These are desperate times for many teams in the NHL. Three games remained for the New York Islanders, who needed a win tonight to keep their realistic playoff hopes alive. Their effort level was bound to be as high as any team on any given outing.
Yet for the better part of sixty minutes, the Ottawa Senators asphyxiated them.
For a team that routinely establishes a dominant presence in the opposing zone, the Senators took a different approach to usual – on top of their usual commitment to defense, they took it to an extreme, even if they had to sacrifice some of their offense to do so. Not just at even-strength, but on special teams.
All five Isles power-play attempts were flawlessly killed off – the first of which, a holding call on Drake Batherson, preceded a shorthanded (!) breakaway (!!) backhand (!!!) goal, and the eventual game-winner for the Sens, courtesy of Ridly Greig:
Rids gets us going ‼️ pic.twitter.com/PX8R8pg7T3
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) April 11, 2026
The Islanders’ penalty kill was also strong for the most part, preventing Ottawa from scoring on their first three attempts, including a Kyle Maclean roughing minor 2:05 into the game which gave some insight into the Isles’ mentality towards protecting Calder runaway Matthew Schaefer when certain opponents target him with predatory hits. In this case, however, Maclean was far too aggressive, demolishing Nikolas Matinpalo after the depth defenseman engaged Schaefer in a fairly pedestrian shoving match – given the reaction, you’d think Matinpalo ran the rookie over with a Zamboni.
Nikolas Matinpalo was going at it with Matthew Schaefer so Kyle MacLean comes FLYING IN AND RUNS OVER MATINPALO 😱🫨 pic.twitter.com/kKxPHHRoMK
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) April 11, 2026
The Islanders got two more of their PP opportunities in the second period, both on Jordan Spence infractions – he took down Anders Lee and Brayden Schenn, the latter who went down fairly easy after he proved his toughness in the first period by cross-checking Tim Stützle roughly 27 times.
To the credit of the officials, they called the game fairly consistently – which gave the Sens’ power-play the chance they needed to deliver a fatal blow to the Islanders’ hope. Mike Amadio and Stützle were tripped up 34 seconds apart, and on the ensuing 5-on-3, Jake Sanderson got to the loose puck after a Dylan Cozens shot to double Ottawa’s lead.
JAKE SANDERSON ON THE DOORSTEP 🚪
That is a big, big goal for the @Senators! pic.twitter.com/BUKQG7rfmf
— NHL (@NHL) April 11, 2026
The Islanders were forced to pull Ilya Sorokin early, but they really should’ve scouted Mike “Wayne Gretzky but only when defending a lead” Amadio before making that decision. He stripped an Islanders defender of the puck and swiftly tucked it into the empty cage to bring the score to it’s final score of 3-0. Despite a rare instance of the Sens being outshot and held to just 16 shots on goal, they surrendered only 23 shots themselves, and Linus Ullmark was perfect, making easy and tough stops alike for his third shutout of the season.
Game Notes:What a turnaround. From a record of 23-21-7, to a record of 43-27-10. Hamburglar-esque, and it feels sustainable given how nobody seems to be playing too far above their usual standard. It’s a well-built and well-coached team, plain and simple.Today’s victory doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot without a Red Wings loss to the Devils this evening, but for what it’s worth, Ottawa has now jumped Boston via the regulation wins tiebreaker for the first East wildcard spot – arguably a tougher path to the Final, but I’m not complaining.The fact that the Senators’ PK is only 26th in the league after being a Top 5 unit since January 25th, shows how hard it is for clear improvement to come through in the numbers. Let’s hope our first-round opponent sees that latter ranking and takes our squad lightly!Mirroring the last meeting between the two, captains Brady Tkachuk and Anders Lee dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff to set the tone for a very physical first period. Brady wound up leaving the game in the second period after seemingly being struck by an errant stick from Ryan Pulock, and the Tkaptain did not return to the game. Hopefully he’ll be ready for the just barely hypothetical Game 1 of the playoffs.
TKACHUK AND LEE DROPPED THE GLOVES OFF THE PUCK DROP AGAIN 😳🥊 pic.twitter.com/AOHIjaz6z4
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 11, 2026
Ottawa’s final road game takes place tomorrow against the New Jersey Devils at 7:00 pm EST.Stats: