The Ottawa Senators have had a mixed season so far. While they suffered some major losses early on, they soon bounced back with three consecutive wins over the last week. But that streak was soon snapped by Chicago Tuesday night.
While there were moments where they looked to be catching up, by the time the final buzzer went off, the Blackhawks had demolished them 7-3. However, while the Senators were left disappointed, goalie Linus Ullmark had some tough words for his teammates after the game.
What Does Linus Ullmark Have To Say to the Senators?
The Senators entered this season with a lot of expectations. After last season’s playoff run, everyone believed that Ottawa would have a great season. But continued losses over the last few weeks and captain Brady Tkachuk’s exit due to injury soon made things hard.
Without their captain leading the charge, the Senators fell to a losing streak as they lost five of their six games between October 11 and 21. But they soon got their rhythm back as they won some major games over the Flyers and the Bruins.
However, after last night’s demolition by the Blackhawks, Ullmark has something to say to the team. He mentioned, “There was a little bit of immaturity today. It’s not easy to win in this league. You can’t go out there putting up seven two nights in a row and then expect to do it a third time.”
He believes that after their 7-1 (Capitals) and 7-2 (Bruins) wins, the Senators had gone complacent and expected the results to repeat. Instead, it was the Blackhawks who put the puck seven times inside Ottawa’s net last night.
With their latest loss, the Senators currently stand with a 5-5-1 record. They have only won half of their games so far. To make things worse, their goaltending has also been poor this season. With a .841 SV%, they have the second-worst save percentage in the league so far.
Only the St. Louis Blues have fared even worse with a .827 SV%. Ullmark understands what this means for their playoff hopes. He continued, “It has to come, especially in back-to-backs; there is a skill to playing in back-to-backs. It’s really tough, especially when you travel as well.”
Ullmark believes that the Senators could have done a lot of things differently, which might have improved their chances. “There are a lot of things today, I think, that we could have done better,” he said post-game. However, Ullmark himself needs to up his game as well.
Across nine games so far, he stands at a GAA of 3.44, while his SV% has been barely better than his team’s average at .858. However, he also believes that they shouldn’t dwell on their mistakes for too long.
He mentioned, ” We just have to look at ourselves in the mirror and come to terms with what we did, learn from it, and move on.” With the Senators firmly in the middle of the Atlantic Division and tied with Florida and Toronto, they will need to figure something out quickly if they want to repeat last year’s playoff run.
