Senators get off to a strong start despite being battered by injuries to key players

After a tumultuous summer that included trading captain Brady Tkachuk, the Ottawa Senators started the season without winger Andre Burakovsky, lost top defenseman Jake Sanderson to injury six shifts into opening night and won’t have forward William Eklund for the next two months after he underwent surgery to repair torn tendons in his left ankle.

“I feel like every game we have somebody going down,” leading scorer Tim Stützle said.

Ottawa has dressed 24 skaters — only Philadelphia has more — and already piled up more than 40 man-games lost to injury. Yet the Senators have won six of their first nine games to get the post-Tkachuk era off to a strong start.

“It’s been a lot,” coach Travis Green said. “But it’s a pretty focused group, a pretty determined group, and we’ve never been a team to talk about injuries or let it deter what we’re all about.”

Forward Shane Pinto pointed to positivity throughout the locker room. There are plenty of good vibes in Canada’s capital as a result.

“If we don’t have our game for a little bit of a stretch, I think we find it,” Pinto said. “It’s been pretty consistent. And, obviously, Linus has been pretty good.”

Linus Ullmark has been in net for all six victories. He ranks second in the NHL with a 1.33 goals-against average and .945 save percentage among goaltenders with at least four appearances.

The 33-year-old from Sweden has indeed been pretty good. He just doesn’t want to talk about it.

“I don’t really care about my start of the season,” Ullmark said last week after stopping 29 of 30 shots to beat New Jersey. “I think it’s good that we guys have won a whole lot of games now starting off the season. It brings a lot of confidence to our game.”

Depth has been tested and come through, especially on the blue line, which relies on 21-year-olds Carter Yakemchuk and Hoyt Stanley to play significant minutes in the absences of Sanderson, Artem Zub and Nikolas Matinpalo.

“You’ve got to have young players that can go into the lineup and play,” Green said. “Hoyt Stanley’s come a long way from training camp. Probably going into the year, didn’t expect him to be ready to play games, but he’s been fast-tracked by himself playing well and injuries.”

Green also deserves credit. The Senators made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons in charge and are again a contender.

On Monday, he was rewarded with an extension that keeps him under contract through the 2030-31 NHL season.

“When I was in the search to identify our head coach two years ago, it was clear to me that Travis had the qualities to move our team forward,” general manager Steve Staios said in a statement announcing the agreements with Green and multiple assistants. “I have watched him implement systems and structures that have reinforced my belief in his coaching abilities. We share the same vision and philosophy and are confident we can continue to build on our team.”

Stützle, who began the week tied for 11th in the league with 12 points, said he and his teammates trust the inexperienced players who are entering the lineup. The ability to plug and play is a credit to Green and his staff’s game plan and systems.

“There’s going to be mistakes out there by every single guy, but I think that we’ve done a good job kind of bailing each other out and helping each other,” Stützle said. “If we are structured, there’s not a lot a plays going to the inside. I think it’s good for us if we play detailed, and that can happen — mistakes out there — but we kind of cover them up.”

Part of making up for Tkachuk’s departure included trading for Eklund in a deal with San Jose and acquiring Burakovsky from Chicago. But much of the core, including new captain Thomas Chabot, has been together for quite some time and can draw from recent success.

“I think we built on it last year: just kind of being hard to play against,” Pinto said. “This year, we hit the ground running with it. We’ve just got to keep building on it.”

Ullmark praised Staios for accumulating talent since taking over control of hockey operations nearly three years ago, including prospects who have been pressed into duty sooner than expected and made this hot start possible.

“Once they get their chance, they take them,” Ullmark said. “It is going to be interesting to see going forward, as well, if we can keep this level up for the whole season.”

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