Winning is the only option the Ottawa Senators have left

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Time is of the essence for the Ottawa Senators.

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Instead of waking up one point out of the final Eastern Conference wild card spot on Monday, a costly 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders left the Senators three points back of the eighth-place New York Rangers.

Trying to sweep this four-game home stand that started with a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday and a 3-1 decision against the Nashville Predators on Saturday, the Senators will have to hope they can close it out with two points against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

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The Senators deserved a better fate after Ilya Sorokin made 29 stops to secure the victory. Only Josh Norris and Adam Gaudette were able to beat Sorokin, while Ottawa backup Anton Forsberg wasn’t good enough by allowing three goals on 12 shots.

Forsberg has a 4-6-0 record in 11 appearances this season with a 2.95 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage. He could have gotten his record back to the .500 mark with a win against the Isles and that save percentage has him ranked No. 49 in the league.

It will be interesting to see if the Senators opt to go back to him in one of the team’s back-to-back games this weekend, or give Linus Ullmark both starts. The club will face the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night on the road and then play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

That would be three games in four days for Ullmark, so it won’t happen, which means that Forsberg has to be better and it would help if he got more offensive support when he does play again.

A bad penalty by Norris in the third period resulted in the winning goal by Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri at 13:46. The Isles have the worst power play in the NHL and the Senators allowed them to score twice with the man advantage after Anders Lee tied it up 1-1 in the first period.

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The visit by the Ducks will start a stretch of seven games in 12 days, including five on the road, before the National Hockey League’s mandated holiday break begins following the games of Dec. 23. The Senators actually get a five-day break.

The Senators are confident that if they continue to play the way they did against the Islanders, they will come away the winner, but the issue is the club needs every point it can get to make the playoffs for the first time in eight years.

“We’re going to win games nine times out of 10 if we continue to play like that,” said Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk. “There is still so much hockey and runway left. Of course, you think of inter-conference (games) and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, it’s just a game against anybody, which is very important.

“So it’s a crucial two points that we missed out on, but if we play like that we’re going to get rewarded nine out of 10 times.”

Heading into Monday night’s action, six teams were sitting within six points of the No. 8 position in the East. That’s why victories against opponents such as the Isles are crucial.

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Twenty-seven games into this season, the Senators haven’t been able to put together a three-game winning streak. They had a chance to do it for the first time with a win over the Isles, and failed in their fourth attempt at completing the feat.

Consistency has been a big issue with the Senators all season, not necessarily with their performance, but with winning.

“Plain and simple, we want to win hockey games, and when you don’t, you’re frustrated and not happy about it, but there’s some positives to take away,” said alternate captain Thomas Chabot. “We’re definitely heading in the right direction here.

“We were going good here tonight. We didn’t give them a whole lot, and when they had their chances they found the back of the net. We didn’t.

“We know where we’re at and won’t be satisfied with losing games.”

Winning will only become more difficult as the schedule gets demanding, but the Senators have opted to focus on what they’re doing well.

The reality is that the Senators have shown improvement defensively this season, especially at 5-on-5, but that doesn’t help if the team can’t score enough goals, which has been a continuous issue through the early part of this season.

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“It’s a long season and there is a lot of hockey ahead of us,” Chabot said. “It’s always easy to look on the negative side of things. We’re building something and playing some good hockey lately.

“We’ve got to take that as a positive and focus on that and keep building our game. I find a game like (Sunday) if we don’t give the other team much we’ll be on the better end of the result most nights.”

And that’s the rub of the situation.

The Senators need points because losses like the one on Sunday don’t count for anything when the NHL hands out tickets to the big dance.

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