Senators 'playing the right way' after slow start to season

WASHINGTON -- After struggling through their first six games, the Ottawa Senators have responded by recapturing a mentality that helped them qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.

The Senators (4-4-1) will try for their third straight victory when they host the Boston Bruins (4-6-0) at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; Prime, RDS, NESN).

The common denominator in the Senators’ past two games -- their first consecutive wins this season -- was their dedication to team defense. Although the final scores were very different -- a 2-1 home win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and a 7-1 victory at the Washington Capitals on Saturday -- the process was the same.

“It’s nice scoring seven, but we only let in one today as well,” Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark said. “So, we could have won 2-1 and that’s kind of like the mindset you’ve got to have in this league. You want to be mature enough to play a game where you’re able to win 2-1, and then sometimes you’re going to have games when you score a lot of goals, especially when you have the type of personnel and the skills that we do have.

“But you’ve got to do the right things first before you can do the other things.”

The Senators did that from the drop of puck to the final buzzer in limiting the Capitals to 13 shots on goal, including six through the first two periods. One example of that was their 23 blocked shots, a physical commitment that did not lessen after the score became lopsided in the third period.

With Ottawa leading 7-1, forward Nick Cousins deflected Alex Ovechkin’s spinning shot attempt out of play with 2:52 remaining -- Ovechkin’s final attempt of the night to score his 900th NHL goal. On the following shift, Senators defenseman Artem Zub blocked an attempt by Connor McMichael, taking the puck off his hand.

“We’ve talked a lot this year and last year about our team playing the right way no matter what the score is,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “A lot of times in the NHL nowadays, teams can score quickly. You can be up 4-0, 5-0 and all then all of a sudden the other team gets going, you give them a little life. But I thought we did a good job of just playing the right way throughout the game and playing direct.”

The Senators didn’t do enough of that at the start of this season and allowed 30 total goals in going 2-4-0 in their first six games. With captain Brady Tkachuk out 6-8 weeks following surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, they were in danger of falling into an early-season hole that would be difficult to overcome.

“When your leader, one of your best players is out, it’s tough, but other teams go through it all the time and you’ve got to try to pick up the slack as much as we can,” Ottawa forward Drake Batherson said. “You can’t really replace a player like that, but we’ve just got to do our best without him until he’s back.”

For the Senators, that meant getting back to the approach of trying to win low-scoring games. It helped them turn their fortunes around following a 10-12-2 start last season. Beginning with, coincidentally, a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 5, Ottawa went on an 8-1-0 surge that propelled it back into the playoff race and eventually qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2017.

The Senators’ 2-1 win against the Flyers, in which they allowed 23 shots on goal, provided a reminder of that winning formula, but their rededication actually began in their previous game, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Although Ottawa fell behind 2-0, it didn’t abandon its defensive structure against one of the NHL’s top offensive teams and scored twice in the third period to force overtime.

The Senators built on that effort Thursday and followed up with a complete performance Saturday.

“It wasn’t the outcome we wanted [against the Oilers], but I thought it was a really good response [against the Flyers],” defenseman Nick Jensen said. “The mentality that we have is to win those tough games, especially against Philly, a team that works hard and is all over you all the time, winning those games with a 2-1 mentality. And we actually won 2-1.

“So, I think that was a big game for us and, hopefully, we can continue to lay those foundational blocks and keep building.”

The Senators’ offense got most of the headlines against the Capitals with Batherson and forward Dylan Cozens each getting two goals and an assist, and the power play producing three goals. But the start to their season provided a needed reminder that their success starts with defense.

“I think we got humbled a little bit in some of the first games with letting in that many goals,” forward Lars Eller said. “The scoreboard clearly showed that our game without the puck wasn’t where it needed to be. So, I think the last couple of games we have gotten a lot more commitment without the puck from everybody from the top of the lineup down to every last man. That’s starting to show on the scoreboard now.

“So. those are probably the ways that we’re going to have to win a lot of games. If we’re going to win, it’s going to be like 2-1 and 3-2 or that style of game."