Ullmark looks to build off first season with Senators
With Ullmark handling most of the goaltending duties last season, the Senators ranked seventh in the NHL with a .907 save percentage. While league-wide save percentages have declined over the past decade, that figure marks Ottawa’s best finish relative to other teams since 2014–15, when Craig Anderson and Andrew Hammond backstopped the team to fourth overall.
The Swede would have started more than 43 games last year if he didn’t miss time due to a back injury. Nevertheless, that number still stood as the second-most starts of his career, trailing only his 2022–23 campaign with Boston where he won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.
“There’s going to be a different season this year, for sure,” said Ullmark, referring to a condensed schedule due to the Olympic break in February — a tournament he’s certainly in contention to be playing in.
“That will put more pressure on, probably a lot of teams, not just us, to maybe have a little bit more of a discussion when it comes to playtime and all that, just because it’s so tight between games,” he said, adding that ultimately, he knows it comes down to performance, as every goalie in the league wants to play as much as they can.
“That’s just how it is,” said Ullmark, now entering his eighth full season in the league. “It’s up to each and every one of us to keep playing, keep performing, and trying to do our very best to be a successful team. Together with that is personal growth and a process that if you’re struggling or if you’re not, there’s nothing that really changes from day-to-day.”
Entering his second year with the Sens, Ullmark said he will benefit from comfortability with his teammates.
“I don’t think it’s the system in itself that is hard to get used to,” said Ullmark. “I think it’s more of a personal and player-based type of thing, because everybody that plays in this league has different reads to different situations.”
Ullmark did note that that unfamiliarity was one of the things that made the beginning of last season challenging.
“It turned out to become better and better the longer we went and the more I got to know the guys and their tendencies,” he said. “When someone likes to pinch, when someone likes to dive, when someone likes to block shots, all those things add up.”
