Senators unhappy with bad habits, subpar record

OTTAWA – It may be early in the season, but the Ottawa Senators can’t afford to fall back into bad habits.

With a 2-4-0 record the Senators are less than thrilled with the first 10 days of their season.

Inconsistency, cheating for offence and an inability to play a full 60-minute effort is leading to early frustration for head coach Travis Green.

“A lot of things we took pride in last year we were good, we weren’t good (Saturday),” said Green.

Far too often this season the Senators have had breakdowns that have allowed opponents to get back into games and Ottawa has failed to respond.

“It’s how do you keep momentum, how do you stop momentum,” Green said. “How do you keep the lead? How do you play with the lead? What’s your mindset? Are you cheating for offence? Are you cheating? Are you on the right side of the puck?

“There’s a certain style of play that we want. There’s been a lot of talk about creating more offence, but it does not mean cheating for offence.”

It took a while last season but Ottawa finally started to show signs of maturing and managing the game better and were rewarded with its first playoff appearance in seven seasons.

Players acknowledged they can ill afford to take a step back, no matter how early it is in the season.

“I think it’s been the ‘MO’ the whole year, kind of just not consistent throughout the game,’ said Shane Pinto. “Five-minute spurts, I don’t know we just take our foot off the gas and the team just always seems to convert on those chances. Yeah, just got to clean it up and be better.”

Pinto believes some of the breakdowns are a result of immaturity, which is concerning considering last year’s progress.

“I think you’ve got to realize you’ve got to play a full 60 minutes if you want to win in this league,” Pinto said. “And we’ve got to realize that. I think we did a good job of that last year and we’ve just got to get back to that.”

With games against the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers coming up, as part of a four-game homestand, the Senators will want to try and get things on track.

Veteran David Perron admitted the team has already let some games get away.

“We’ve got to learn from it,” said Perron. “In a way, sometimes I’m surprised we haven’t because of what we went through last year. We’ve got to get right back to that program as soon as we can.”

Ottawa will be without captain Brady Tkachuk for six to eight weeks, as a result of thumb surgery, and will need others to step up in his absence.

Green believes the players are aware they are “doing things they shouldn’t” and it’s up to him to help them get through it.

“You coach to be honest,” said Green. “You show video, sometimes you yell, sometimes you don’t.”

With Tkachuk out of the lineup Green has been juggling his lines in hopes of finding the right combinations but so far hasn’t seemed to find the right balance.

The trio of Drake Batherson, Tim Stutzle and Dylan Cozens had some success in their game against the New York Islanders, but Green says he has to decide if he can keep them all together.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2025.