Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators Postgame: Shane Pinto Hurt in Loss
The Ottawa Senators saw their five game win streak come to an end tonight, losing Shane Pinto to an injury in the process.

Playing on back-to-back nights is always tough. It’s even worse when you’re on the road, and the home team didn’t have to play the night before. What about having to work through that without your number two centre, and then losing your number three centre early in the game to an injury? Well, that’s the battle the Ottawa Senators faced tonight, all the while taking on a Tampa Bay Lightning team trying to catch them in the standings. The Senators did their best to fight through the adversity, but couldn’t quite get the job done. Final score: Lightning 4, Senators 3. Let’s dive into the details.
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Shane Pinto Injury
Having played less than three minutes in this game, Pinto was forced to leave after taking some awkward contact on a hit in the first period. He seemed to be favouring his left arm/shoulder when he headed off. If there are two things that Senators fans have seen enough of over the last few years, it’s Josh Norris and Shane Pinto skating off the ice hurt. Norris, of course, is out for the next few weeks with a mid-body injury that he suffered at the end of the Sens win against the Wild.
It was one day before that Wild game that I wrote an article about the Senators success when Stützle, Norris, and Pinto are all in the lineup. Well, sure enough, we won’t be seeing them together for the next few weeks, at least. Time will tell with Pinto, but this is certainly a frustrating situation, just as the Senators were playing their best hockey of the season.
Linus Ullmark’s Strong Return
Perhaps the brightest takeaway from this game was that Ullmark played for the first time since December 22nd, and he played quite well. He stopped 34 of the 37 shots that he faced. That included a few stretches where the Lightning thoroughly dominated the Senators. It’s been so long since he’s played but let’s not forget his brilliance before his injury. He had won seven straight starts before getting hurt, giving up two goals or less in each game. Now with Norris out and Pinto’s status unknown, the Sens will need Ullmark to step up in a big way over the next few weeks.
Additional Notes
With Nick Jensen returning tonight, some were upset to see Nikolas Matinpalo come out of the lineup instead of Travis Hamonic. This didn’t surprise me in the least. With Jensen out, Hamonic moved up into the top four. The same thing happened when Zub was out. Matinpalo has spent much of the season in the AHL. Yes, he’s had a nice stretch of games. He’s also been asked to eat up just 12 and a half minutes per game in that time. Travis Green isn’t the first coach to give the veteran the first chance, and he won’t be the last. Now, if Hamonic has a few more rough games like he had tonight, maybe then Matinpalo gets his chance.
Claude Giroux had an impactful game. He scored a goal, won 13 of his 17 faceoffs, and played over 22 minutes. That included over three minutes on both the penalty kill and the power play. Despite all that, he’ll be thinking about the one he didn’t score. Partway through the third Andrei Vasilevskiy absolutely robbed him, coming across and making a great pad save. The good news for Giroux and the Ottawa Senators is they’ll have their chance at revenge. They’ll take on the Lightning yet again on Thursday.