The Ottawa Senators were unable to win a third straight game Monday night, falling 5-3 to the Detroit Red Wings at home.

But they easily could have come out on top, considering how they played.

The Sens’ 38 shots on goal almost doubled the Red Wings’ total of 20. Ottawa won nearly 60 per cent of the faceoffs and out-hit Detroit 20 to 13. But three early goals put the Sens in a hole they couldn’t climb out of and brought Ottawa’s goaltending issues back into the spotlight.

“I just didn’t like a couple of the goals,” Sens head coach Travis Green told reporters.

Green pulled starter Leevi Merilainen after he allowed three goals on eight shots and turned to Hunter Shepard, who was making his season debut at the NHL level. He stopped 10 of 12 shots he faced in relief, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. Brady Tkachuk’s wrist shot made it a one-goal deficit in the third period but a shorthanded goal from Michael Rasmussen gave the Wings a 5-3 lead that would hold up the rest of the way.

The Senators have the worst save percentage in the NHL this season at .876. As TSN’s Travis Yost pointed out in a story posted on Monday, Ottawa’s expected goal rates are similar to last season, where the Sens were seventh in the NHL in save percentage at .907.

Green expanded on his goaltenders’ struggles thus far in 2025-26.

“I mean, the one thing we deal with is, and talk about with our group is, just being honest,” Green said. “We play that game 10 times, we’d win eight or nine times and that’s just reality. We try to deal in reality. We try not to look for something that’s not there. And the truth is, we played a really good hockey game [Monday].”

Veteran Claude Giroux agreed with his coach’s assessment of the team’s performance.

“I feel like it was a weird game,” Giroux said. “We played a pretty good game. If we play like that every night we’re going to win more than we lose, so it’s definitely frustrating.”

“We battled really hard,” Sens centre Tim Stützle added. “We had a pretty good game as a whole group. I think we were by far the better team tonight.”

Even Detroit head coach Todd McLellan agreed the Sens may have been the stronger team Monday night.

“I don’t know if we made a statement to anybody,” McLellan said. “We came in here, I still don’t think we played our best game. I thought they played a real good game, but [we] found a way to win.”

Ottawa’s usual starter, Linus Ullmark, has an .881 save percentage in 28 games this season. He is on a personal leave of absence from the team that was announced on Dec. 28.

According to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, Ullmark was at Canadian Tire Centre Monday night, but the Sens have no idea when he will return.

Linus Ullmark, who was granted a leave of absence on Dec. 27, was in the rink last night. To be clear: #Sens have no idea when he will return.

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) January 6, 2026

Ottawa called up goaltender Mads Sogaard Tuesday morning, sending Shepard down to the AHL’s Belleville Senators.

Sogaard has yet to play in the NHL this season and has a .887 save percentage and 3.49 goals-against average in 15 AHL games.

Monday’s loss dropped the Sens to 20-16-5 on the season, tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for an Atlantic Division-low 45 points in 41 games.