Frustrations, Injuries, And a Tough Decision Highlight Senators’ Exit Availability

“Frustration” clearly was the word of the day during Ottawa Senators’ player exit availability at the Canadian Tire Centre Thursday.

Since coming within one goal of reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2017, the team has failed to earn a postseason berth in seven seasons. The current core group, as it’s become known, featuring Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, Drake Batherson, and Tim Stützle, among them, has yet to step foot on the ice for a Senators’ playoff game.

The Senators’ captain led the way in speaking about his disappointment shortly after completing his season exit meeting with general manager Steve Staios.

“It went by so quick, now we have six months to obviously miss the game. I don’t want to be cliche, but I was thinking about it this last week and just realize how much I love playing in the NHL. I think what hurts the most is not being able to live out your dreams of your job for a long period of time,” said Tkachuk.

“So yeah, I think that’s what makes it so tough going into the summer is; that looking around and playing in front of this fan base and kind of doing what you love, it’s a reason why we do it.”

Two seasons ago Tkachuk and Chabot spoke during their exit meetings with then-Senators’ GM Pierre Dorion regarding adding players in order to get their club into the playoffs. The summer of 2022 became known as “The Summer of Pierre” when Dorion acquired forwards Alex DeBrincat via trade from the Chicago Blackhawks and signed former Philadelphia Flyers’ captain Claude Giroux as a unrestricted free agent.

When asked about his meeting with Staios, Tkachuk was forthright.

“I mean, whether it’s how vocal I want to be, versus not, everybody knows I just finished Year Six and haven’t done a thing. haven’t played in those meaningful playoff games that I’ve imagined and the rest of the group has imagined.”

The 24 year-old who confirmed he’ll represent the United States along with Senators’ teammates Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson at the World Championships taking place in Prague, has faith in the Senators’ management group led by Staios.

“I have full faith and trust in Steve, the rest of the management, Mr. Andlauer, and put all my faith in them…Let the people in charge make those decisions. And for me, all I can control is making sure I’m ready to have my best year next year. It’s sick and tired of losing. I don’t want to be going home in April anymore. It’s frustrating. I’m disappointed at the end of the day, just disappointed.”

Claude Giroux echoed Tkachuk’s sentiments, “I think it’s frustrating because we know what kind of team we can be. We know our potential. Yes, we are a very young team. Let’s say that our game is going to grow, we need to help each other better – play more as a team. And it’s about being a pro, whether it’s a goal against or goals for, a loss or win, doesn’t matter, got to keep keep grinding and keep pushing.”

Giroux, who eclipsed 20 goals for the 11th time in his long career, also touched on the Senators’ search for a new head coach, ” A lot of good coaches out there obviously, and I’m sure Steve and his staff are looking at all the possibilities. But you know there’s a lot of guys out there I don’t know, some guys that have coached me before. There’s no coach with a special recipe, it’s about being able to have a coach with the system and us players to be able to play the way he wants us to play. We need to be consistent in giving that result. Again, it’s on the players.”

Thursday’s availability was also an opportunity to shed some light on injuries to Thomas Chabot and Tim Stützle.

Limited to 51 games this season, Chabot was out of the lineup for four extended periods, a fractured tibia being the worst of the defenseman’s injuries.

Having to leave the final regular season game after sustaining a hit from the Bruins’ Andrew Peeke was just par for the course for the 27-year-old, who aggravated a previous injury.

Chabot noted he felt “alright” after the Boston game – adding, “It’s something that we were aware of and something that we’ve got to deal with here in the next couple of days and hopefully doesn’t drag on too long and leads me to having a good summer.”

Chabot said surgery isn’t likely but did not elaborate on the exact nature of his injury.

It was a year of frustration from start to finish for Stützle. Multiple injuries saw Stützle’s point total decrease from 90 points in 2022-23 to 70 this season.

A wrist injury sustained in the Senators’ fourth game lingered most of the 2023-24 campaign, as did shoulder soreness, which was re-aggravated six games ago after the 22-year-old was driven into the boards by Panthers’ blue liner Niko Mikkola.

Stützle touched base on his injury, “My shoulder, I didn have an issue last year where I missed a couple games, but I was great for a whole year. Obviously, that hit kind of made it worse again. So there was no rush for me getting to play games. So obviously, I would have hoped these games were meaningful, so I probably would have played those games.”

“I mean, throughout the league, I think there’s not a lot of guys playing healthy for 82 games. So there was always guys being hurt all year, but obviously it’s been really frustrating. I mean, when you’re really hurt, your brain is going, but your body doesn’t want to do other things. And obviously, that’s really frustrating. But that shouldn’t be an excuse. It just wasn’t good enough throughout the year, and I’m gonna work really hard in the  summer and be better next year.”

Injuries aside. Stützle made an effort to work on improving his 200-foot game this season, telling Full Press Hockey, “I think every coach in the NHL wants all the top players to play a 200-foot game as well. I think there’s no coach in the league who wants their players to cheat or cheat for cheap offense. I feel like I play my best games when I’m when I’m on top of the defense, not only getting goals, but wins. Those are the most important. So yeah, I think if I play my best games defensively, I think I always get a lot of chances and play well.”

During Senators’ “bag day” availability, Shane Pinto displayed his maturity in speaking on how he personally handled his 41-game suspension and what his message is to others, especially after the Raptors Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA this week.

“I just tried to do the best I can with the situation. I had and try to stay positive throughout it all and you know, I think I did a good job handling adversity. I think it’s just part of life. It’s not gonna be easy always. And that was my mindset going into it. So took it one day at a time. That was definitely a long road but you just got to take one day at a time and I did that,” Pinto explained.

“Yeah, obviously, that’s a serious matter. Obviously being a lifetime ban, that’s no joke. But you know, I learned my lessons from it. I hope other people around in our league learn their lesson from that situation and my situation, and hopefully, they don’t make the same mistakes. So hopefully, young people learn from it, and they take it for what it is and don’t do what we did.”

As for Jakob Chychrun who played a full 82-games for the first time in his eight-year career, the d-man is a pending unrestricted free agent beyond the 2024-25 campaign. The belief is several teams called upon Chychrun at the trade deadline.

Chychrun, who spent part of his youth residing in Ottawa and vacations at his family cottage west of the Canadian Tire Centre, may be the piece required for Staios to fill his need for a veteran player, a right-shot D or possibly a goaltender, which the club may seek to add.

While he’s not eligible to sign a contract extension until July 1, when asked if he’d like to remain in Ottawa long-term, Chychrun said, “It’s a tough question. I mean, I don’t know I haven’t thought about. I honestly have not thought about that. I know I have one more year left. And, like I said, there hasn’t even been talks about extension or anything. So, I haven’t really gotten my head wrapped around that idea. So it’s tough for me to sit here and act like I have. I’ve to kind of take it day by day and see if we have those talks and go from there.”