OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators have scored more than six goals in a game this season. Twice, in fact. And they’ve now shut out their opponents on eight occasions. But Saturday night’s demolition of the Minnesota Wild should rank better than any of those previous games. It should be seen as their most commanding victory of the season.
The Senators’ 8-1 drubbing of the St. Louis Blues back in October held that title. It has since been replaced by Ottawa’s 6-0 knockdown of the Wild, the league’s best road team that has achieved success playing solid defensively. But against the Senators, the Wild fell behind the eight ball through the first 40 minutes before allowing three power-play goals in the third period. Minnesota’s offence fired blanks and mustered only 16 shots. St. Louis fired 27 shots and scored one goal past Sens goalie Linus Ullmark that night.
The Senators were still experiencing growing pains under Travis Green back in October. Less so nowadays.
“I think that’s a big display of our defensive game right now,” Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson said.
“You beat a team like Minnesota, a really good team, a really good road team,” Green said. “We played very solid, right from the drop of the puck on.”
The Senators dominated every period of play with their offence and defence, got better goaltending, won more faceoffs and made fewer mistakes. Even when the Wild tried to rough up the Senators with physical play in the second half — think Ryan Hartman driving Tim Stützle’s head into the ice — the Senators responded the best way they could by adding to their goal tally.
“They’re going to come after our best player,” Senators forward Drake Batherson said. “It’s five, six (to) nothing. We’re going to go back out on the power play. It’s just how it is.
“You can’t do that to our best player.”
“It was important to respond with some goals, for sure,” Green said. “You never like to see a play like that. It’s not a lot of place for that in the league. It was nice to score on the power play, for sure.”
The Senators get a day off Sunday before embarking on a four-game trip to the Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning (twice) and Florida Panthers before the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Ottawa remains in third place in the Atlantic Division.
If you’re still not convinced Saturday was the Senators’ most dominant win of the season, perhaps some takeaways will sway you.
Ottawa’s play at five-on-five and all situations
The Senators spent fewer minutes at five-on-five against the Wild compared to that late October game against St. Louis. But the Senators still posted a significantly better Corsi and expected goals rate against the Wild at five-on-five. If you account for all situations, Ottawa’s Corsi, expected goals and high-danger chance rates against Minnesota were all significantly better than their rates versus St. Louis.
Sens play, all situations
|
Team
|
Date
|
CF%
|
HDCF%
|
xGF%
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Oct. 29 |
52.89 |
62.50 |
53.24 |
|
|
Feb. 1 |
69.03 |
70.59 |
75.46 |
Defence, defence, defence
Ottawa’s calling card has been its defence. Despite allowing four high-danger chances, it never seemed like Minnesota posed a significant threat for most of the game. Neither team was expected to challenge the other to a high-stakes goal onslaught, as both teams had low and comparable goals-against averages (Ottawa allowed 2.73 goals per game; Minnesota allowed 2.77) before puck drop. But Ottawa’s defence did a better job of keeping the Wild out of the blue paint in all situations, not just at five-on-five.
The goal scoring has returned
In Ottawa’s previous 17 games before this week’s contests against the Washington Capitals and Wild, the Senators had scored five or more goals in only two of those games. Ottawa has now scored five and six goals, respectively, in back-to-back games dating back to Thursday night’s win over the Capitals. And some key players contributed to that scoring Saturday.
“I think it was a matter of time,” Batherson said. “We’ve been getting contributions up and down the lineup, which has been great. It was a matter of time. We’ve been playing solid. Tonight was one of those games where everything just found its way in.”
Batherson scored his first goal in 11 games. After going 10 games without a goal, Brady Tkachuk has two in his last three games. Saturday’s 2-point game was the captain’s 100th career multipoint game. Stützle is on a four-game points streak after a 3-point night. He said he probably could’ve done better on the give-and-go before scoring, though.
His midi-chlorian count is off the charts. Even Master Yoda does not have a count that high!#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/dSYqJBHdlr
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) February 2, 2025
“I gave him a s— pass,” Stützle said. “And then he handled it pretty well. It was a great pass. I kind of thought he was going to give it back to me; it was on his backhand. So, just a great play by him.”
But they were all overshadowed by Jake Sanderson’s career-best 4-point night, the best offensive game of his young career. A goal and three assists, including a power-play marker, firmly put the score out of reach for the Wild.
“I’m just trying to have more of a shooting mentality,” Sanderson said. “Brady and Drake do such a good job at the net front. Just throwing pucks there, and the goalie can’t see them.”
A shutout for Leevi Meriläinen, but what’s next for the Senators’ crease?
Another win, and shutout, for Leevi Meriläinen. Sixteen saves without breaking too much of a sweat. But he’ll gladly take his third shutout of the season with few complaints.
The kid stays hot! 🔥
Leevi Merilainen picks up his third @pepsi shutout of the season! pic.twitter.com/i6XZKbIk5V
— NHL (@NHL) February 2, 2025
“Everybody played for Leevi at the end,” Stützle said.
Meriläinen improved to 8-3-1 and has consecutive wins for the first time since mid-January. He’s been the team’s best goalie, and Ullmark still is not ready to play a whole game. Once the Senators are ready to take him off long-term injured reserve, a financial conundrum will require some salary movement to accommodate the Swede.
Would the Senators send Meriläinen down to the American League after holding his team up for over a month with his play? It sounds funny, but consider the options at hand for general manager Steve Staios. Let’s say he decides Meriläinen is his backup (which could be the case next year) for the rest of the season. It would have to mean Staios working the phones to see if he could get some kind of return for Anton Forsberg via trade. Or putting the pending unrestricted free agent for free on waivers.
Considering how Staios feels about his goalie depth and Ullmark’s injury troubles throughout the season, would it be wise to lose a goaltender at this stage? Especially if you can’t get anything of value on the trade market and have to put him on waivers? In the doomsday scenario in which Ullmark somehow gets injured again, could the Senators survive with a tandem of Meriläinen and Mads Sogaard offsetting him when needed? It would be a tall ask. Parting ways with Forsberg would make much more sense if Sogaard had been more reliable in his few appearances with the Senators this year.
And then there’s the alternative where Meriläinen gets sent down to Belleville. The Senators keep Forsberg and Meriläinen in the organization, and if that doomsday scenario mentioned earlier happens, they know they can trust that Forsberg-Meriläinen duo. Meriläinen is waivers-exempt, so no worries about losing him for free. And he’ll get reps despite being down a rung. As a young goalie still developing, Meriläinen must get more reps at whatever level he plays.
Ullmark will be on the upcoming trip, as he has practiced more frequently with his teammates. This could mean a resolution will come sooner rather than later.
(Photo of Tim Stützle: Dale Preston / Getty Images)
