Gameday: Senators prepare for Jets without Ullmark or Forsberg

With five games left on the stretch of nine consecutive road contestsp, the Senators leave town without either of their top two goalies.

Published Dec 28, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green. Photo by David Zalubowski /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SENATORS (18-14-2) at JETS (25-10-1)

Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, Canada Life Centre

TV: SN360 City SNW Radio: TSN5

Odds: OTT -196 WPG +158

HOLIDAY’S OVER

The Ottawa Senators face a difficult test as they begin the back half of their nine-game road trip.

With the National Hockey League’s mandate holiday break over, Ottawa is coming off a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers last Sunday.

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If you’re going to be one of the top teams in the league, you’ve got to beat the top teams, so this will be a good measuring stick for the Senators.

“We’ve got some good tests coming up on the road, and we’re going to have to be on top of our game,” head coach Travis Green said Friday after a quick skate for the players at the Bell Sensplex.

An area that must improve is the Senators’ power play.

They haven’t scored with the man advantage since Dec. 1 against the Anaheim Ducks. They’re 0-for-16 in six games since then.

The puck movement has been good, but the Senators need to shoot the puck more and get more shots through to the net. The skills are there and the Senators need to be able to execute.

Goalie Leevi Merilainen eyes the bouncing puck in the Senators’ game against the Canucks at Vancouver on Dec. 21. Photo by Rich Lam /Getty Images

IT’S UP TO THE KIDS

Goaltender Linus Ullmark didn’t make the trip to Winnipeg because of a back injury and Anton Forsberg will miss his fifth straight game with that “minor” ailment that occurred while he was preparing to face the Pittsburgh Penguins two weeks ago.

This isn’t good, folks.

Leevi Meriainen is expected to start against Winnipeg, and we’ll likely see Mads Sogaard on Sunday night against the Minnesota Wild. It looks like Forsberg should be ready to face the Dallas Stars next Thursday, but we’ll see.

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“We’ve got full confidence in those two guys who came up (from Belleville of the American Hockey League), and they’ve been playing great down there,” winger Drake Batherson said.

This is the second time this season that Ullmark will miss time with an injury.

‘We don’t all the sudden change because of who’s in the net,” Green said. “It’s not like we’re going to say, ‘Let’s play run and gun hockey because Linus is in the net.’ We want to play a good 200-foot game no matter who is playing for us.”

THE ROSTERS

OTTAWA

Forwards

Tkachuk/Stutzle/Giroux

Greig/Norris/Batherson

Cousins/Pinto/Gregor

Reinhardt/Ostapchuk/Gaudette

Defencemen

Chabot/Jensen

Sanderson/Hamonic

Kleven/Bernard-Docker

Goaltenders

Merilainen/Sogaard

WINNIPEG

Forwards

Connor/Scheifele/Vilardi

Ehlers/Namestnikov/Perfetti

Neiderreiter/Lowry/Appleton

Barron/Gustafsson/Iafallo

DEFENCEMEN

Morrissey/DeMelo

Pionk/Miller

Heinola/Gustafsson

Stanley/Coghlan

GOALTENDERS

Hellebuyck/Comrie

INJURY REPORT

OTTAWA

D Artem Zub (IR, fractured foot), F Michael Amadio (concussion, out for a lengthy period); F David Perron (undisclosed time length, upper body), G Anton Forsberg (day-to-day, lower body); G Linus Ullmark (back, didn’t make the trip).

WINNIPEG

D Haydn Fleury (lower body, day-to-day), D Logan Stanley (lower body, day-to-day), D Dylan Samberg (IR, fractured foot).

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