After Saturday’s loss to the New York Islanders, Linus Ullmark admitted that he was very pissed off, “for a long time.” A loss like Saturday’s leaves a mark on a dressing room — but there are two ways to respond.
That’s why it was important that Ullmark spoke Monday after practice about remaining confident and not overreacting to one game. The Swede sounded calm and composed, despite how the weekend went.
“I still feel very confident, I’m doing a lot of good things out there,” said Ullmark. “I’ve said it before, I’m a very harsh critic [of] myself when it comes to these sorts of things. Last game was a very bitter loss.”
Ullmark added he watched the game back and despite the shortcomings, was able to take a lot of positives from it, too.
“The season is long, and you can’t dwell too long in the past, because it’s going to eat you up. And it doesn’t really matter now, tomorrow is a new game against Edmonton and you can’t dwell on what you did against the Islanders.”
So while the frustration lingers, as Ullmark notes, Tuesday spells an opportunity for the Sens to get back on the same page. “When you know you are a better team than you actually show out there, there’s going to come a lot of frustration,” says Ullmark.
“Life is all dandy, nice, and sweet when you’re winning hockey games left and right, but when you’re losing, and you’re in a little bit of a grind, it’s a little bit tougher getting up in the morning, the sun is not as bright and warm, and things are not as easy. That’s something that you learn by experience as well, that you just have to stay in the barber shop for as long as possible, and soon enough, you’re going to get it cut.”
Ullmark wasn’t alone with the strong emotions felt after the Sens allowed the Islanders to claw back from 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 leads on Saturday afternoon.
Every player that spoke after Monday’s practice echoed similar sentiments about the lingering feeling in the dressing room following the 5-4 loss. Drake Batherson might have said it best — “it stinks.”
So it was important, after a day off on Sunday following three games in four days, that a “good day at practice” was had, by Travis Green’s standards.
“We had a good meeting with our group, a lot of teaching, a lot of video work, emphasis on how we want to play, the identity that we want to play to — playing for 60 minutes — our game’s a little sporadic,” said Green. “And yeah, I thought it was a good day.”
Jake Sanderson says that the team is excited to come to the rink every day, and especially excited to play Edmonton on Tuesday.
He relayed that in the morning’s meeting, a topic was finding the team’s identity, like they did last season, when the team shook off an 8-11-1 start to finish with 45 wins and a playoff berth, the young core’s first.
“You have to rebuild your team identity every single year,” said Sanderson. “We finished off the year great, and we really liked where our game [was] at, but you know, it’s a fresh year, fresh start for every single team. So you’ve got to come to camp, come into the season, you know, ready to rebuild that identity for the team.”
Green said getting back to “playing connected,” the way he felt the team played down the stretch last season, was a long-winded answer.
“There’s a little bit of risk in our game that I haven’t liked, but sometimes it’s as simple [as] rimming the puck instead of sauce-chipping. I could probably stand here for half-an-hour to talk about how you get connected. But we haven’t been, and when we have been, we’ve been playing a lot of good hockey so far.
Like I’ve said, our 5-on-5 game has been really good at parts of the game, and loose at other parts. That’s a hard way to win in the NHL. I don’t think we’re a team that can just outscore other teams. We don’t have 40- [or] 50-goal scorers on our team. If we start getting into a coin flip on who can score the most goals, we’re probably going to be on the wrong end. I thought the other night was a good example.
I know obviously when you lose a game with a minute left you’re not going to be in a great mood after the game, but there’s certain games that are good teaching moments for the group. That was a game that if we just stuck with the game and took what the game gave us, but also took what we earned, we’re probably going to get two points and for sure, one.”
