{"id":556385,"date":"2026-04-20T00:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556385\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:04:22","slug":"ottawa-senators-look-forward-after-game-1-loss-artem-zubs-status-unclear-after-exiting-with-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556385\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators look forward after Game 1 loss; Artem Zub’s status unclear after exiting with injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH \u2014 Thomas Chabot<\/a> felt his team handled things fairly well.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Senators<\/a> expected an early surge from the Hurricanes to open their first-round playoff series.<\/p>\n

And after captain Brady Tkachuk<\/a> and Carolina opposite Jordan Staal<\/a> dropped the gloves three seconds into proceedings at a pulsating Lenovo Center, the Eastern Conference\u2019s top seed tried to impose its physical will Saturday.<\/p>\n

One of the Senators\u2019 key drivers from defence, Chabot was clearly targeted in a move to soften the blue-line corps. <\/p>\n

Ottawa survived and pushed back before ultimately being undone by two strange goals \u2014 one on a fanned five-hole effort and another where the puck bounced around Linus Ullmark<\/a>\u2019s crease \u2014 on the way to a 2-0 setback against the stingy Hurricanes in a contest where the home side held a 57-39 edge in hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou play in Carolina, that\u2019s what they do,\u201d Chabot said Sunday. \u201cProbably until the first TV timeout, they try to create some momentum in hitting and throwing every puck at the net. We knew that was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senators can expect the same when the teams meet Monday for Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (played) hard,\u201d Ottawa centre Tim Stutzle said of Carolina\u2019s forecheck. \u201cWe gotta find a way to chip them a little better, give our (defencemen) more time without taking penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chabot, who logged close to 27 minutes after shutdown defender Artem Zub<\/a> left in the first period with an undisclosed injury, said the significant uptick in physicality was expected. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that time of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes playoff hockey so fun to be part of. It\u2019s the energy, it\u2019s the shenanigans post-whistles, it\u2019s everything that goes into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zub\u2019s status remains unclear for a club that survived having to use 12 defencemen for various ailments across 82 regular-season games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig loss when he goes out,\u201d said Senators head coach Travis Green<\/a>, who didn\u2019t have an update on Jake Sanderson<\/a>\u2019s usual partner on the back end. \u201cSomeone\u2019s gotta step up and play those minutes against top lines \u2026 I thought they did do a pretty good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a clear trickle-down effect when a player like Zub is absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis presence in our own zone, the way he wins his battles, the way he shuts the top guys down,\u201d Chabot of the Russian\u2019s attributes. \u201cHuge piece of this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from dealing with Carolina\u2019s pressure, Ottawa needs to do a better job of creating its own. <\/p>\n

The Senators were held in check for 40 minutes with just nine shots before coming on in the third period, including a power-play goal from Drake Batherson<\/a> that was called back on video review after Hurricanes netminder Frederik Anderson held the line with a terrific glove stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a series where I don\u2019t know if either team, every game, is going to love their game,\u201d Green said. \u201cOne team is going to love the outcome \u2026 going to be a series of singles, not a lot of home-run plays. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they played their game a little better than we played ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trailing the best-of-seven series is hardly the first time the Senators have dealt with adversity in a season that included lots of injuries, outside noise and a second-half charge to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hold each other accountable and we know there\u2019s a lot of guys in this room that want to do better and play better,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to bring it. It\u2019s a hell of a hockey team that we play. They finished first for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green and Carolina head coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour \u2014 both former NHL centres \u2014 have similar philosophies in a matchup of teams with plenty in common despite the Hurricanes, who are competing in their ninth playoff series over the last four springs, finishing 14 points clear in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot gonna be lots of opportunities, not a lot of fancy plays,\u201d said Stutzle, whose group exited last year\u2019s post-season in the first round after the franchise failed to make the Stanley Cup tournament seven years running. \u201cGotta find a way to get more in front of their goalie and make it harder on him. Experience always helps, and they\u2019ve been there a lot. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe gotta find a way to just play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with being ready for another early volley of shoulder pads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to try and do the same thing,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to be ready for it once again.\u201d <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH \u2014 Thomas Chabot felt his team handled things fairly well. The Ottawa Senators expected an early surge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,72,25,5157,73,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-556385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-ottawa-senators","12":"tag-ottawasenators","13":"tag-senators","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434113837435046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556385","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=556385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}