At this time last year, Linus Ullmark was not happy with his game.
He showed up to training camp frustrated with his offseason and felt like he was playing catch-up when preseason action got underway. He even went as far as to call out his own play to the media.
One year later, and Ullmark is feeling confident enough in his own game to joke about his training camp from last year.
And why shouldn’t he be? Yes, it’s only Day 2 of training camp, but the Senators are not wasting time, going as far as to hire referees for their first intra-squad scrimmage. With preseason action starting Monday, the time to prepare for real hockey began a month ago, and Ullmark is looking sharp — and that’s not just referring to his shiny new pads.
“It was even more awful,” said Ullmark when asked about his summer.
“No, it wasn’t,” he laughed. “I was just joking. Sorry Ian [Mendes, the team’s vice president of communications].
“No, it was good. A lot better. It’s really nice not having to start the season here at camp being a minus. It’s nice [to] work through the positives and not feel like you have to catch up on things. So that’s a big step up from last season.”
The Senators sent Maciej Szwoch to Sweden to work with Ullmark for four days at the end of the summer. Ullmark says that it has been nice to have another Swede around — as if the team didn’t have enough — in Szwoch, their recently-appointed coordinator of goaltending who was hired midway through last season as a goaltending consultant.
“He was there when I started my career, over 15 years ago. We shared a lot of good, happy memories. Also some less happy memories,” said Ullmark.
“And so it’s fun, he has certainly earned his role here with the team, I’m really glad for his sake, and it’s going to be interesting to see what he can bring to the organization going forward.”
Despite the fact that the 33-year-old is only entering his third season in Ottawa, he is already rocketing up the team’s all-time goalie leaderboards. He needs two shutouts, 12 wins, and 50 games played to reach the top five in each respective category.
That being said, it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way — he had to take a leave of absence partway through last season to confront mental health struggles. But Ullmark is choosing to take on an optimistic mindset as he prepares for real game action next week.
“We’re sort of like a half-glass-full kind of a team… this team has grown in multiple ways and in multiple levels ever since I came here,” said Ullmark.
“It’s been very fun, and if we had a conversation today regarding where this team was five years ago and comparing it to today, it’s a completely different team [and] personnel. We always say that we have the best in the business when it comes to our physios and those sorts of things, so we are very well taken care of all the way up to management, and owners, and everything like that.
“It’s fun being on this train going forwards and seeing the steps that we’ve taken, not just for us as hockey players, but for the organization as a whole.”
So through all these changes and improvements, has anything stayed the same for Ullmark? His sense of humour certainly hasn’t changed, nor has his ability to continually search for perspective in life.
“It felt like I said goodbye to the people here in June, and then bam, the next time I woke up, I was back here in Ottawa,” said Ullmark.
“That was both very nice but also a little bit bittersweet in a way, in that I didn’t get to enjoy it as much at home as I would like to. But, you know what, I’m getting older, kids are getting older, less time when it comes to the school part, so it’s just the natural order of things.”
