Ottawa fans have had it rough, but if they've been waiting for the Senators to really make them feel something, Monday's win over the Detroit Red Wings was a night to savor. Just check out these clips from midway through the game, right after the Sens broke the 0-0 tie. Linus Ullmark, a goalie who's been shaky but ultimately an asset in his first year with the club, whipped the house into a frenzy with a showcase of quick reflexes and lucky breaks. I especially love the flying fist in the crowd that breaks the camera's sight line after the second clearance. You can imagine the person it's attached to shouting "Yes! Hahaha! Yes!"
The Red Wings, who are scrapping with Ottawa in the East's wild card race, had an edge on the home team in every area but one: Linus Ullmarks. The Sens' 1-0 advantage in that category ultimately delivered them a 2-1 win.
This was a desperation game for Detroit. They were awful to start the season, and then, by only really changing their coach, they manufactured a pretty sick hot streak. But they'd lost five in a row heading into this one, most recently 5-2 at home to the Capitals after they'd led 2-0, and their fans were losing too—losing patience. The Wings needed to make up ground against their wild card rivals, and they tried their darndest. They registered 49 shots, their most in a game since 2012, but Ullmark was there to stop all but one of them. They kept coming and coming at the goalie until the final whistle and beyond, when a belated and unofficial Lucas Raymond shot crossed the line about a second too late.
"We should’ve put the puck in the net a long time before that,” Raymond said of his non-goal.
When the referee announced the results of the review, there was nothing for Detroit to celebrate, besides the fact that they get to play Buffalo next. If they lose that, they're really in trouble. Maybe they could try firing the coach again.
The Senators had the luxury of the slightly better, just barely playoff-worthy record heading into this one, but they are by no means relaxed. They've steadied the ship in the aftermath of a five-game losing streak that stretched across the international break, most triumphantly with an overtime comeback against another key foe in the Rangers. But this is still a team feeling do-or-die pressure every night. After seven straight seasons out of the playoffs, earning that underdog seed could mean the world to these young players (and Claude Giroux). That was what I inferred when I saw Brady Tkachuk get tkachoked up following the deadline deal that sent Josh Norris to Buffalo and brought Dylan Cozens to Canada's capital—something like, We went through all that adversity together, not just on the ice but through his shoulder surgery and the bleakness of the COVID season, too, and he's not going to be able to enjoy it when we finally succeed.
But the Sens are betting that Cozens was a guy not being used to his full potential on the laughingstock Sabres, and he did everything he could do endear himself to his new teammates—especially his goalie—in his first game with them. With five minutes remaining and the Senators on the power play in a 1-1 affair, Tkachuk worked the puck out of the corner and onto Jake Sanderson's stick in the slot. The 22-year-old defenseman's 37 assists is second on the team, and he earned this latest one with his patience. Sanderson saw Cozens set for a shot in the lower circle to his left, and he got the pass over thataway. Cam Talbot was way too far out of his crease to do anything but admire the puck as it whistled by him for the deciding goal.
There was a time when I would have called a win like this "Getting Sens-ed"—when Ottawa's still-developing prospects could infuriate an obviously superior foe by either putting all their inconsistent skills together for one randomly transcendent 60 minutes or squeaking out an inexplicable two points through sheer stupid hockey. This certainly had all the hallmarks of Sensiness: a ridiculous goalie performance, an overwhelming shot deficit, a soft penalty leading to the game-winner. But it's not the same when Ottawa sits in such an enviable position. No longer are they the scrappy gang of youths getting one over on some other team whose games actually matter. As it stands now, this is a playoff squad, beating a non-playoff bunch of also-rans. Even head coach Travis Green is getting into the spirit, speaking the p-word aloud in his postgame session.
"At some point, there’s going to be games—you see it in playoff hockey—where you get outplayed bad and your goalie just steals you a game, and he did tonight for sure.”
Senators ... playoffs. They're closer than you think!
