Linus Ullmark’s return to form has given the Senators some new life

The Ottawa Senators have had a resurgence, winning five of their last six games and going on a 7-2-1 stretch in their last 10 games. That’s put them right back in the playoff race, as they currently hold the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

A big reason for that has been the play of goaltender Linus Ullmark in the summer. After giving up assets and committing to him with a contract extension in the summer, Ullmark had a disappointing start to the season, but has turned it around during this recent run for the Sens.

Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about Ullmark and the Sens’ turnaround on Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: It’s legit, but they’re also the beneficiary of the New York Ranger’s falling on their head. I mean, the Ranger’s slide out of a playoff spot, the Sens, at the same exact period and time, they get it together.

You mentioned Ullmark, 6-0-1. Do you know what the save percentage is in the seven-game point streak?

Tyler Yaremchuk: Probably something ridiculous.

Frank Seravalli: .950%. He’s so good.

So Ullmark has played a lot better after struggling for a good chunk of the season to start. It seemed like he really turned it on right at US Thanksgiving. And he is fully capable of carrying this team as they figure out some of their other issues.

It’s interesting to look at the Sens because a lot of their underlying numbers and metrics for the bulk of this season would indicate that that team has, under Travis Green, played a lot better defense, but for a long period of time weren’t getting the results. So it seemed like this kind of push and pull would be evening out a bit for Ottawa. And they have now found a spot.

One of the big questions that we’ve been asking ourselves, watching this Eastern Conference turtle race between the Sabres, Sens, Red Wings, other teams that have shared that sort of same lot in life, is who’s going to be the team to break through? But then the next question always became which team is going to fall out of these eight teams that are in the East and in a playoff spot? Who really isn’t going to make the playoffs among this group?

And now you see a window in time in which it’s entirely possible that the Rangers don’t recover from the spiral, maybe they’re a team that does miss the playoffs this year. The Tampa Bay Lightning are on pace for 94 points. They are a little bit more vulnerable than they’ve been in recent years. So there is an opening for the Sens and they’ve taken full advantage.

You can watch the full episode here…