Judging by social media posts, Ottawa Senators fans are beyond disappointed with their team’s start to the season, with the squad at 3-4-1 after their first eight games. Of a possible 16 points available to them, the Senators garnered seven for a points percentage of .438 – this in a league where just average is .557.
Teams can’t make the playoffs in the first month, but as Senators fans know all too well, they sure can miss them if they dig an early hole for themselves. That fear weighs heavily on the minds of Senators fans who’ve seen their team dig such holes all too often in past campaigns.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. After all, didn’t former general manager (GM) Pierre Dorion pronounce the team’s endless rebuild “over” back in 2021? And wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that Senators’ current GM Steve Staios said, “We’re happy with that step last year, (making the playoffs), but we’re certainly not satisfied.” Not to be outdone, head coach Travis Green followed up, promising on the opening day of training camp that, “We’re here not just to make the playoffs. We’re here to do a lot more than that.”
Related: Senators Making the Playoffs Not Good Enough This Season
These are the latest in a long list of promises, and the Senators no longer have any excuses. Fans are tired of hearing about the team making “progress”. Moral victories aren’t good enough for them anymore. It’s time to win – not next season, but now.
The Senators’ Endless Rebuild
After coming so close to returning to the Stanley Cup championship round in the spring of 2017, the team put its fans through a seemingly endless rebuild. After blowing up his team – gone were Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Matt Duchene, and Mike Hoffman – Dorion bungled his way through a rebuild for seven long, miserable seasons before he was fired in 2023. During that time, fans were told to be patient since great things were coming their way after the rebuild was complete.
For the most part, Senators fans remained stoic throughout, and the club gave them reasons to believe. To his credit, Dorion managed to stockpile picks and prospects that turned out to be difference makers. A case in point was the Erik Karlsson trade to the San Jose Sharks, which brought prospect Josh Norris to Bytown and the 2020 first-round pick he used to select Tim Stutzle.
Even so, few of the big names that Dorion brought to his club, sometimes at great expense in terms of picks, prospects and roster players, stuck around very long. One-season wonders included Jakob Chychrun, Alex DeBrincat and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Related: Ottawa Senators’ Trade History
Still, Dorion deserves credit for his draft picks that now make up the Senators’ core. Drake Batherson was selected in the 2017 Draft, and the following year, it was Tkachuk. Shane Pinto and Mads Sogaard were picked in the 2019 Draft, and in 2020, a bonanza followed with Dorion choosing Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, Ridly Greig, Tyler Kleven and goaltending hopeful Leevi Merilainen.
Being told to be patient was something Senators fans have quietly accepted – until now. This is supposed to be the season the team takes the next step and goes deep into the playoffs. The problem is that there is too little in their start to this season that gives fans reason to believe they’ll see that.
Fan Frustration With Senators Boiling Over
Patience can only stretch so far and early this season it has finally snapped. If you want a measure of fan exasperation with the Senators, just take a look at their commentary on social media after the team’s losses to the lowly Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 15 and the New York Islanders on Oct. 18. Among the more colourful were, “Travis Green needs to lose his job” (after the embarrassing loss to the Islanders) and “You gave up eight goals to a Sabres team that has scored TWO GOALS ALL SEASON – someone is on their way to Belleville in the morning.” Not to be outdone, the local hockey punditry piled on, calling the loss to the Islanders “disgraceful” (from Bruce Garrioch, “Takeaways: Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green steaming after loss to Isles”, Ottawa Citizen, 10/18/2025).
The Senators’ struggles to this point in this young season are well chronicled. Among them is their penchant for falling behind early and chasing games – they have given up the first goal in all but one of the eight games they’ve played so far this season. To call out a few more, there’s the inability of their top six to score, poor goaltending (33 goals against so far vs. a league average of 20) and an atrocious penalty kill (57.69%). It’s tough to see the stuff of a playoff contender in any of this, and fans aren’t happy.
The Senators Have No More Excuses
Late in the rebuild, fans demanded that then-head coach D.J. Smith be fired. Staios delivered on that in Dec. 2023. The reins were then turned over to interim head coach Jacques Martin and then to Green for the start of last season. The results have been the same, so coaching can’t be the problem that ails the Senators – if it ever was.
Some chalk up the Senators’ current struggles to Tkachuk’s injury. That simply can’t stand as an excuse. Every team copes with injuries to their top players. That’s what’s expected of them.
As for the team being young and still developing, that’s no longer a valid excuse for their disappointing performance this season. The core isn’t young and inexperienced anymore. Tkachuk has 512 games over seven full seasons under his belt. Chabot has 512 games over eight seasons under his. Stutzle has played 367 games over five seasons in the league, while Batherson and Dylan Cozens are veterans of six NHL seasons. The core has matured, and accountability must follow.
With Tkachuk out for several months with an injured thumb, now is the time for one or more leaders to emerge who step in to fill his skates. As much as he is the heart and soul of the Senators, he can’t be expected to carry the load alone. Stanley Cup contenders aren’t reliant on just one single player.
What’s On the Line Should Senators Fail to Deliver in 2025-26?
Their fans expect the Senators to take the next step and fulfill the promises made by Staios and Green at the start of the season. Simply making the playoffs this year is not good enough. Fans are demanding some measure of playoff success, and as a minimum, that means winning at least one series next spring.
If it looks like that’s not going to happen, there will be consequences, including the possibility of a roster shakeup, blockbuster trades and pressure on Green’s continued tenure as head coach. Things could get ugly and fast in Bytown.
Winning now is essential to restoring the team’s credibility with its fans and in the league itself. Senators fans aren’t being unreasonable. Over seven long years of a frustrating rebuild, they have earned the right to demand results.
The Senators’ Rebuild Excuse Expired
The rebuild isn’t over. It has expired. If this current edition of the Senators can’t turn their much-vaunted potential into performance soon, the understanding of their fans will soon become the first casualty of the 2025-26 season.
