Shane Pinto scores an NHL-leading 7TH goal in his 6th game to start the year. #GoSensGo He's been on a different level so far, my favorite player to watch for Ottawa so far!
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Pre-Scout: Oilers face Senators team struggling to keep pucks out of their own net
Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
Oct 21, 2025, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 21, 2025, 10:40 EDT
The Edmonton Oilers are struggling, and the Ottawa Senators could be just what the doctor ordered to remedy the ailing offence, but they’ll have to be mindful of a still potent Sens attack.
Entering the season, Ottawa was looking to prove they were an ascending team, a playoff staple after earning a wildcard berth with a 45-30-7 record.
Ottawa enters Tuesday night’s game with a 2-4 record, but have allowed a ghastly 30 goals against, even more inflated by a penalty kill that is just a hair over 60 per cent.
The temperature is high in the nation’s capital, particularly as captain Brady Tkachuk is out for six to eight weeks from a thumb injury sustained on Oct. 13.
“A lot of things that we took pride in last year that we were good in, we weren’t good in tonight,” head coach Travis Green said Saturday postgame.
Green’s comments came in light of a 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders: one where the Senators blew three separate leads 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 and muffed at least a point with Anders Lee scoring with 63 seconds left in regulation.
A collective save percentage of .814 underscores a team that is not defending well and not getting good goaltending at the moment. They were “too loose” with the lead, Green believes.
Linus Ullmark is in the first year of his four-year, $8.25M annual pact he signed in October 2024, and when healthy in 2024-25, was a key contributor.
He went 25-14-3 with a .909 save percentage to help the Sens snap an eight-year playoff drought.
This year? It’s flashes and moments, but he’s 2nd last in Goals Saved Above Expected in all situations with a -7.2 for netminders who’ve played one game, according to MoneyPuck. At 5-on-5, he’s second last, as well. Only Dustin Wolf has been worse in these categories.
Presumably, the Sens will go with Ullmark, as expected backup Leevi Meriläinen was sent to the minors after a disastrous 8-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, calling up Mads Sogaard.
Sens can score
The Senators aren’t losing because they can’t score. They have a lot of firepower up front, scoring 3.17 goals per game, and are sixth in the NHL in Expected Goals Percentage at 5-on-5.
Led by Shane Pinto, there will be lots of contract talk for the 24-year-old soon-to-be restricted free agent, who leads the NHL in goals with seven so far – none of which are on the power play – and an assist. And although it doesn’t count, he clinched a shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken last Thursday with a third-round goal.
He is coming off career highs last year with 21 goals and 37 points, and this scoring stretch to begin the season is the best in franchise history.
He centered a line with Claude Giroux and Michael Amadio at practice on Monday, as Green appears to be blendering combinations ahead of the Oilers. Pinto this year has played the most with Giroux and Ridley Grieg.
Pinto is also getting a lot of ice-time: second amongst forwards with the Sens, only behind Tim Stützle.
The German wunderkind is just 23 years old and achieved a career-high 90 points in 2022-23. Since then, he’s collected totals of 70 points and 79 points, respectively, leading the Senators in scoring two of the last three seasons.
He’ll be expected to shoulder the load with Tkachuk’s departure.
The Senators returned a large percentage of last year’s playoff team – 15 of their 16 leading scorers from 2024-25 (excluding Josh Norris, who they traded for Dylan Cozens), and that was Adam Gaudette, who signed in free agency with San Jose.
Speaking of Cozens, he seems to have a new lease on life after the deadline day trade from Buffalo, which sent oft-injured Josh Norris and depth defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker the other way.
Finishing last season with 16 points in 21 games, Cozens has three goals and two assists in six games this year. Pretty good.
The former seventh overall pick in 2019 has been looking for consistency (and health) since achieving a career high 68 points in 2022-23.
Travis Green may try to load up a line of Stützle-Cozens-Batherson, which has been played together for 8:36 over two games, and generated a goal 5-on-5.
Notes
- Fabian Zetterlund was the other key addition at last year’s deadline, but he can’t seem to put the pieces together. The 26-year-old had 36 points in 64 games when acquired, then finished the slate with just five points in the final 20 contests. He’s got some speed and skill, but has played with a wide variety of linemates this year in a search for chemistry.
- The Ottawa D core is very young. Five Senators defencemen who’ve played this year are either 24 or younger, or have played 100 or fewer regular-season games: Jake Sanderson, Jordan Spence, Tyler Kleven, Donovan Sebrango, and Nikolas Matinpalo.
- Jordan Spence was a quiet addition from the Los Angeles Kings, as Oilers fans may recall his goal in Game 6 to try to spark a comeback. He was acquired for a third- and sixth-round pick, but was largely sheltered in the post-season. He has four assists already this year, after a sleek 28 points last year, all for the price of $1.5 million against the cap. An RFA this year, there may be some doghouse residency worries, though. He wasn’t included in the practice lines on Monday, was healthy scratched in the season opener, and was outbattled for the puck for Lee’s GWG on Saturday.
- Ottawa was 27-11-3 at home last season, their most home wins in a season since checks notes …. 2005-06?! It was their third-highest total of home wins in franchise history. So far this year: 1-2.
- The Senators are winning a lot of faceoffs. Their faceoff win percentage is 61.5 percent, the best in the NHL right now. That is 5.6 percent higher than the second-best Vegas Golden Knights. For reference, the Oilers are 10th in the league at 52.8 percent.
- The Oilers went 9-0 against the Sens in the all-Canadian division of 2020-21, and the winning trend for the Oilers in this head-to-head has maintained with Edmonton 5-2-1 vs. the Sens since then.
- By the way, remember Xavier Bourgault? Of course you do. Not to relitigate the 2021 draft, but Bourgault, as a member of the Belleville Senators, compiled just 12 goals, 14 assists, and 26 points in 61 AHL games last year. After re-signing a one-year, two-way contract in the summer, he has two points in four games this year in Belleville, but the big club seems a long way off for the 22-year-old. So far, Roby Jarventie and 4th rounder selection David Lewandowski (15 points in 10 games with the Saskatoon Blades this season) trend better than Bourgault.