OTTAWA — The love affair between Ottawa Senators fans and their $33 million goaltender Linus Ullmark has blossomed from the moment he arrived in his new home city. Ullmark remembered it took “literally” five minutes for him to be recognized when he went out for a coffee.
By Thursday evening, simple greetings around the city became loud cheers and chants as he was being introduced to the Senators faithful ahead of the first game of the season against Florida. When Ullmark entered the ice, he raised his stick to the crowd and clapped in appreciation.
Those celebrations continued when Ullmark emerged from his crease with his first Senators win. The Swede has played just one NHL game for the Senators. But he showed why it was worth it for the Senators to trade for and sign him against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Ullmark’s 30 saves helped the Sens fend off those Panthers in a 3-1 season-opening victory. The Swedish netminder was stellar when taking shots at point-blank range. (The Panthers led the high-danger-chance battle 8-3, according to Natural Stat Trick). But he was at his absolute best in the third period when he made 16 saves on a Panthers team desperately trying to make a comeback by keeping the game in the offensive zone.
Big save by Ullmark on Tkachuk. #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/Z9vVSDCUIp
— Everyday Sens (@EverydaySens) October 11, 2024
“I know that’s not going to happen every single game,” Ullmark said. “We don’t play hockey perfectly every night and so me neither. I try to do my utmost best every single game. Sometimes, like today, it goes well, and sometimes you don’t have the bounces and it wasn’t meant to be. But Lady Luck was on our side today.”
“When you get into these types of games when the other team is pushing hard, there’s a couple moments when your goalie’s going to have to make a save,” Senators head coach Travis Green said. “He came up in spades.”
Ullmark and the Senators will take fortunes going their way. It’ll serve as a foundational piece for his relationship with the city that seemingly started not long after he joined the team. General manager Steve Staios and his team opted for patience, hoping that Ullmark would eventually sign in Ottawa after taking his time settling into his new surroundings. Staios acknowledged that contract talks ramped up in the past week, culminating in a four-year extension that begins in 2025-26.
“If you followed him and watched him, and watched him grow as a goaltender, as well,” Staios said earlier this week. “And he continues to progress. We felt confident dating back to the trade deadline when we started zeroing in on looking to upgrade our goaltending. He was the guy.”
Ullmark’s teammates, of course, appreciated his commitment to the team.
“Anytime you get a chance to sign a player like Linus — I would’ve probably waited a game just to make sure,” Senators forward Claude Giroux said, jokingly, Thursday morning. “He’s been a dominant goalie the last three, four years. We’re all excited. I’m personally excited that he’s on my side this time.”
It’s just one game. But the team and fan base’s response to Ullmark wanting to stay and his performances so far have spoken volumes about how much the Senators needed their goaltending issue fixed.
Here are four other takeaways from the Senators’ season-opening win.
The Senators had an ideal start to their game …
If you’re considering advanced statistics like Corsi, the Panthers emerged as the better team after the first 20 minutes.
But in terms of shots, hits, goals (real and expected) and pace, it was the Senators who looked like the better team. A power-play goal from Tim Stützle (we’ll get to him later) and a defence-to-offence effort from Shane Pinto (we’ll get to him, too) put Ottawa up 2-0 after 20 minutes and forced the Panthers to play behind the eight ball early. The Sens’ speed showed in transition and through counterattacks.
“I really liked the start of our game,” Green said. “Obviously, like good teams do, they started to push and gain some momentum.”
… but their defence could’ve been much better
Ullmark had to work as hard as he did Thursday because the team struggled against the Panthers’ forecheck or committed unforced errors by failing to clear the puck from its zone. It wasn’t a clean game in particular for Jake Sanderson or Thomas Chabot, who combined for seven giveaways (five at even strength, all in their zone, according to Natural Stat Trick).
“Would I have liked to have seen a couple of cleaner plays out of our zone?” Green said. “Probably. But the other team has a say in that, too, and our guys need to get used to playing in those types of games in the trenches. This was one of those games where it was not a back-and-forth, wide-open game. It was going to be a forechecking, breakout game.
“We’re going to have to play gritty in certain areas to win.”
Shane Pinto’s two-way play
In a matchup featuring Aleksander Barkov, pound-for-pound the best defensive forward in the game, Pinto left the game with more positives than negatives. He created turnovers by aggressively winning battles and maintaining possession for his team.
Pinto’s best moment came in the second period when he and Michael Amadio capitalized on a Dmitry Kulikov offensive-zone turnover. Amadio took away space from the defender while Pinto carried the puck out of his zone before finishing his effort with a goal.
Do it all by yourself @shane_pinto 💪#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/RRFl3i25ky
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 10, 2024
“I tried to pride myself on a 200-foot game, and luckily I got rewarded for playing that,” Pinto said.
“He’s got size, he’s got hockey smarts,” Green said. “And what I like about (Pinto) is that he’s eager to learn. I think he’s still got some upside in his game, which is exciting. He’s a nice young man who wants to learn, loves to compete, and you like that in your players.”
Tim Stützle’s wrist shot and hustle
Not to be outdone, the German centre was the only skater who emerged with multiple points in the Senators’ win. His two goals showed off two different attributes.
Goal No. 1 saw him fire a seeing-eye wrist shot past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky on the power play to give the Senators an early lead. Stützle spent much of last season playing through a wrist injury, so seeing him score a goal of that calibre is a pretty good sign that he’s put whatever ailed him behind.
Le premier but de la saison des @Senators appartient à… Tim Stützle 🙌 #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/i8BJDdWuH0
— LNH (@LNH_FR) October 10, 2024
Stützle’s second of the night iced the game just as his team needed breathing room to escape the Panthers’ attack. The forward took advantage of Barkov’s broken stick and found himself chasing the puck with Barkov, who was left with just his skates and gloves while trying to defend Stützle. The young forward sidestepped Barkov and got to the puck first before scoring and essentially ending the game.
Barkov, however, emerged from the collision in pain and left the game without putting any weight on his right foot.
Tim Stutzle #18 secures the Senators victory with his 2nd goal of the night! pic.twitter.com/rmKqsVjlcn
— Coming In Hot (@ComingInHotSens) October 11, 2024
“Nice to get a power-play goal, but I think I liked his empty net even more,” Green said. “Those are the kind of things that we’re talking about. Winning races, coming up with pucks. I know it was an empty net. But it was a big play at a big time.”
(Photo of Linus Ullmark: Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)
