The captain came through in the crunch for the Ottawa Senators.
Brady Tkachuk not only reached a milestone with his 200th career goal in the club’s 8-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, but the club’s captain led the charge.
His four-point effort helped lead the Senators to key back-to-back wins after the Senators scored a 2-1 decision over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Sitting five points out of the final wild-card spot in the East heading into Thursday night’s action, the Senators need wins because the time for moral victories is over. Playing well and losing won’t cut it anymore.
The Senators had Thursday off, but they’ll be back on the ice on Friday to prepare for two more big games against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at home and Sunday versus the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
Both are Atlantic Division rivals and the Senators need to play better than .600 hockey in the final 37 games of the season to make the playoffs for the second straight spring. They need to play with desperation and urgency the rest of the season.
“We need to win these games,” Tkachuk said. “These are must-win games in our world. We’re getting to the point that we just can’t waste an effort. It doesn’t matter that we’re on a back-to-back. Honestly, that might have helped us, playing last night, just not having much of a break.
“That was probably the best first period I’ve seen from this team and something that we’re capable of doing.”
The Senators pulled out to a 4-0 lead in New York in the first period and never looked back. The Rangers made a push in the third to try to get back into the game, but the issue had already been decided.
Need to play a full 60 minutes
But Tkachuk didn’t gloss over the fact that New York scored three times in the third.
“We played to our identity and we’re a tough team to play against,” Tkachuk said. “(Tuesday) we put a really good 60-minute effort in and couldn’t capitalize on some chances. Tonight, I thought for the most part, we played a really solid game.
“When you get into a game like that, it’s natural to take your foot off the gas a little bit. There is a lesson to be learned there, that we’ve got to play for (Leevi Merilainen) there and help him out by not giving up as many Grade A chances as we did. We’re going to learn from that and be better because of it.”
Tkachuk is only the fourth player in franchise history to score 200 goals with the Senators. He joins a list that includes former captains Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Alexei Yashin.
Tkachuk is the second-fastest player to reach the milestone (539 games) following Yashin, who achieved the feat in 471 games.
“Honestly, I had no idea,” Tkachuk said. “It’s pretty cool, but I wouldn’t be getting 200 if it wasn’t for my linemates, teammates and the guys that assisted on that by making great plays and shots for tips. So, whenever you have something like that, it’s not a one-man show, it’s a team effort.”
Olympic break coming up fast
The Senators are 4-6-0 in their past 10 and they need to go on a run before the NHL shuts down for the 2026 Winter Olympics on Feb. 5.
Coach Travis Green knows that it’s difficult to have confidence when you’re not winning and he often talks about making sure this group “sticks with it”.
“There’s going to be a lot of ebbs and flows,” Green said. “There’s going to be parts of the year where things are going well and it’s always about resetting. Whether you win or lose and being honest about your game: How did you win, how did you lose, why’d you win, why’d you lose and what makes your team effective.
“I think our team has a really good idea of how we need to play to win.”
Losing can make players stray, but the Senators know what the formula is for winning, and it starts with a strong defensive effort. The Senators have done that in the last two games, and it paid off with some goals in New York.
Related
“There were a lot of games we put in a lot of great efforts and didn’t get the result that we wanted. That’s always kind of a jab at the confidence,” Tkachuk said. “Just needed to get back to basics.
“Everything feels better when you start winning games, and for us it’s just about chipping away and not focus too much on the big picture but focus on winning the day.”