Senators vs. Penguins Showdown: Which Underdog Will Seize Victory on 2/2/2026?
Getting to know the Senators
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Drake Batherson – Tim Stutzle – Claude Giroux
Brady Tkachuk – Dylan Cozens – Ridley Greig
Nick Cousins – Shane Pinto – Michael Amadio
Stephen Halliday – Lars Eller – Fabian Zetterlund
DEFENSEMEN
Jake Sanderson / Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot / Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven / Jordan Spence
Goalies: Linus Ullmark and James Reimer
Potential scratches: Kurtis MacDermid, Nikolas Matinpalo
Injured Reserve: David Perron
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Ullmark started on Saturday stopping 26/27 shots in his first game back from a month-long personal leave of absence for mental health reasons. That battle was compounded by unfounded rumors via social media.
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Giroux, 38, doesn’t have a contract for next season. Not sure if he intends to retire or not but always a chance for someone in his position that tonight could be his last game playing against the Pens in Pittsburgh. Same could probably be pointed out for the aged former Penguins Perron and Eller in the last year of their contracts and the final visit to Pittsburgh on the season scheduled tonight (although Perron won’t be playing tonight due to injury).
Season stats
via hockeydb
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Ottawa’s an interesting team in that they’ve put the pieces together with several high draft picks, now it should be time to see what they can do. They’re not exactly young-young for an NHL team (everyone is 23+) and almost all of their core (Tkachuk, Batherson, Chabot, Sanderson, Stutzle) has all been around and together for 4-5-6 seasons now in a lot of cases. It looked like they might have been turning the corner when they qualified for the playoffs last year for the first time since Chris Kunitz bounced them in 2017, but it’s been right back down this season so far.
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As we’re about to discuss, there’s no mystery why the team is in the position they are in..
Key to the game: Exploiting Ottawa’s goaltending
It’s no exaggeration to say the Senators have had their season derailed by goaltending. Hockey is a complex sport where factors from several different areas all matter and add up, but in this instance it’s pretty simple: the Senators haven’t gotten enough goaltending to be competitive. With such a poor foundation to build upon, it’s just impossible to go anywhere.
Of course, the big hope is that the worst could be behind them if Ullmark is able to play up to his capabilities – he’s been one of the league’s better goalies in prior years with Boston and Buffalo. The physical tools and abilities are there, his step away from the team to get the mental areas under control could be the key to the season at this point for the Sens. They can’t keep up with those types of inputs (best xG defense, worst goaltending) and expect to go far.
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