5 Takeaways From Ottawa Senators’ First 5 Games

The Ottawa Senators are off to another one of their shaky starts, notching just two victories – one an overtime win – in their first five games. Before the shootout win against the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 16, many of the Senators’ faithful were threatening to light trash can fires across Bytown if the club didn’t take quick action to right the ship. Among their many helpful suggestions on social media were firing head coach Travis Green, making immediate blockbuster trades and blowing up the goaltending duo of Linus Ullmark and Leevi Merilainen.

Yes – there’s no question that the Senators have struggled so far in the 2025-26 season. But we’re only five games into the season. All is yet to be lost!

So, here are five thoughts after five games on what’s gone wrong for the Ottawa Senators.

Senators’ Goaltending Needs to Improve – Fast

Many say Ottawa is where good goaltending goes to die. And let’s face it, with the exception of the Kraken game, the Senators’ goaltending has been a blazing dumpster fire. In all, the Senators have allowed 25 goals in these matchups. No other team in the NHL has come even close to allowing that many goals to this point in the season.

What’s worrying is the games where the Senators allowed four or more goals. On Oct. 9, the Tampa Bay Lightning lit up the Senators’ goal lamp four times. Against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 11, they allowed six markers. In their humiliating loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 15, the puck crossed their goal line eight times. 

You don’t win in the NHL if you allow opponents to score four goals or more. This is in part why the Senators’ starting goaltender Linus Ullmark has a save percentage (SV%) so far this season of .862 and a goals-against average (GAA) of 3.72. It isn’t any better with his sidekick Leevi Merilainen, who notched a SV% of .731 in the 8-4 blowout against the Sabres. 

All of this is the stuff of minor leaguers.  If this goalie tandem can’t turn things around – and fast – president of hockey operations and general manager (GM) Steve Staios will be looking at making some changes to his goal crease. In the short term, that could mean calling up Belleville Senators puck stoppers Mads Sogaard or Hunter Shepard. In the longer term, it could mean acquiring proven NHL goalie talent in a trade.

Senators’ Top Six Can’t Score

In their first five tilts, the Senators have managed to notch 15 goals – just above the league average of 14 at this early point in the season. What’s noteworthy is that what had started out as the Senators’ bottom six (Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, Claude Giroux, Nick Cousins, Lars Eller and Olle Lycksell) scored nine of them. Of those, Pinto has scored six, making him, for now, the NHL’s top goal scorer.

Before he was injured in the game against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 13, captain Brady Tkachuk earned credit for just three assists. Tim Stutzle has underwhelmed with just one goal in the team’s first five matchups, while Fabian Zetterlund has precisely none to his credit. The second line of Dylan Cozens, David Perron and Michael Amadio has combined for just three goals. Cozens notched two of them. Drake Batherson missed the first three games due to injury but has marked up the scoresheet for just a single point since his return to play against the Sabres.