Promising Start: Senators Claim Home Opener Against Defending Champs

The Ottawa Senators kicked off their season with an impressive 3-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. While the win showcases the potential of this young team, it also highlights areas needing improvement. From standout performances to late-game stamina concerns, here are the key takeaways from the Senators’ opening game of the 2024-2025 season.

From the good, the bad, to the ugly, here are my key takeaways from the Senators first game of the 2024-2025 season.

Welcome to the Linus Ullmark Show

The biggest light on this Ottawa team is also the biggest issue they addressed in the offseason. Adding Linus Ullmark to this roster makes the Senators significantly better. They haven’t had a goalie that could steal them games since the Hamburglar’s reign in 2015.

Ullmark had a Vezina year back in 2023 with the Bruins and if he can bring even a fraction of those wins to the Sens this year, they will be looking at a great improvement. If tonight’s opening game was any indication of how the long-time Bruin will perform in his new colours, Ottawa is in for a treat.

Ullmark put up 30 saves on 31 shots and had highlight-reel moments in the final period to key the Senators one goal ahead.

Obviously, he won’t steal the show every night, but for this team that is having an offensive burst (we’ll get to that later), as long as he puts up a solid performance each time he gets the start, the Senators will be in good shape.

Tim Stutzle and the Top Line

You always want your top line to perform, and the Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux line did just that tonight. Though mainly led by Tim Stutzle in this one, the line showed that they will continue to be the key piece in this offense.

The former third overall pick had two goals in the home opener, including one on the power play to open the scoring for the Sens.

The first power play unit getting the job done is exactly what the doctor ordered for this team. Although they went 1-3 on the man advantage this game, that is already in improvement on last year’s power play struggles.

Last season, the Sens sat 23rd in the league at an 18% success rate on the power play. Over the entire season, Stutzle netted only one goal for the special teams. Having already tied that number, fans can only hope that the effectiveness will continue throughout the season.

Pinto-Perron Connection

Another offensive highlight for the Sens in this game was the Perron-Pinto-Amadio line. Combining for the second goal of the game, this line had many quality scoring opportunities. Specifically, Shane Pinto and David Perron, the young talent of Pinto combined with the experience Perron saw them creating some dangerous looks for themselves.

Pinto especially entering what will hopefully be his second full season was showing off just how big of an asset he can be to this team. His confidence on the ice is something we haven’t seen out of the twenty-three-year-old center yet.

Pairing him with Perron and Amadio will likely help him develop as a forward, and hone the skill he so clearly has. In his last full season (2022-2023), Pinto put up 35 points in 82 games, however, the Senators will likely be leaning on him to bring it to another level this year. Barring injury, which has cut his season short in the past, we could be looking at a career year out of Pinto.

Getting the Body Involved

The final positive that can be drawn out of this game is the physicality the Sens played with. Keeping in mind the last game they had against the Panthers, it’s no surprise this one got a little chippy, that seems to be the way the “Tkachuk Bowl” goes every year.

However, the Senators were not only laying the body in this one but sacrificing it too. The Senators combined for 31 blocks tonight’s game, for reference, Florida tallied nine.

Ottawa has not only assembled a team of prospects that have finesse on offense but also a group of guys who aren’t afraid to get in front of shots and put it all on the line. Ridly Greig is usually first in line to block a shot, and Jake Sanderson had a key block in the dying minutes of this one to keep it a one-goal game.

This quality combined with the goal-scoring abilities of the offense makes for an all-around team that can prove to be difficult to beat.

The only glaring issue in this game, they ran out of gas really quickly.

Late Game Stamina

The Senators started this game off in complete control, sending it to the first intermission up 2-0. However, after that, it was all Florida Panthers. If it weren’t for Ullmark, this game would’ve been a completely different story.

Coming out of the first period, Ottawa led in shots 15-8, however, they would be outshot in the next two, finishing the game being outshot 31-30.

In the second period especially, the ice looked like it was tilted toward Ullmark. The Panthers completely dominated possession. Their one goal came from Gustav Forsling with a shot from the point that made it past a double screen to beat Ullmark.

That seemed to be the scouting report on the Ottawa goalie, one that the Panthers were likely familiar with. The bulk of their scoring opportunities came with people crowing the net. Something that can be hard to defend, especially when Ottawa’s D got caught out for a two-minute long shift on occasion.

Although the Senators were able to hold on in this one, they will need to work on playing a full 60 minutes if they want to be real contenders this season.

Overall, this was a great first showing for the Ottawa Senators. While they may have some things to work on following the 3-1 home opener win, things seem to be looking up in the nation’s Capital. Not even to mention that the Canadian Tire Center was buzzing tonight! I’m sure fans will look for that same energy to be in the building come April.