After a bumpy start to the New Year, the Ottawa Senators are back on track. The Senators have started climbing up the Eastern Conference standings again with three straight victories ahead of Thursday's encounter with the Washington Capitals.

The Thomas Chabot-Nick Jensen pairing has done most of the heavy lifting in Ottawa this season. When the Ottawa Senators traded Jakob Chychrun for Nick Jensen and a third-round pick, there was a duality to the announcement.

It’ll be baptism by fire for Ottawa Senators defenceman Donovan Sebrango on Thursday night. Sebrango will make his NHL debut, jumping right into the heat of the NHL Eastern playoff chase. Not only will it happen in his hometown, with family and friends cheering him on, it will be against Alex Ovechkin and the league-leading Washington Capitals.

The Senators loaned defenseman Max Guenette to AHL Belleville on Wednesday, per a team announcement. The club’s active roster is now at 22. With Ottawa back in action tomorrow against the Capitals, Guenette could be summoned again after delaying the expiry of his temporary waiver exemption by one day.

Leevi Merilainen is the Ottawa Senators’ new Zero Hero. The rookie goaltender made 23 stops for his second shutout in his last three games as the Senators extended their winning streak to three straight with a 2-0 win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.

Now, the Senators can finally claim a shutdown duo once again in Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub, who are halting scoring attempts by other teams’ best players on a nightly basis. The proclamation might have come earlier in the season, too, if it weren’t for Zub’s injuries.

Acquired by the Ottawa organization as part of the trade that sent Alex DeBrincat to the Red Wings in July 2023, Sebrango welcomed a fresh start. He suited up for 35 games in his first season with Belleville, plus for four games with the ECHL’s Allentown Americans.

The Ottawa Senators return home with a tall order as they take on the best team in the East and League — the Washington Capitals. Washington leads the league with a 0.716 save percentage at 63 points in 44 games.

Defenseman John Klingberg had not played an NHL game since November 2023 after needing to have hip surgery. Even with not playing an NHL game in over 14 months,

Roster updates: Donovan Sebrango will make his NHL debut in place of Thomas Chabot (day-to-day) and Michael Amadio will return in place of Zack Ostapchuk. Leevi will start for Ottawa again (no announcement for the Caps at the moment).

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The Senators are lacking internal depth especially in the their bottom six, so they need to turn to the trade market to stay competitive.