against average.
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