The Senstennial's October Retrospective

Ottawa Senators Nick Cousins (21) celebrates his third period goal with teammates Tim Stützle (18), Thomas Chabot (72) and David Perron (57) against the Boston Bruins in NHL hockey action in Ottawa on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

As Halloween fans everywhere celebrate the grand finale of “spooky season”, Ottawa Senators fans can breathe a sigh of relief that their team’s record is not a source of fright. Despite a shaky start, including three losses out of four games to start the 2025-26 season and the injury to captain Brady Tkachuk, the Senators finished the first month of the season with their heads firmly above water.

Following last night’s shootout win over the beleaguered Calgary Flames, the Senators are 6-5-1 with a .542% heading into November. That’s good enough for third place in the Atlantic Division. Even more encouraging is that the turnaround has been made possible by the team’s other star players stepping up in their captain’s absence. Tim Stützle now has 5 goals and 13 points in 12 GP. Fans can thank assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson for encouraging Stützle to fix his tape job on his stick partway through the game against Boston on Monday night. His two goals in the third period helped the Senators come away with a big 7-2 win over their division rivals. Drake Batherson has made a splash since his debut after a three game absence to start the season. His 13 points in 9 GP are tied with Stützle for the team lead. Jake Sanderson, Shane Pinto, and Dylan Cozens are all off to strong starts and have made important contributions to the team’s recent uptick in form.

Most importantly of all, starting goaltender Linus Ullmark is finding his feet in the Senators crease. Ullmark has been better than a .900 SV% in three of his past five starts, with only one regulation loss during that stretch. The Swede’s 5-4-1 record, with a .863 SV% and 3.36 GAA, is unspectacular to be sure. Leevi Merilainen and Ullmark have had rough outings, with both goaltenders having given up 7 goals in a game this season. It seems that history is repeating itself a bit with the Senators and their goalies allowing the first goal of the game on the first or second shot 10 out of 12 times this season. Merilainen’s start against the Sabres inspired worry and doubts but his game against Boston proved that he is capable of being a calming presence in net, not overcomplicating his movements and being positionally sound. Ullmark has improved his stats as the season has progressed but the trend of needing a lot of runway for him to find his form is becoming old quickly. The Sens haven’t done him any favours in most cases with defensive breakdowns, open lanes for the opponent to drive the slot, or screening him. Overall, the Sens goaltending was fine in October but it’s trending in the right direction.

Considering the team’s history of digging themselves a hole before the end of the first month of the season, finishing the month a game and a half above .500% feels like a victory. Doing otherwise in a month when the team faced the likes of Buffalo, Calgary, and Chicago certainly would have felt like a loss. November will bring new challenges, including games against perennial heavyweights like the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars, as well as teams that appear to be on the rise like the Utah Mammoth, Los Angeles Kings, and Anaheim Ducks. But it will be the three games against division rivals, starting with tomorrow’s grudge match away at Montreal, that will be the true test. If the Senators can come away with a win, and add another two more against the Bruins throughout the rest of the month, the team will be setting itself up for success down the stretch. 

To do that, the team is going to have to continue to improve in key areas. Special teams have been a mixed bag thus far in 2025-26. The Senators Power Play (28.9%) has been firing as of late and is sixth in the NHL. But the Penalty Kill (62.2%), is 31st out of 32. This is going to have to improve for the Senators to maintain a consistent run of results. The team’s overall SV% (.846%) is still below league average (.889%) and is also going to need to be better. Ullmark and backup Merilainen have been better in the last week or two, but will need to be consistently so to help the team strengthen its hold on a playoff spot. 

There are enough positives heading into month two to give Senators fans hope that last season’s playoff berth was not a fluke. The team can hopefully benefit from Tkachuk’s return from injury after surgery on his thumb. An optimistic timeline, based on the projected 6-8 weeks, could see Tkachuk come back into the lineup before the end of November. If the Senators are still comfortably above .500 when their captain does take to the ice again, it will bode well for the team’s prospects this season.