The Ottawa Senators realize they can’t continue to tread water much longer if they hope to end their seven-year playoff drought.
With a nine-game road trip on the horizon, the Senators will try to take advantage of home ice while they can when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday evening.
“It’s a long season and there is a lot of hockey ahead of us,” Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “We’re building something and playing some good hockey lately.”
The Senators have had four chances to win three in a row this season but have lost each time, most recently 4-2 against the visiting New York Islanders on Sunday.
The score was tied 2-2 midway through the third period, but the Islanders capitalized on a tripping penalty to score a power-play goal and then sealed the win with an empty-netter.
Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk, who has been the focus of recent trade rumors, said the Senators will win nine out of 10 times if they continue to play the way they did against the Islanders.
“There is still so much hockey and runway left,” Tkachuk said. “It’s a crucial two points that we missed out on, but if we play like that, we’re going to get rewarded.”
The Senators said similar things after losing to the Ducks 4-3 in a shootout on Dec. 1 in Anaheim. The score was tied 2-2 entering the third period of that matchup as well, but Ottawa came up on the wrong end again.
“Plain and simple, we want to win hockey games, and when you don’t, you’re frustrated and not happy about it,” Chabot said. “We’re definitely heading in the right direction here. We know where we’re at and won’t be satisfied with losing games.”
Anaheim opened its four-game road trip with a 3-2 shootout loss against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.
Troy Terry scored both goals for the Ducks to increase his team-leading total to eight, but most eyes were on Anaheim defenseman Jacob Trouba, who was making his team debut following his sudden trade from the New York Rangers on Friday.
Trouba delivered a team-leading five hits and led the Ducks in even-strength ice time at 21:30.
“He’s always hard to play against,” Terry said. “You know he’s this big, physical guy and he’s good defensively. I thought he was up in the play a lot tonight offensively. It felt like a few times whenever I got space in the offensive zone, he was in a good spot for a pass or a chance to score. So, I thought he was great.”
John Gibson figures to get the start in goal after Lukas Dostal made 19 saves against Montreal.
Gibson has had good success against the Senators in his career, owning a 4-2-2 record with a .945 save percentage and 1.61 goals-against average.
Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said if the Ducks can get off to the kind of start they did against Montreal, they should succeed.
“The first period was one of the best periods we’ve played,” Cronin said. “It kind of resembled the way we’ve been playing when we’re winning.”
–Field Level Media
