{"id":518620,"date":"2026-03-23T15:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/518620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:18:15","slug":"ottawa-senators-closing-in-towards-a-wild-card-spot-in-tight-eastern-conference-playoff-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/518620\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators closing in towards a wild-card spot in tight Eastern Conference playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a win tonight, the Ottawa Senators<\/a> have the chance to put themselves within two points of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The Sens are locked in a tight playoff race. They are currently four points back of the New York Islanders<\/a> for the last playoff spot while having two games in hand, and are five points behind the Montreal Canadiens<\/a>, who occupy the third spot in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s contest against the New York Rangers<\/a>, who sit last in the Eastern Conference with 65 points, is the only game on the NHL\u2019s schedule Monday night, giving them the rare opportunity to gain some ground.<\/p>\n

Senators forward Tim Stutzle admitted on Saturday afternoon that he can\u2019t watch Atlantic Division games with how close the standings are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love watching hockey, it\u2019s probably all I do,\u201d said Stutzle. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been trying to tune out there. I don\u2019t like watching\u2026I just try to focus on what we can control.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 10 games through the month of March, the Senators are 7-2-1. In their past five games, they are 4-1, their only loss during that stretch a 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Mar. 18.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has managed to keep things on track even without top defenceman Jake Sanderson<\/a> in the lineup, who suffered an upper-body injury Mar. 7 against the Seattle Kraken<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has 11 goals and 48 points in 62 games this season while averaging 24:49 of ice time.<\/p>\n

Head coach Travis Green<\/a> said on Saturday that Sanderson could be back in the next seven to 10 days.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s defensive depth took a bit of a hit recently with Nick Jensen<\/a> announced out for the rest of the season with a torn meniscus while Dennis Gilbert<\/a> was injured in Saturday\u2019s 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Offensively, forward Drake Batherson<\/a> has been one of the Sens\u2019 top performers in March. The 27-year-old winger has six goals and four assists in his last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Stutzle is not far behind with four goals and five assists in March and leads the Senators in goals (32), assists (40) and points (72) in 69 games this season. <\/p>\n

One player who admitted they needed to be better was captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk struggled in the loss to the Capitals, failing to record a point or a hit and was a minus-one.<\/p>\n

Both Green and Tkachuk hinted that they had a one-on-one conversation before Thursday\u2019s game against the Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to keep that stuff private and personal and let those conversations happen between the two of us, just leave it at that,\u201d Tkachuk said.<\/p>\n

The captain would respond immediately against New York, dropping the gloves with Islanders captain Anders Lee<\/a> off the opening face-off and then scored the game-winning goal with 11.1 remaining in the third period to deliver the 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to be a lot better today to help this team,\u201d said Tkachuk after Thursday\u2019s win. \u201cI think you can look at everybody on this team. Everybody had a statement game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa has 13 games remaining on the schedule with all but one against Eastern Conference opponents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a win tonight, the Ottawa Senators have the chance to put themselves within two points of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[4759,34584,34647,5,4,72,25,33540,5157,73,60316],"class_list":{"0":"post-518620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-brady-tkachuk-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8480801","10":"tag-drake-batherson-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8480208","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-ottawa","14":"tag-ottawa-senators","15":"tag-ottawa-senators-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-9","16":"tag-ottawasenators","17":"tag-senators","18":"tag-tim-sttzle-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8482116"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116279161915717184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}