The Ottawa Senators have failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last seven seasons, but with a bona fide No. 1 goaltender in Linus Ullmark now in the fold, the goal for the franchise is to break the long drought in 2024-25.
And Ullmark, who the Boston Bruins traded to Canada's capital earlier this offseason, is looking forward to getting to work.
“It’s all about consistency,” the 31-year-old told NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger. “It’s all about winning on a daily basis to try to achieve something new and to evolve as a player every single day and not to be satisfied just because you won two or three games in a row.
“You’ve got to keep doing that. You can’t just win three or four and then lose three or four. It’s all about the consistency of winning that will get you into the playoffs.”
Ullmark is no stranger to the postseason, having been part of three-straight elite Bruins clubs from 2021-24. Although none of those teams won a Stanley Cup, the veteran has key playoff experience.
And he'll be extra motivated in Ottawa not only as the starting goalie — and no longer competing with Jeremy Swayman for starts — but in the last year of his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“Hopefully, going into this season, with some new coaching staff and all that sort of stuff, we can get the ball rolling,” he continued, per Zeisberger. “Once we do that, that's going to be a very dangerous team going forward.”
The Sens brought in Travis Green as the franchise's 14th bench boss after Jacques Martin spent most of 2023-24 in an interim role, also adding David Perron in free agency and Nick Jensen in the trade that sent Jakob Chychrun to Washington.
Linus Ullmark impressed with young Senators team — especially Brady Tkachuk
The Senators have built a strong, young core featuring Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, and Jake Sanderson, among others. And Ullmark believes the squad is ready to take the next step.
“It’s a very dangerous and quick team,” said the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner. “But they can also be pretty heavy. They’ve got Brady Tkachuk that is pulling the boat forward, and he can do everything out there.”
Tkachuk has emerged into a superstar at the NHL level, and the Senators will need him to be even better if they hope to compete in a gauntlet of an Atlantic Division.
But no one will be as important to this team as Ullmark next season. Ottawa sported the league's lowest team save percentage last year (.884) with both Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg struggling mightily at times.
On the other hand, Ullmark was 22-10-7 with a sparkling 2.57 goals-against average and .915 save percentage in 2023-24, and he posted two shutouts over 40 regular-season games.
But with Swayman set to earn a massive new contract and Ullmark at the end of his, it made sense that the Bruins trade the Swede to a place where he'll undoubtedly be the No. 1.
Now, Ullmark will have the opportunity to write the next chapter of his career on a Senators team that is once again eyeing a spot in the dance come April.
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