{"id":556463,"date":"2026-04-20T02:09:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556463\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:09:53","slug":"senators-will-ignore-the-noise-and-try-to-turn-the-volume-up-on-the-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556463\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators will ignore the noise and try to turn the volume up on the Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa Senators’ captain Brady Tkachuk, right, wanted to set the tone for the series when he fought Carolina Hurricanes’ captain Jordan Staal in the opening seconds of Game 1.Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIgnore the noise!\u201d<\/p>\n

This, according to captain Brady Tkachuk, has been the mantra of the Ottawa Senators\u2019 dressing room for much of the 2025-2026 NHL season.<\/p>\n

It worked as his team stumbled and bumbled through the first half and more of the season thanks to weak goaltending and key injuries. Ignoring the naysayers, the Senators regrouped in late January and, almost miraculously, rose to grab a wild card position in the postseason.<\/p>\n

This weekend, however, the noise came roaring back as the Senators fell 2-0 in Raleigh to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

Roy MacGregor: With firestorm behind them, pesky Sens are peaking at the right time<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUninspired and lacklustre,\u201d one local judged on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenators were absolute trash,\u201d added another.<\/p>\n

\u201cNHL wants Carolina to win to eliminate a Canadian team,\u201d moaned a third after what was first seen as an Ottawa goal was disallowed. \u201cThey always have.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not as bad as some would have it. The Senators established their feistiness right off the drop of the puck when, three seconds in, Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Hurricanes\u2019 captain Jordan Staal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to show it\u2019s going to be a long series,\u201d said Tkachuk.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Linus Ullmark (35) allowed a pair of goals in the Game 1 loss but played an excellent game. If he stays at that level, Roy MacGregor writes, the Senators will have a chance to get back into their series with the favoured Hurricanes.James Guillory\/Reuters<\/p>\n

That, of course, is now almost instantly the question. Can the Ottawa Senators bounce back in Monday\u2019s Game 2 and return home with a split in the series \u2013 or are they doomed already, up against the top team in the NHL\u2019s Eastern Conference?<\/p>\n

Some would say yes, they are in trouble. The Hurricanes\u2019 chances of winning the Cup following Game 1, according to hockeystats.com, stood at 15 per cent, while the Senators\u2019 chances fell to 4 per cent.<\/p>\n

Opening games are not easily dismissed. Teams that open a series with a victory have an all-time series record of 535-252, a win percentage of .680.<\/p>\n

One weak game on the road and the noise back home starts to rattle.<\/p>\n

Road games, loyal Senators\u2019 fans know only too well, have long been an issue with the Ottawa team.<\/p>\n

Back in 2007, when a fabulous Senators\u2019 team \u2013 Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley \u2013 went to the Stanley Cup final against the Anaheim Ducks, they fell, finally, on the road.<\/p>\n

It happened again to a terrific 2017 team \u2013 Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Craig Anderson \u2013 when Ottawa met Sidney Crosby\u2019s Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference final.<\/p>\n

Road games were an issue from the very beginning of the reborn Senators. They launched their inaugural 1992-93 season at home, stunning the Montreal Canadiens 5-3. The noise that day was joyous. \u201cMaybe Rome was built in a day,\u201d read the next day\u2019s headline in the Ottawa Citizen.<\/p>\n

The brand-new team set out on the road and, well, Rome quickly collapsed. The Senators travelled to Quebec City, where they met the Nordiques and lost 9-2. Off they went next to Boston, where the team bus got lost in the fog.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Stankoven, right, of the Carolina Hurricanes scored what turned out to be the game-winner in his team’s 2-0 win over the Ottawa Senators.Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That Ottawa team would go on to set a record for futility. They would lose 70 games, win only 10 and tie 4. They lost 38 in a row over one long stretch. They were often referred to as \u201croadkill\u201d by disdaining opponents and unforgiving media.<\/p>\n

The Senators would not win on the road until the very last game of the season, on Long Island to play the New York Islanders. Team captain Laurie Boschman, who came into the game with only five goals for the season, scored a hat trick to lead his team to, finally, a road victory.<\/p>\n

No wonder his teammates gathered outside the bus when Boschman came to board and bowed in an exaggerated \u201cWe are not worthy\u201d fashion.<\/p>\n

Losing 2-0 on Saturday to the Carolina Hurricanes is hardly a call for despair and the immediate shutting down of the \u201cSens Mile\u201d along Ottawa\u2019s Elgin Street that was created to celebrate the team reaching the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t finish first for nothing,\u201d Senators\u2019 head coach Travis Green said of the Hurricanes after the Game 1 loss. \u201cI didn\u2019t mind our game. A couple of goals that went in were \u2013 I don\u2019t want to say \u2018lucky\u2019 but \u2026 the first one I think is a fanned shot, the second one they get a bounce.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for bounces, many will feel the Senators received a bad one when what appeared to be a tying goal by forward Drake Batherson was disallowed. <\/p>\n

Hurricanes\u2019 goaltender Frederick Andersen caught Batherson\u2019s deflection, but players and on-ice officials all believed the gloved puck had crossed the goal line. A subsequent review by Toronto\u2019s NHL Situation Room overruled the call on the ice, saying video review indicated the puck \u201cdid not completely cross the Carolina goal line.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, who flailed badly in the first half of the season, he was as solid in this loss as he had been in the many victories that surprisingly propelled his team into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Ullmark was particularly sharp as he was key to Ottawa killing off two separate 5-on-3 advantages by the high-scoring Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

On neither Carolina goal could Ullmark be faulted. A Senators\u2019 defensive error led to a quick shot by Logan Stankoven that slipped under Ullmark\u2019s left pad. Another defensive error led to a goalmouth scramble where Carolina\u2019s Taylor Hall was able to score on a rebound.<\/p>\n

It is Ullmark\u2019s play while his team was two men down that Ottawa fans should celebrate in this opening loss. Such a feat is simply remarkable by any measure in a game where a one-man advantage is considered vast.<\/p>\n

Should Ullmark continue such fine play into Game 2 \u2013 still on the road \u2013 and should his teammates return to the fine attack-and-defend play that turned the 2026 portion of the 2025-2026 season around, the Sens Mile on Elgin Street may well explode.<\/p>\n

As the captain might say, \u201cEmbrace the noise!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ottawa Senators’ captain Brady Tkachuk, right, wanted to set the tone for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,1929,72,25,5157,73,1376],"class_list":{"0":"post-556463","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-noastack","11":"tag-ottawa","12":"tag-ottawa-senators","13":"tag-ottawasenators","14":"tag-senators","15":"tag-topstory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434606812398096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556463","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=556463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}