Ullmark, Senators showing ‘resilience’ in Eastern 1st Round against Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Linus Ullmark deflects criticism with the same ease he’s currently turning away shots.

And his Ottawa Senators teammates seem to be thriving on it.

The Senators goalie started being second-guessed after he allowed six goals on 24 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference First Round. Indeed, Ottawa coach Travis Green found himself having to defend Ullmark through the first three games of the best-of-7 series, all losses.

But the questions surrounding him seem to have subsided after Ottawa has since rebounded to win the next two games, including a 29-save shutout in a 4-0 victory in Game 5. In the process, the 31-year-old seems to be getting better and more confident, which bodes well for a Senators team that has trimmed the series deficit to 3-2 heading into Game 6 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, MAX).

“Talk is what it is,” Ullmark said. “I don’t really read media nowadays, something I learned throughout my career. It doesn’t really matter what [outsiders] say. It’s about what’s being said in the locker room and what we need to be doing.

“There’s always going to be people doubting you and there’s always going to be people who have your back. That’s one of the reasons I stay away from it. You have to focus on one game at a time.”

There is no doubt Ullmark’s teammates are in his corner. They’ve seen firsthand what he can do when he gets on a roll since being acquired from the Boston Bruins for goalie Joonas Korpisalo, forward Mark Kastelic and a first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft (forward prospect Dean Letourneau) on June 24, 2024.

Ullmark, who won the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL in 2022-23, gave the Senators stability at the position. He was 25-14-3 with a 2.72 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 44 games (43 starts) during the regular season. He finished on a 13-3-1 run, a stint that secured the Senators a Stanley Cup Playoff berth for the first time since 2017.

“I think he’s showing what our team identity is,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “Just his resilience. And it starts with him. He’s a leader in that way.”

Tkachuk pointed to Ullmark’s play in Game 5 as an example.

“When our backs were up against the wall, his true self comes out,” Tkachuk said. “So does his confidence, and that just gives us so much confidence about him.

“We don’t remember what happened in Game 1, to him, to any of us. Honestly, we are just moving forward to the next game. That’s what our mindset has been. Good, bad, no matter what, move on to the next one.”

It’s a philosophy Ullmark shares. Goalies, after all, need to have short memories.

“You know, it really doesn’t matter in a playoff series what [the scores are],” Ullmark said. “You can lose 1-0, you can lose 6-2. It’s still a loss.

“My job is to stop pucks. Every night, it’s about battling out there with the other goalie and the other team and try to make more saves than the other guy. Sometimes it comes down to luck, too, when it comes to certain areas of the game. But you’ve got to earn it every single night.

“You can’t just think good things are going to happen every single night because you never know.”

Ullmark learned that lesson with the Bruins during the 2023 postseason.

Boston was coming off a memorable regular season in which it finished with 135 points (65-12-5), the most in NHL history, and held a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference First Round against the Florida Panthers. But things changed dramatically -- the Panthers reeled off three straight victories to stun the Bruins.

As such, does he feel the Maple Leafs are starting to feel the pressure after losing the past two games after going up 3-0 in this series?

“It’s hard to say,” Ullmark said. “Each group is different. Some groups are better handling it than others. It’s all about not getting too high or too low.

“That’s the biggest thing about the playoffs, even if you go up 2-0 or 3-1 in the series, you can’t get too high. You can’t let yourself think the task ahead is going to be easy. At the same time, if you are losing 2-0 or 3-1, you can’t get too low. You can’t start doing random stuff out there. That’s why we’re trying to keep a day-to-day mentality.”

One that has Ullmark and the Senators improving notably with each game.