The Senators returned home from another successful — albeit, short — road trip late Monday night and will be back in action on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m., when they welcome the St. Louis Blues to Canadian Tire Centre.
The Senators have won three straight games heading into Tuesday’s game, the latest a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
“I thought we really played a real good game, and I thought the second period was one of our better periods of the year. We missed a lot of good chances from inside. We came away with two goals [in the period]. Probably could have had a few more,” said Travis Green after that win.
Green will meet the media ahead of the game and provide lineup updates for Tuesday’s game. The Senators finished Monday’s game with five defencemen after Nikolas Matinpalo was sent into the boards midway through the first period by Anthony Mantha, who received a five-minute major for boarding on the play.
“Pretty obvious what the injury is, they’ll wait and see how he feels tomorrow, but you know, the refs got the right call,” said Green.
“We probably need to sage our locker room a bit for the D’s to stay healthy,” said Linus Ullmark postgame. “It’s just unlucky. I feel bad for Manti… hopefully he’s alright, nothing serious, and he’s back tomorrow.”
Ullmark saved 29 of 30 shots in the win, improving to 5-0-0 on the season. He credited Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios with the work he’s done over the past three seasons for the success the Senators have had despite going so far down the depth chart on defence.
“Starts at the top. Steve brought in a lot of good guys, a lot of good players. We’ve got young defencemen as well that [are] in the minors. Once they get their chance[s], they take them. So it's fun to see that sort of thing as well,” said Ullmark.
“You know, [Hoyt] Stanley has been playing really well, really solid out there. Same thing with Yak, doing a lot of good things. So it's going to be interesting to see going forward as well, if we can keep this level up for the whole season.
“But you know, we’ve just got to take one day at a time. Enjoy this one tonight, and then tomorrow we got St. Louis at home. We’ve just got to recharge as much as we possibly can for that one tomorrow.”
