Thomas Chabot scored in his first game as captain and Stephen Halliday added the winner as Ottawa beat Toronto 3-2.
Ottawa opened a new season, a new leadership structure and its first full campaign without Brady Tkachuk by beating Toronto 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena. The score matched the shape of the game: tight, physical and unresolved until Stephen Halliday broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period.
The Senators did not overwhelm the Maple Leafs. Toronto generated plenty of pressure, hit the post repeatedly and forced Ottawa to defend deep into the final minutes. Ottawa survived because Linus Ullmark was sharp, the skaters in front of him blocked 21 shots and the players asked to carry larger roles after Tkachuk’s departure immediately produced.
Chabot Opened His Captaincy With a Goal
Thomas Chabot had spent the week answering questions about becoming the 11th captain in Senators history. His first regular-season game with the C on his sweater ended with a goal, an assist and two points in a road win over the franchise Ottawa is measured against more than any other.
Chabot opened the scoring at 18:51 of the first period, finishing a play created by Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto to beat Sergei Bobrovsky. Ottawa had spent most of the opening period playing controlled hockey rather than chasing offense, and Chabot’s goal gave that patience something tangible before the intermission.
His second point arrived after Toronto had taken the lead in the second. Chabot helped create Michael Amadio’s tying goal, giving Ottawa a captain directly involved in both of the goals that carried the game into the third period at 2-2.
Toronto Answered Immediately
The lead lasted only 33 seconds into the second period. Auston Matthews redirected the game back to even before Ottawa had settled into the period, with Morgan Rielly and William Nylander creating the sequence that tied it 1-1.
Toronto then took advantage of its first meaningful special-teams opening. Claude Giroux went off for slashing, and Kirill Marchenko scored on the power play at 7:06 for his first goal as a Maple Leaf. Darren Raddysh and John Tavares picked up the assists, and Toronto had turned a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 lead in a little more than seven minutes.
That was the point where Ottawa’s opener could have started looking like the preseason concerns that surrounded a roster going through significant change. Instead, the Senators answered before the period ended.
Amadio Pulled Ottawa Back Into the Game
Michael Amadio tied the game at 12:40 of the second, finishing a play from Tim Stützle and Chabot to make it 2-2. The goal came from Ottawa’s third line, exactly the kind of secondary contribution that becomes more important when a team has redistributed offensive responsibility throughout the roster.
Ottawa’s top six entered the season with obvious attention on Stützle, Dylan Cozens, William Eklund, Drake Batherson and Fabian Zetterlund. Game 1 ended up being won through contributions from farther down the lineup. Amadio erased Toronto’s lead, then a fourth-line centre supplied the final goal.
That distribution was one of the most encouraging parts of the opener. Ottawa did not need Stützle or Batherson to produce a multi-point night to stay attached to the game. The supporting forwards created enough offense for Ullmark and the defense to handle the rest.
Halliday Scored the Winner
Stephen Halliday entered the season with 30 NHL games behind him and a much clearer opportunity in Ottawa’s reshaped forward group. At 9:46 of the third period, he scored the biggest goal of the night.
Fabian Zetterlund and Giroux worked the puck to Halliday, who finished from close range before Bobrovsky could get set. The goal gave Ottawa a 3-2 lead with just over half a period remaining and turned the rest of the night into a test of whether the Senators could protect something.
Halliday’s role in that moment fits where Ottawa is trying to go. The Senators have spent several seasons waiting for younger depth to become reliable NHL depth. A season-opening winner from a 23-year-old centre on the fourth line is a useful early sign that some of those minutes may finally be available internally.
Ullmark and the Blocks Held the Lead
Toronto had enough chances after Halliday’s goal to make the 3-2 score feel temporary. The Leafs finished with 29 shots, hit the iron six times and spent long stretches forcing Ottawa to defend rather than counterattack. Ullmark stopped 27 shots and did not allow anything in the third period.
The skaters in front of him were just as important. Ottawa blocked 21 Toronto shots, repeatedly getting bodies into lanes as the Leafs tried to turn sustained zone time into the tying goal. That defensive commitment gave Ullmark cleaner looks and prevented several Toronto possessions from becoming official shots at all.
The final minutes looked like the kind of game Ottawa has often struggled to close cleanly. Toronto had the puck, Ottawa had the lead, and every failed clearance had the potential to extend another shift. The Senators handled enough of those sequences to get out of Scotiabank Arena without overtime.
Toronto Had Enough Chances to Win
The result should not be confused with Ottawa controlling the entire night. Toronto finished even with the Senators at 29 shots apiece and spent significant stretches driving possession. The six posts tell part of the story on their own: several sequences that easily could have changed the score never became goals.
Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 29 at the other end and gave Toronto enough goaltending to win. Matthews scored, Marchenko scored on the power play and the Leafs entered the third period tied despite trailing after 20 minutes. The difference came from Ottawa finding one more finish while Toronto’s third-period pressure never converted.
That makes the result more useful than a comfortable opening-night win would have been. Ottawa had to play through Toronto taking the lead, answer it, score again and then defend a one-goal margin against an opponent generating legitimate chances.
Sanderson’s Return Helped Stabilize Ottawa
Jake Sanderson entered Saturday carrying some uncertainty after missing time during camp, but he was cleared to play and gave Ottawa its most important young defenseman for the opener. That mattered with Artem Zub unavailable and a defense corps already asking Chabot to carry a different kind of responsibility as captain.
Ottawa’s six-man group was younger and less established than the version the club would ideally deploy when healthy. Sanderson’s presence allowed Travis Green to keep the structure recognizable while Chabot and Jordan Spence handled another pairing and Carter Yakemchuk continued taking NHL minutes.
The defensive performance had rough stretches, especially when Toronto pushed late, but it never became disorder. Against Matthews, Nylander, Tavares and a Leafs team already playing its third game, Ottawa found enough structure to keep the damage at two goals.
The Power Play Still Has Work to Do
Ottawa went 0-for-4 on the power play, leaving an obvious piece of the offense unresolved. Toronto successfully killed all four opportunities, while the Leafs converted one of their own four chances through Marchenko.
That imbalance could have decided a close game. Ottawa’s five-on-five scoring rescued it instead, with Chabot, Amadio and Halliday providing all three goals at even strength. A team that relied heavily on a 24 percent power play last season will eventually need the new units to establish themselves after the roster changes.
Winning despite going scoreless on four power plays gives Ottawa time to work on it. The opening night result came from five-on-five depth, goaltending and defensive commitment rather than special teams carrying the offense.
The New Era Started With the Right People
The pregame question surrounding Ottawa was larger than whether it could win one October game in Toronto. Tkachuk’s departure changed the leadership hierarchy, redistributed offensive roles and forced the Senators to find out quickly which players would fill the space left behind.
Game 1 produced an unusually direct answer. Chabot scored and added an assist in his first game as captain. Giroux created two goals as one of the alternate captains. Halliday scored the winner from the bottom six. Ullmark stopped 27 of 29 while the players in front of him blocked 21 more shots.
The 3-2 final also came very close to the 4-3 pregame projection. Ottawa had the edge expected in the article, while the actual game became tighter because neither goaltender gave away much and Toronto’s repeated attempts off the iron stayed out.
Final: Ottawa Senators 3, Toronto Maple Leafs 2. The first game of Ottawa’s post-Tkachuk season belonged to its new captain, a depth centre trying to establish himself and a goaltender who gave Toronto nothing in the third period. The larger questions about where this version of the Senators goes will take months to answer, but opening night gave the transition a successful first result.
Sources
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