The Ottawa Senators are handing Samuel Ersson the kind of stretch every backup goalie wants and every team hopes it never has to use. With Linus Ullmark on the injured-reserve list, Ersson is in line to make his second straight start Saturday night when Ottawa closes out its three-game homestand against the New York Rangers at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The timing is rough, and the results so far have only added to the pressure. Ersson gave up four goals on 26 shots in Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, and he is still searching for his first win of the season. Through five appearances, he’s 0-3-0 with a 4.59 goals-against average and a .835 save percentage.
That’s not close to the standard Ottawa needs, especially with coach Travis Green saying Ullmark’s recovery window is one to two weeks while also leaving open the sense that the absence could stretch longer. The Senators brought Ersson in to handle this sort of moment, but so far the move has not paid off.
Ersson knows it. He wasn’t trying to soften anything after the loss to San Jose.
“It’s fun. You want to play, but I’ve got to play a whole lot better. It’s not been good, not near good enough,” Ersson said following the loss to the Sharks.
“It sucks. The guys are fighting like crazy.
So you want to play for them and try to help the team. I’ve just got to be better.”
Ottawa took a swing on Ersson in June, bringing him over in what became a three-way deal involving the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers. At the time, the fit came with questions. Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, signed him to a two-year contract carrying a cap hit of $2.2 million US per season.
Those doubts lingered for a reason. Ersson, who spent his whole career with the Flyers before arriving in Ottawa, finished last season with the second-worst save percentage in the league at .870.
The Senators believed a change of scenery might unlock him. That hasn’t happened yet, and the expectation in Ottawa is simple: he doesn’t need to rescue the team, he just needs to stop the puck.
The path ahead makes that even more important. The Senators are about to head out on a five-game Western road swing that begins in Las Vegas on Tuesday and ends in Buffalo on Nov.
- It would be a surprise if Ullmark is available for any of those games, which means the load falls on Ersson and Jonas Johansson, who was recalled from Belleville in the American Hockey League.
Johansson, 31, has had a strong start with Belleville, going 3-1-1 with a 2.92 GAA and a .912 save percentage in five games. He also brings a long NHL résumé, with a 46-36-14 record and stops in Buffalo, Colorado, Florida and Tampa. He and Ullmark were teammates in the Sabres organization.
Johansson was added after Ottawa lost Leevi Merilainen on waivers to the Vancouver Canucks during training camp, a move the Senators were willing to risk because they had no plan to keep three goalies around.
Even with Ullmark out, the belief inside the room is that Ottawa can help whoever is in net by tightening up in front of him. Jordan Spence didn’t hide that point when asked about losing Ullmark.
“He’s a great goalie. He’s been unreal for us,” defenceman Jordan Spence said when asked about losing Ullmark. “But at the same time, I think we’ve got to be more dominant on the ice and in front of Ersson.
“We let Ersson down a little bit (against San Jose), just with some mental errors and mistakes. With Linus out, he’s a great goalie, and hopefully he’ll be back soon.”
Green also pushed back on the idea that Thursday’s loss should be laid at Ersson’s feet. Ottawa gave up too much, and the coach said the goalie had done enough to keep the game within reach.
“He was fine. He gave us a good enough game. I can’t pin this game on him, that’s for sure,” said Green.
Still, the larger reality remains in place. Ullmark is out, Ottawa needs saves, and Ersson is the one with the clearest chance to claim the job. If he can’t settle in, the Senators may have to start looking elsewhere, especially with Ullmark never having played more than 50 games in a season.
For now, though, the opportunity is right in front of Ersson. What he does with it could go a long way toward deciding how long Ottawa can hang on until Ullmark returns.
In Other News...
Senators Rough Night Just Became A Bigger Goalie Problem
A rough night in San Jose got worse for Ottawa before the trip even settled in. The Senators were beaten 6-2 by a Sharks team that picked up its first regulation win of the season, with Colin Graf supplying a goal and an assist and Yaroslav Askarov turning aside 39 shots to keep the game from ever swinging back Ottawas way.
The bigger concern, though, came in the hours after the final horn, when Ottawa moved Linus Ullmark to injured reserve because of a lower-body injury suffered the night before. With the crease already under pressure, the Senators now have even less margin for error as they try to steady the position and keep their early-season goals from slipping further away. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Waste Chance To Build Momentum In Frustrating Sharks Loss
Ottawa had a chance to keep building after a recent push, and for stretches it looked like the Senators were driving play the way they wanted. They outshot San Jose 41-26, but the puck just would not go in often enough, with Tim Stutzle and Jordan Spence providing the only goals in a night that turned frustrating in a hurry.
San Jose, meanwhile, got the kind of boost a struggling team badly needs. Yaroslav Askarov came up with several key saves to keep Ottawa from finding a rhythm, and the Sharks took advantage of their chances on the way to their first regulation win of the season, leaving the Senators to wonder how a game with that much pressure and possession slipped away so quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Let Early Momentum Vanish In A Frustrating Sharks Loss
The early part of the night looked encouraging for Ottawa, which jumped in front on a goal from Tim Sttzle and had enough pace to suggest it could control the game. With Linus Ullmark on injured reserve, Samuel Ersson got the start in goal, and the Senators still had a chance to settle in and ride that opening push against a San Jose team that was willing to make them work for everything.
Instead, the game tilted the wrong way in a hurry as penalties started to shape the flow and the Sharks found a way to punish Ottawa in a major sequence. Collin Graf's shorthanded goal was the jolt that shifted momentum, and San Jose followed with another score in the same stretch to turn a decent start into a frustrating hole before the Senators could reclaim their footing. [Read more 🡒]