Ottawa Senators head into 10-day break on a high after win Motor City

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After leaving the Motor City in their dust, the Ottawa Senators spent Thursday heading their separate ways for the National Hockey League all-star break.

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While captain Brady Tkachuk will suit up for the fourth all-star game of his career on Saturday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the only glimpse most of his teammates will get of his participation is if the television at the swim-up bar in the hotel pool happens to be showing it at the time.

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Coming off a 3-2 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings, the Senators won’t gather as a group again until 4 p.m. next Thursday when they practice to prepare to face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Battle of Ontario on Feb. 10 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

The Senators head into the break with a 6-2-2 record in their past 10 games and the club now has a 9-10-2 record in 21 games under interim coach Jacques Martin.

Heading into the break on a positive note was important for the Senators and at least they can feel good about themselves after Shane Pinto redirected a pass from Thomas Chabot by Detroit goalie Alex Lyon at 2:03 of OT. The club closed out January with a 5-7-2 record.

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“When you look at our last seven or eight games, we’ve had a pretty good stretch here,” Martin told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “There’s only the one game (a 7-2 loss to the Rangers on Saturday) where we didn’t get a point.

“I think we’re going in the right direction, we seem to be maturing and we seem to be able to handle the ups and downs of a game better. Technically, we’ve better at limiting the number of goals against and scoring chances.”

At 16 points behind the Wings for the final wild-card spot in the East, the club little to no chance of making the playoffs, but Tkachuk isn’t about to wave the white flag on this season.

“We’ve played pretty solid hockey to kind of finish it off and now it’s about rest, regroup and be ready for a big push and prove a lot of people wrong after the break,” said Tkachuk, who scored his 22nd goal of the season to give the Senators a 2-1 lead at 14:32 of the second.

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According to sportsclubstats.com, a site that does a good job tracking playoff odds and we’re told is often viewed by the owners of NHL teams, the Senators have 0.8% chance of making the playoffs with a 20-25-2 record and only 42 points heading into the break.

“It’s huge. Everybody wants to go into the break with an open mind and feeling good about their game,” Chabot said. “Lately, we’ve been playing some really good hockey and to finish on a note like this with two wins in a row is good for this team and everybody’s morale.

“Everybody’s looking forward to taking a little break to help out the bumps and bruises that everybody has from the season.”

The Senators can’t control their odds of making the playoffs, but they can control the effort they give in the final 35 games when they return.

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“We don’t play for 10 days, so you don’t really have anything to save it for,” Tkachuk said. “A lot of guys are going to beach or the ocean so they can have a couple (of drinks) after a big win.”

NO UPDATE ON SANDERSON

The Senators finished the game with five defenceman after Jake Sanderson left with seven minutes remaining in the first with an undisclosed lower body ailment. He left after getting bumped in the corner by Detroit captain Dylan Larkin and there was no update following the game.

Losing Sanderson for any length of time would be a huge blow. He has been the club’s best and most consistent blueliner all season. The club will have veteran Travis Hamonic back from his lower body injury after the break, so the Senators shouldn’t have to recall anybody.

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Sanderson’s departure meant Chabot played 30 minutes and 43 seconds while Jakob Chychrun clocked 28:37 against the Wings.

“It’s tough, especially losing Jake, who has been one of our better defencemen, but I thought the other guys did a very good job” Martin said. “They worked hard. Our forwards came back and helped win the game.”

The Senators will also have goaltender Anton Forsberg back from his right groin injury when they return from the break. The club sent Mads Sogaard back to its American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville after the game so he can suit up for one of two games against the Syracuse Crunch.

Belleville starts its AHL all-star break after facing the Crunch on Saturday night in the two-games series in Syracuse.

The club recalled netminder Kevin Mandolese on paper during the break because you have to have two goalies on the roster and the Senators didn’t have the cap space to activate Forsberg off long-term injury reserve until the organization can either make a trade or put someone on waivers.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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