Life without captain Brady Tkachuk got off to a difficult start for the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators couldn’t get a save from backup goalie Leevi Merilainen, and as a result, they weren’t able to save themselves from an ugly 8-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night at the KeyBank Center.
Lars Eller, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson, and Tim Stutzle scored for the Senators, and that wasn’t nearly enough because Merilainen struggled mightily in the club’s third straight loss.
After battling back to cut the Sabres’ lead to 5-4 early in the third with goals from Eller and Pinto, Buffalo struck back by beating Merilainen twice in a span of 49 seconds when the Senators needed a save the most to secure the two points.
“There was some good and some bad,” said alternate captain Thomas Chabot. “We scored two big goals, and they scored right after. That just can’t happen. A lot of it is our own mistakes. It’s things we can fix as a group and as a team.”
This was a trap game for the Senators. The Sabres came into this one with a 0-3-0 record and had never lost four straight games in regulation to start the year in franchise history.
The Senators went winless against the Sabres last season with a 0-4-0 record and were outscored 17-5. The club’s last victory against the Sabres was on March 27, 2024, on the road.
Losing Tkachuk means that other players have to step up. What choice do the Senators have? If they want to get back to the playoffs for a second straight year, the rest of the players have to hold the fort until he returns.
Tkachuk could be out 25-to-30 games, which is more than a quarter of the season. Coach Travis Green shifted his lines around to see if the Senators could produce some more offence, and they actually did.
“It definitely didn’t feel like an 8-4 game. We spent a lot of time in their zone and some weird goals went in tonight,” Green said. “When you lose like that, you hate to say you played well, but we did a lot of good things tonight.”
BACKUP PLAN BACKFIRED
Merilainen, who had a bad camp, made his first start of the season and didn’t show any signs of improvement. He gave up seven goals on 26 shots.
“When you let in seven, it’s hard to say you had a good night,” Green said. “I feel for Leevi. He’s got to battle through it and be better next time.”
The Senators need Merilainen to be reliable. Through 40 minutes, he’d given up four goals on 12 shots, including the go-ahead goal by Alex Tuch and another by Jason Zucker.
He didn’t look great on a shorthanded goal that allowed the Sabres to tie it up 2-2 at 6:46 of the second. Merilainen misplayed the puck behind the net, which resulted in a giveaway, and Ryan McLeod fired it home easily.
Jack Quinn’s opening goal was the result of a lucky bounce for him and an unfortunate one for Merilainen. Quinn fired a shot from the slot that hit the glass and bounced off Merilainen’s back into the net.
That came at 8:01 of the first on the powerplay. It’s the fourth straight time the Senators have allowed the first goal.
We’ll see Linus Ullmark start against the Seattle Kraken in the second half of this back-to-back.
NOT SO SPECIAL
With or without Tkachuk, the Senators have to clean up their act on special teams if they expect to make the playoffs.
This club’s penalty killing and powerplay units are a cause for concern.
Not only did the Senators surrender a shorthanded effort during a horrible second period, but they also allowed the Sabres to go 3-for-3 with the man advantage. The club has surrendered eight powerplay goals in four games.
The Sabres scored four unanswered goals in a span of seven minutes and carried a 5-2 lead into the third period.
There is too much talent on this Ottawa team for that to happen, but this is the hole the Senators dug themselves. They don’t have a large margin for error and need to get on track.
AFTER FURTHER REVIEW
Sanderson wasn’t happy after having a goal called back against the Predators on Monday, after it was ruled that Stutzle interfered.
This time, Sanderson wasn’t denied. He scored his first of the season at 3:58 of the second period when a second effort in front allowed him to poke a puck through Alex Lyon’s legs.
The officials didn’t see that the puck was in on the power play, but both Sanderson and Eller celebrated. The replays showed the puck between Lyon’s skates over the goal line.
Buffalo Sabres center Peyton Krebs (19) and Ottawa Senators center Tim Stützle (18) collide along the boards during the second period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y.
“Video review confirmed no goaltender interference infractions occurred,” the NHL said in its decision.
Unfortunately, after that, the Senators came apart at the seams.
That was too bad because Stutzle tied it up 1-1 with his first of the season. He was alone in front, and he deflected a blast by Fabian Zetterlund from the blueline by Lyon on the glove side at 16:09 of the first.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com