OTTAWA -- Linus Ullmark only ever looks in one direction. Forward.
Whether he’s in the midst of a lengthy losing streak, fighting to keep his starter status or, in this case, coming off two straight losses against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Ottawa Senators goalie will rarely beat himself up.
“For me, it’s just about enjoying the ride a little bit,” Ullmark said Wednesday following an off-ice workout at the Canadian Tire Centre, the site of Game 3 of the best-of-7 series on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN, CBC, TVAS, ESPN2). “It’s always, every game is a new beast to tame, in a way. So, you can’t really think that the last game is going to be the same thing as [Thursday’s] game. Every game is a new opportunity to prove yourself.”
After a 6-2 trouncing in Game 1 and a Max Domi overtime winner in Game 2, the Senators returned to the nation’s capital Wednesday in a 2-0 series deficit. Ullmark has an .800 save percentage and 4.39 goals against average after two games, while his counterpart, Anthony Stolarz, has been the Maple Leafs’ best player, stopping 57 of 61 shots directed at him for a .934 save percentage.
Ullmark was asked how he would sum up his play in the Battle of Ontario so far.
“What do you think?” he responded with a cheeky grin, appearing to insinuate that he was genuinely interested in the reporter’s opinion.
Ullmark’s playfulness during tense times is deliberate, a sort of coping mechanism intended to decisively leave the past in the past, enabling him to bounce back after poor showings and dig himself out of slumps.
Back in early December, as the Senators sat in last place in the Atlantic Division and Ullmark had lost five of his past six starts (1-3-2), the 31-year-old opened his post-practice media availability with “a little story” about his children’s early morning exuberance after witnessing the first snowfall of the season. He beamed, delighted that his son was “the happiest guy alive right now here in Canada,” claiming that the interaction had helped him get through a treacherous drive to the rink.
That night, Ullmark made 20 saves in a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings, the start of a personal seven-game winning streak that rocketed Ottawa into playoff contention.
“For ourselves, it hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to, obviously,” Ullmark admitted. “But there’s nothing you can do about it now. I think things are going in the right direction and that’s something to take the positives with. I don’t try to dwell on the past or anything like that. We have a game tomorrow as well that I’m excited about to play in. It doesn’t matter how it has gone lately. That’s the thing: You can lose a game 6-2 or you can win 1-0, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about taking the next step and focusing on the next one.”
There is no question that Ullmark must be better, especially early on in the game, if the Senators are going to fight their way back into the series. Games 1 and 2 each saw Ottawa down 2-0 midway through the first period, a near kiss of death for a team that seldom won after trailing first during the regular season (10-24-7) but owned an NHL-best record of 35-6-0 when scoring first.
“Just stick with the process all day long,” Ullmark said. “We’ve done that since Day 1 of training camp [last] fall. You’ve got to focus on being in the present, learn from the past and be excited about it.”
For Ullmark, a Vezina Trophy winner (2022-23) in his fourth NHL playoffs, the extreme highs and lows of an intense postseason series with a division rival have naturally become easier to manage. That’s what Ottawa’s largely inexperienced roster, which features a dozen playoff rookies, is learning how to do on the fly. Several players, including forwards Tim Stutzle (23), Shane Pinto (24) and Drake Batherson (26), admitted that nerves undoubtedly were a factor in their slow starts in Toronto. Coach Travis Green noticed that, too, but he knows his squad’s resolve will only get stronger as the series goes on.
“Our team’s done a good job of, for the last three or four months, if things aren’t going their way, resetting during the game and not getting away from it and moving on,” Green said. “And not just during the game but from game to game. And I think that’s important in playoff hockey. These are all things that we’ve been trying to talk to our team during the regular season and hopefully it helps in the playoffs.”
This week has been a trial by fire for the Senators' young core. Sunday was its first ever playoff game, Tuesday was its first playoff overtime, and Thursday will be its first must-win playoff game. Only four times in NHL history has a team come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
“It’s not a series until someone loses at home,” Ottawa forward Ridly Greig said. “We’ve got to take care of business here, kind of have a business mindset going into this game. ... It’ll be a different vibe here, for sure. I know ‘Sens’ fans have been looking forward to this for a while now. I’m looking forward to getting out there.”
Thursday will also be a first for the franchise’s newest generation of fans; Ottawa hasn’t hosted a playoff game since May 23, 2017. And Batherson believes the home crowd could be key in lifting the team to that all-important first goal.
“In playoffs, the home team usually comes out pretty hard and I feel like we’re going to be like that tomorrow,” Batherson said. “We’re going to be confident coming out and it would be nice to get up one early, maybe in the first, rather than trailing [like we did] in the first two games, but we’ll see what happens.
“I think everyone was really jacked up for the first two games, but definitely coming into your rink where the fans are behind you, there’s going to be a lot of energy and you’ve just got to control it but, at the same time, play hard. For sure, you can get overwhelmed sometimes when there’s too much energy, but just controlling that. At the same time, you don’t want to let your foot off the gas, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
Sounds like a setting one particularly optimistic goaltender could look forward to.
“I don’t even know if I can imagine it, it’s hard,” Ullmark said. “I’m excited to see what the Ottawa fan base can bring. I’m really excited about that.”
