The Ottawa Senators’ biggest offseason acquisition was trading for goalie Linus Ullmark, the 2023 Vezina winner. But he’s in the final year of his contract, about to become a UFA at season’s end, so he’ll soon have a big decision.
Meanwhile, in his first period of hockey as a Senator, albeit pre-season, Ullmark faced a 24-shot barrage on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres, the team he broke into the league with.
And as he made his way to the dressing room at the first intermission, he probably wasn’t thinking to himself, “Oh, boy. Where do I sign?” Not yet, anyway.
Ullmark was only scheduled to play half the game but got a full night’s work and came as advertised, making 28 of 29 saves.
The Senators eventually stopped the bleeding and nearly won a game they had no business winning. In the end, the Sabres came away with a 3-2 overtime win at Canadian Tire Centre, outshooting the Sens 41-16.
Noah Gregor and Adam Gaudette scored for the Senators, while Carter Yakemchuk had two assists. The Sens blew a one-goal lead in the final minute of regulation for the second time in three pre-season games.
Isak Rosen beat Dustin Tokarski with a one-time with 41 seconds left. Noah Ostlund won it in overtime, beating Zack Ostapchuk to the net. Tokarski missed a poke check attempt on Ostlund, leaving him exposed for the backhand winner.
In fairness, most of the Senators who played Thursday night were players on the bubble, and a lot of them will be released or reassigned today, which will likely be the most significant wave of cuts at Senator camp so far. And Ullmark was well aware the team in front of him Thursday night wasn’t the real Senators.
But from a prospect evaluation standpoint, it was a disappointing home performance, mainly because the Sabres had absolutely no veterans in their lineup. All the Sabres vets are tied up in Munich for Friday’s 024 NHL Global Series Challenge Germany against EHC Red Bull Munchen.
Most of last night’s roster hopefuls made Travis Green’s decisions a whole lot easier. I asked Green on Thursday about the timeline for the next wave of cuts, and he said they’ll probably come today.
“We’ll talk about it after the game, and we don’t want to make hasty decisions. But we’re getting to that time where you’ve got to start cutting down, so we will.
“I’d like to get closer down to our group here sooner than later. We’re going to play the game in Sudbury, and we’re probably not bringing a lot of guys to that game. So you can expect us to be getting down in numbers by then for sure.”
The Senators’ next preseason game – number four of seven – is Sunday in Sudbury against the Pittsburgh Penguins (7 pm, Sportsnet). That’s the annual Kraft Hockeyville game.
