The Senators Losing Linus Ullmark Could Reveal Something

There’s never a good time to lose your starting goalie, but the Ottawa Senators have a particularly good reason to be concerned about Linus Ullmark’s injury. He’s been one of the biggest reasons they’ve started the season so well.

Ullmark is expected to miss one to two weeks with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve Thursday after leaving Wednesday’s 5-1 win over Florida. His numbers tell the story: a 7-1-0 record, a 1.33 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage. Those are outstanding numbers. And now Ottawa has to find a way to win without them.

This Is About More Than the Senators Losing Their Goalie.

The obvious question is whether Samuel Ersson can hold the fort while Ullmark recovers. Ersson came in Wednesday and stopped the only shot he faced. He’s now in line for more responsibility, with Jonas Johansson recalled from Belleville to provide additional depth. But I think there’s another question worth asking. How much of Ottawa’s early success comes from the team in front of Ullmark, and how much comes from the goalie himself?

Good goaltending can cover up a few defensive mistakes. It can also give a team the confidence to play aggressively, knowing someone is there to bail it out when a play goes wrong. When that safety net disappears, even temporarily, players sometimes start thinking a little differently. Defencemen may become more cautious. Forwards may feel they need to score another goal to make up for a mistake. That can change the way a team plays.

Of course, Ottawa doesn’t need to reinvent itself because Ullmark is out for a week or two. It needs to keep doing what got it here in the first place.

Could This Be an Opportunity for the Senators?

There’s a positive side to this, too. Ersson gets a chance to show what he can do with a larger workload, and the Senators get an early test of their depth. Nobody should expect a backup goalie to duplicate Ullmark’s remarkable start. That wouldn’t be fair to Ersson, or particularly realistic.

The goal is simpler: give Ottawa a chance to win while Ullmark heals. If the Senators can manage that, they’ll learn something about themselves. They’ll discover whether their early success is built on a sound team game or whether they’ve been leaning too heavily on one outstanding player.

Ullmark’s absence is a setback, no question. But it doesn’t have to become a crisis. Sometimes, a team learns as much about itself when its best player is unavailable as it does when everything is going right.