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The Ottawa Senators need to take collective action.

Twelve games into the season in which the Senators must compete for a playoff spot, the club is still trying to find stability following Tuesday’s ugly 5-1 defeat against the Buffalo Sabers.

While the Senators have shown flashes of brilliance as they prepare to host the New York Islanders at the Canadian Tire Center on Thursday, the club has lost four straight games on the road and seen its road record fall to 1-5-0.

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This and the results against the Sabers won’t be enough if Ottawa wants to be seen as a playoff contender.

“I don’t think it was a terrible effort,” senior linebacker Travis Hamonic said. “You’ll look at the score and say 5-1, okay, but some parts of our game weren’t exactly 100 percent.

“I don’t know if it’s fair to say that it’s necessarily an effort-based thing, but I understand you’re asking, but I think maybe there’s just more application in certain areas. Maybe it’s a little fairer to say that.”

The time for moral victories for the Senators is over because they don’t get you points in the standings. After losing 2-1 to the New York Rangers on Friday night at Madison Square Garden, it’s fair to say that Ottawa deserved a better fate because Igor Shesterkin was hot.

Twenty-four hours later, the Senators put it in place with a solid 3-0 home win over the Seattle Kraken. Some think the Senators are looking at the standings and not respecting the Sabers, who lost three straight games before facing Ottawa.

“We knew they were probably going to be a little grumpy about it,” Hamonic said. “This issue was discussed in our room. We have not proven anything, I can say that we need to respect everyone and earn the respect of the league as well.”

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Hamonic couldn’t be more accurate on this one.

If Senators are to take the next step, they need to stay balanced. At home, St. Following the 8-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues, coach Travis Green recounted the conversation he had with the goalkeeper after the club’s 6-4 away loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on October 25.

Linus Ullmark took the brunt of this defeat publicly, which led Green to chat with the club’s best goalkeeper. In fact, Green told Ullmark: “You’re never as good as you think you are, and you’re never as bad as you think you are.”

It’s nothing but sound advice and absolute truth, which is why Green repeated it to the group Wednesday morning during a team meeting at the rink before the Senators held an off-ice practice.

But if this club is going to go anywhere, the Senators need their best players to be at the top of their game. That wasn’t the case in Buffalo.

Senior linebacker Thomas Chabot struggled and captain Brady Tkachuk sat out an extended period after receiving an instigation penalty for coming to the defense of teammate Tim Stutzle.

What are senators supposed to do?

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“Just the consistency in our game,” Green said Wednesday. “We played really good hockey when we showed our desire to be extremely competitive. “I don’t think we’re a team that can win with one, two or three guys, and there aren’t many teams in the league.

“Good teams have a team that plays extremely competitively, and if you have winners in playoff hockey or road hockey, you have to play gritty and play hard. When we did that, we played good hockey.”

He noted that the Senators probably had “seven players that were below what they wanted from their individual play” against the Sabers, so he felt the club “got what they deserved.”

Ullmark does not avoid this either.

“Average,” Green said of Ullmark’s performance. “He’s probably his harshest critic and he’ll probably want a few goals back.”

He allowed five goals on 34 shots and finished the game with a .853 save percentage. His 3.03 goals against average and 2-4-0 record ranks 38th in the NHL with a save percentage of .892.

He has been brought in as this club’s No.1 goalkeeper and after this performance Green should seriously consider benching Anton Forsberg against the Isles.

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“I’m not worried about Linus. It will be fine. He will find his game,” Green said.

Ullmark better or this is going to be a long year.

But he is not alone; The Senators all need to find their game.

“Losing sucks, but sometimes you learn a lot when you lose,” Chabot said. “The whole group is aware of this, which is a big positive.”

The Senators need to play the same way every night.

“We didn’t play the brand of hockey that we’re used to playing,” Tkachuk said. “Now that that has happened, we can rise from adversity and the style of play we play.

“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to grow.”

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