Patrick Lalime's Senators Career Deserves to Be Remembered
When people remember Patrick Lalime’s time with the Ottawa Senators, the conversation often starts with how it ended. That is the difficult part about being a goalie in the NHL. A career can be shaped by one game, one goal, or one moment that fans never forget.
What Patrick Lalime Meant to the Senators.
But before we get there, it is worth remembering what Lalime meant to Ottawa. When the Senators acquired him from the Mighty Ducks in 1999, the organization was entering a different stage. Ottawa was no longer just trying to survive. They were becoming a team that expected to compete. Lalime was a big part of that transition.
He was drafted in the sixth round by Pittsburgh in 1993, and like many late-round goalies, his path to becoming an NHL starter was not simple. But when he arrived in Ottawa, he gave the Senators something every good team needs: stability in the crease.
From 1999-00 through 2003-04, Lalime became the Senators’ number one goalie. He won 146 games with Ottawa, recorded 30 shutouts, and helped establish himself as one of the best goalies in franchise history.
Related: 20 Years Ago, Two Choices Changed the Senators’ Future.
The Peak of Lalime's Ottawa Career.
The 2002-03 season was probably the peak. Lalime won 39 games, represented Ottawa at the All-Star Game, and helped the Senators win the Presidents’ Trophy. But playoff memories have a way of becoming bigger than regular-season accomplishments.
Lalime’s Senators teams repeatedly ran into the Toronto Maple Leafs in the postseason. Four times in five years, Ottawa was eliminated by their provincial rivals. The final image many fans remember is Lalime being pulled in Game 7 of the 2004 playoff series against Toronto.
That moment became part of his legacy. But the full story is more complicated.
Lalime had been huge for the Senators during his playoff career.
In 41 playoff games with Ottawa, Lalime posted a 1.77 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. Those are not the numbers of a goalie who could not perform when the games mattered. They are the numbers of a goalie who played very well but happened to be part of a team that could not get past one difficult obstacle.
That is the challenge of evaluating goalies. They are often remembered for the goals they allowed rather than the saves they made. Patrick Lalime was never the goalie who carried Ottawa to a Stanley Cup. But he was one of the players who helped turn the Senators into a team capable of competing for one. And sometimes, when we look back at hockey history, those contributions deserve to be remembered too.
Since he retired, Lalime has been a television announcer for the Canadiens.
Since retiring, Lalime has remained close to the game, working as a French-language television analyst. His insights as a former NHL goaltender have made him a familiar face on Quebec hockey broadcasts.