The Ottawa Senators’ margin of error is becoming razor thin in the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The players will say that every game for weeks has felt like the biggest game of the season, but Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers makes a convincing case for the most crucial contest yet.
A third straight loss would feel like the roof is caving in. Capping off the road trip with a won would be a massive boost ahead of five straight at home.
The Senators, who do control their destiny with nine games remaining in the regular season, are two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with one game in hand.
Can Ullmark silence his critics?
Linus Ullmark’s availability, or lack thereof, on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning was a hot topic when weekday sports talk shows returned to the airwaves.
Ullmark, who is in the first season of a four-year deal worth $33 million, opted to dress as the backup for the Senators’ 4-2 loss against the Bolts over the weekend. Coach Travis Green said he wanted to play his top goalie, but Ullmark “needed a rest.”
“That’s not a part of the NHL, picking and choosing when you want to play,” former NHLer Jeff O’Neill ranted on TSN 1050’s OverDrive. “You make a lot of money; you’re the No. 1 goaltender. And I do understand that he’s had his difficulties this year. The team stuck with him, the organization did.
“Travis Green has done such a great job with that Ottawa team. He’s established himself as, like, a great coach. The team has come together and everybody is pushing, and you can’t have a guy who is the most important player on your team say, ‘Not really feeling it tonight.’ Can’t happen in the NHL, sorry.”
Surely, Ullmark, who as a full participant in practice on Monday, will start against the Panthers.
Since returning from a leave of absence for mental health reasons on Jan. 31, Ullmark is 9-2-3 with a .905 save percentage.
Make it 10-2-3 and this whole controversy is ancient history by the time the Sens touch down in Ottawa early Wednesday morning.
Just hold on, Sandy’s comin’ home
What a story Jordan Spence and Tyler Kleven have been, stepping up and playing some of the best hockey of their young careers with half of the club’s blue line on injured reserve.
In the past four games, Kleven has led the team with an average ice time of 26:41 per game, while Spence is playing 25:54. Each is logging more minutes than Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot did respectively while the D corps was healthy.
After months of forming chemistry together on the bottom pairing, Kleven and Spence have been forced to adapt to a rotating wheel of partners. Against the Lightning on Saturday, Spence played 8:22 at even strength with Carter Yakemchuk, 4:05 with Kleven, 3:37 with Matinpalo, 2:07 with Artem Zub, and one shift with Lassi Thomson.
Sanderson, who practiced with the team on Monday for the first time since sustaining a shoulder injury on March 7, is eyeing a return, but it won’t be against the Panthers.
In the meantime, Spence and Kleven will continued to be relied upon heavily.
Though Florida is days away from mathematical elimination, back-to-back Stanley Cup champions will undoubtedly test the resolve of Ottawa’s defence.
Are the lines getting stale?
Of the Senators’ seven goals at 5-on-5 last week, one came from the top line of Drake Batherson, Tim Stutzle and Claude Giroux, and one came from the second line of Brady Tkachuk, Dylan Cozens and Ridly Greig.
Green has tampered with his lines in the latter half of games recently, but since Warren Foegele’s acquisition ahead of the March 6 trade deadline, the forward corps has looked the same at puck drop every night.
At practice on Monday, Green stuck to his guns. The aforementioned top two lines remained; the shutdown line featured Nick Cousins, Shane Pinto and Michael Amadio; and Foegele saddled up with Lars Eller and Fabian Zetterlund.
No one in their right mind should argue to break up Cousins, Pinto and Amadio. Despite poor defensive performances against the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins last week, they remain one of the most reliable trios in the league.
The top six, on the other hand, might need a makeover.
Stutzle has been largely driving the play up front and has little to show for it on the scoresheet, recording three even-strength points in his past 10 games. Alongside Giroux and Batherson, there have been far too many one-and-done shifts in the offensive zone.
It’s a similar story with Tkachuk, as he regains form as one of the game’s top power forwards. Since unleashing fury on the New York Islanders two weeks ago, the captain has been a beast, and his linemates are lagging behind (Greig has one even-strength point in 10 games).
Reuniting the two juggernauts on Line 1 is enticing — Stutzle and Tkachuk haven’t played together since early January — but the Senators’ success in 2026 has come from spreading out the talent.
This season’s condensed schedule has made it imperative for Green to find balance in his forward corps. Injecting Foegele into the bottom six enabled the coach to roll all four lines, instead of holding the likes of Stephen Halliday and Kurtis MacDermid to single digit shifts.
Seeing as the final stretch remains demanding — nine games in 16 days — it’s unlikely the Senators will be able to go for the nuclear option and load up the top nine.
Though, if things get dicey against Florida, perhaps some permanent changes are in order.
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