The Ottawa Senators will spend the holiday season away from home ice.
They are starting a stretch of nine consecutive road games on Tuesday in Seattle against the Kraken and won’t return to play at home until January 9.
During the NHL’s holiday break, the Senators will have some time with their families. Their trip will be divided into two parts: the first is a four-game swing through the West, with stops in Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton; the second part is a five-game trip after Christmas, as the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championships will be taking place in Ottawa.
“It’s always hard going out West,” said Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark. “Our goal is to win them all, but we’ll see afterwards what the results are and what we’ll bring home for Christmas.”
The Senators are on a roll, having won three straight games for the first time this season and five of their last six. They’ve moved into a wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after a 3-2 overtime win against Pittsburgh on Saturday. Brady Tkachuk scored 1:46 into overtime, and Ullmark made 25 saves.
“We’re playing to our identity,” said Tkachuk, who leads the team with 15 goals and has 32 points, behind Tim Stutzle (36) and Drake Batherson (33). “We’re playing for each other, and if we keep doing it, the results are going to keep coming.”
Defenseman Thomas Chabot added, “This group is rolling off the momentum. We’ve got a long road trip ahead of us and we’ve got to bring that to Seattle on Tuesday night.”
A big part of the Senators’ recent success has been Ullmark, who is playing at the same high level that earned him the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in 2023 with Boston. Ullmark is 6-0-1 in his last seven starts, with a 1.55 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage.
Ullmark wasn’t supposed to start on Saturday but had to step in after backup Anton Forsberg got injured during warmups. It was Ullmark’s third start in four days.
“For Linus to step in and have the night he did, it’s impressive,” said Senators coach Travis Green.
The Kraken are 4-2-1 in their last seven games, even though they suffered a 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday, giving up three third-period goals.
Oliver Bjorkstrand has scored four goals in the past four games, tying Jared McCann for the team lead with 11 goals.
Seattle’s Brandon Montour scored first, but the Lightning dominated the rest of the game.
“We can’t ask for a better start. Monty gets us one early, and we don’t really have much of a response the whole entire game,” said defenseman Vince Dunn. “Guys are working hard, maybe not working necessarily in the smart places.
We kind of look like the same that we were probably eight games ago (losing to Anaheim and San Jose twice). That’s disappointing … we know that we can hopefully respond the right way here come Tuesday in the last game of the homestand.”
