Breaking Down the Ottawa Senators Massive Road Trip

As of today, December 18th, the Ottawa Senators are in a playoff spot! That was helped by Linus Ullmark’s third shutout of the season last night, in the Senators 3-0 victory against the Seattle Kraken. While the Sens are in the playoffs as of now, if I’m able to write that come January 8th, the Senators will have officially shown themselves to be a legitimate playoff contender. That’s because last night they started their gruelling nine game road trip. To put that in perspective, their second longest road trip this season is only four games, from February 3rd-8th. Let’s dive into the details of what lies ahead for the Senators as they head on the road.

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Senators on the Road This Season

Here’s the bad news: the Ottawa Senators are a pedestrian 6-7-1 on the road this season. They were 16-23-2 last season, and 15-21-5 the year before. Add it all up and they’re 14 games under .500 on the road in that time. They’re actually 17 games over .500 at home during that time, with a 55-38-6 record. Essentially, the numbers show the Senators to be a playoff caliber team at home, but a bottom dweller on the road.

The good news, is that the Senators have played a lot better on the road recently. It’s a small sample size, but they just had a big win last night. Last Friday, they went into Carolina and shut out the Hurricanes on Saturday. They were so-so in California, going 1-1-1 on that road trip. Prior to that they also had back-to-back impressive road games against Toronto and Boston, beating both teams in a couple of rare November games that went their way.

Simply put, the Senators cannot go back to their struggling ways on the road during this trip. Coming out of these nine games with only a couple of wins would put them in a tough spot as they make their way into mid-January.

Breaking Down the Road Trip

The Senators have a 3-2 record so far this season against the teams still to come on this road trip. There are no easy games in the NHL, but some are harder than others. The Senators will play five in a row during this road trip against Vancouver, Edmonton Winnipeg, Minnesota and Dallas. Those are five of the West’s top teams, all sitting in a playoff spot as of today. Their easier games come early and then late. They play Calgary next, and St. Louis and Detroit to finish it. It also should be noted that after the third game of the road trip against Edmonton on the 22nd, they have a bit of a Christmas break, not playing again until December 28th.

The toughest part of the road trip has to be playing two nights in a row. The Senators will do so three times: December 21st and 22nd (at Vancouver and Edmonton), December 28th and 29th (at Winnipeg and Minnesota), and January 2nd and 3rd (at Dallas and St. Louis). This seems like a fairly cruel schedule, but the time for excuses is over. The Senators need to find a way to earn enough points during this stretch to remain in, or close to, a playoff spot.

The good news is that will lead to the Ottawa Senators having a nice stretch of home games to end the season- they play eight of their last nine games at home to finish the season. Hopefully, they’ll be in the thick of the playoff race at that point in time. This next stretch of road games will play a large factor in determining that.