OTTAWA-De Ottawa Senators‘ play-off push will face a crucial test as they go on a five-game road trip without their top two goaltenders.
Head coach Travis Green said Friday Linus Ullmark wouldn’t travel to Winnipeg with the Senators, but Anton Forsbergwho also remains offside, goes out with the team.
Ullmark, who suffered the 3-1 defeat at the Edmonton Oil Companies on December 22 after the first period due to back pain, continues to suffer from the same problem.
“No update,” Green said. “Like I said, he tweaked his back, still not good enough to skate.”
Forsberg, who has been out since December 14, skated before practice on Friday, but was not yet ready to compete. To fill the void, the senators recalled Leevi Merilainen And Mads Sogaard from their American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville, Ont.
The Senators (18-14-2) finally hit their stride after going 3-0-1 in the first half of their grueling nine-game road trip, which stretches from December to January, as the Canadian Tire Center hosts is from the World Junior Championships. The team made the most of a difficult schedule to reach a playoff spot for the first time since the 2016-17 season, when the league was halted for the Christmas holidays.
Merilainen was with the team for the first half of the trip and was in goal for a 5-4 extra-time win against the Vancouver Canucks.
Sogaard has seen minimal action recently after suffering an injury on October 20 and not returning to action until December 13. He is 0-3-0 in his last three starts for Ottawa.
“We have full confidence in everyone in the net,” the captain said Brady Tkachuk. ”(Sogaard), (Merilainen), they’re both guys who have won in the NHL before. I think our job is to make their job as easy as possible, be good defensively and help them in any way we can.”
Ottawa’s recent success, highlighted thus far by an 8-2-1 record in December, was largely due to Ullmark, who posted a stellar 7-0-1 performance in net. His absence, coupled with Forsberg’s uncertainty, has the Senators relying on their depth in goal as they prepare for a tough stretch of games.
The road trip resumes on Saturday against the leader Winnipeg Jetsfollowed by a back-to-back against second place Minnesota Wild. Ottawa will then have three days off before resuming action with back-to-back games against the Dallas stars And St. Louis blues before ending the trip with a match against the Detroit Red Wings on January 7.
The Senators will have to continue their strong play despite the adversity – and find ways to win – if they hope to stay in playoff contention.
The Senators believe that if they continue to play at the level they were playing before the break, they will be in a good position.
“Our mentality won’t change depending on who is in goal,” Green said. “We don’t suddenly say, ‘Linus is in the net, let’s play run-and-gun hockey,’ or ‘he’s not in the net, let’s play real defensive hockey.’
“We want to play a good 60-yard game regardless of who is in the goal in front of us.”
Although they remain outwardly confident, this team knows the challenge ahead. They have faced adversity before and will have to rely on each other to get through this next journey.
“Don’t go too much off script,” he said Drake Bathersonwhen asked how they plan to handle this turn of events. “Just keep going. I think we were in a good flow there before the break.
“So just try to find that in the first game there in Winnipeg against a good team and go from there.”
Notes: Michael Amadio It is expected that a “little more” will come out. Both David Perron (upper body) and Artem Zub (broken foot) skated Friday, but their return remains uncertain.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024.