After signing Ridly Greig, Senators must get act together

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The Ottawa Senators took care of some business off the ice on Friday.

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Before the Senators packed their bags again to prepare for a pivotal road game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, the club confirmed it had signed forward Ridly Greig to a four-year, $13-million US contract extension with an average annual value of $3.25 million per season.

That’s a tidy piece of work by Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, to get the 22-year-old Greig signed to a deal because the opportunity is there for him to play a bigger role than the third-line one he’s in right now.

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“Ridly has established himself as a key member of our team going forward,” Staios said. “He brings a good mix of versatility and tenacity to our forward group.”

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Greig, selected No. 28 by the Senators in the 2020 NHL draft, has struggled this season with six goals and 12 points in 37 games, but he can be a pest to play against and make his presence felt.

He has 26 goals and 47 points in 129 career games. Greig’s agent Kevin Epp and Staios started talks earlier this week and it came together in fairly short order.

“It’s exciting. I’m fired up to be a Sen for the next four years,” Greig said. “It doesn’t really change much for me. I’m going to stay the same and keep my head up and work. I’m just grateful to the staff for believing in me.

“It’s a really tight team. Whenever we’re facing adversity, like today, we had a team meeting and hopefully that will bring us close together and we can go from there.”

Last year, he reached career highs with 13 goals and 26 points in 72 games. Greig mostly has been used on the wing, but he can play centre and there is a scenario down the road where that’s possible.

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The Senators have studied the market on centre Josh Norris and, if Staios decides to get his $7.95-million cap hit off the books, then the possibility exists that opens up a spot in the middle for Greig.

Norris’ huge cap hit is through the 2029-30 campaign, which makes his deal difficult to move.

The best bet for everybody involved is for the Senators to start taking care of business on the ice and that’s why they sat down as a group with coach Travis Green before practice on Friday to come up with answers.

Booed out of the Canadian Tire Centre after a 4-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, the Senators have lost four straight and are 1-5-1 in their past seven.

The club is three points behind the final wild-card spot in the East, a position it held from Dec. 14 to Jan. 4.

Norris is among several of the club’s top players who need to find their scoring touch if the Senators are to have success. He was moved to the wing against the Sabres because he had just one goal in his past seven games.

Top centre Tim Stutzle has a goal and an assist in that stretch while centre Shane Pinto has an assist. Winger Drake Batherson has gone 10 games without a goal and has one assist.

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Veteran winger Claude Giroux also has two points in the past seven along with top defencemen Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot. Just for reference, captain Brady Tkachuk has three goals and six assists.

“We need to score a bit,” Green said. “There is no denying that. We haven’t scored enough. We created (chances) last night and give their goalie credit because he played well.

“It’s hard to win games 1-0 and 2-1 all the time. We’ve got to find a way to score some goals.”

The absence of goaltender Linus Ullmark hasn’t helped matters, but it’s not the only reason the Senators aren’t successful. That’s why the Senators had a reset when they met on Friday.

“Communication and trust are the two most important qualities,” Tkachuk said. “We’ve just gotta move on (from Thursday). It stinks going through it and you never like losing. But I’ve got belief and confidence in this group that everything happens for a reason and that we’ll be better.

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“We just have to simplify. We can’t overcomplicate it. We’ve got to trust ourselves and each other, and trust the identity that we’re trying to bring every single day. It’s a work in progress, but I have every ounce of faith in this group that we’ll be able to get it done.”

The Senators recalled forwards Matthew Highmore and Zack MacEwen from the American Hockey League in Belleville on Friday after Noah Gregor left Thursday’s game with an undisclosed injury.

Judging by the skate, Highmore and MacEwen are expected to play against the Penguins. Either Zack Ostapchuk or Cole Reinhardt will be scratched.

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