OTTAWA — Brady Tkachuk played in St. Louis on Tuesday. He stopped short of calling the game against the St. Louis Blues a must-win game for the Ottawa Senators.

But he said the team is putting some pressure on itself to bounce back after returning home from a two-game break. And Tkachuk himself led an impressive offensive performance.

Ottawa, St. “It’s all about our rebounding and reaction,” said Tkachuk, who scored two strong second-period goals in an 8-1 win over St. Louis.

On Tuesday, it was the largest margin of victory in a game since Ottawa beat the New Jersey Devils 8-1 on Oct. 21, 2006.

The Senators return to the Canadian Tire Center after back-to-back losses to the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche. They had to wait a little longer than planned for Tuesday’s match to start as there was a 30-minute delay due to a power outage at their home ground.

“Usually we’re pretty good at reacting after a loss, but that wasn’t the case (against Colorado). We definitely wanted to put extra emphasis on the team coming back here and not using the excuse of coming back from a road trip and being slow out of the gate,” Tkachuk said.

“Despite all the unfortunate circumstances leading up to the game, it gave us time to step in mentally here and hold ourselves to a standard so there were no excuses.”

Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark, who made 26 saves in the second win of the season, said earlier Tuesday that he never wants to let a team’s losing streak slip away. It was an important opportunity for a comeback as Ottawa suffered two consecutive defeats before returning home.

“Things have moved away from us in the past years. But there’s a maturity there that doesn’t need to be said anymore,” Tkachuk said.

“We put some pressure on ourselves to step up our game, come back and rebound, and I felt like we did a great job.”

Josh Norris opened the scoring just 1:04 into the first quarter, and Ottawa’s offense took over from there, scoring three goals in the opening frame.

Breaking a six-game goalless streak, Tim Stützle scored twice en route to a four-point night. Adam Gaudette also had two goals for the Senators after Blues first baseman Joel Hofer allowed five goals on 21 shots.

“I like it,” said Ottawa coach Travis Green, smiling at his team’s printout. “I score a lot of goals, I’m not complaining about that. We just want to win.”

Green admitted he wasn’t happy with the team’s last game but felt Tuesday was a “great response.”

This marks the first time the Senators have a winning record in October since 2016-17; This was the last time the team made the playoffs.

“The team wants to win,” Green said. “Every team does that. But what impressed me was that they looked in the mirror and said, ‘What can I do differently to be a better team?’ And that’s not always the case.”

With the usual Atlantic powerhouses like Toronto and Boston slowly coming out of the gates in 2024, that kind of start could help push Ottawa toward meaningful hockey later in the season for the first time in nearly a decade.

This is the kind of attitude shared by many in the room.

“That’s a big part of the NHL; as your team improves, the game becomes more consistent and you understand how you play,” Green said. “We are starting to grasp the identity and style of hockey we want to have. “It’s coming.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.