The Ottawa Senators Have a Goalie Problem

As the Ottawa Senators head into the second half of their season, it’s time to come to terms with the truth- their goaltending is a massive issue right now. With Linus Ullmark out for the next while with an injury, the Senators are being forced to rely on goalies that they can’t trust right now. Let’s dive into the details on the problem and come up with potential solutions for the Ottawa Senators goaltending issues.

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Average Offensively

Problem number one with having bad goaltending is the average offensive group that the Ottawa Senators are currently working with. Early in the year, it seemed like this might not be the case- through the first ten games, the Senators sat tied for fourth in the league with 3.9 goals per game. Since then, though, they’ve fallen way off. They now sit 22nd in the league with 2.85 goals per game. They’re even worse at five on five. Their 67 five on five goals ranks 29th in the NHL.

Teams like Tampa Bay and Colorado can fight through goaltending issues because they’re loaded offensively. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for the Senators. It’s hard to imagine them being a whole lot better than average, either. That’s based on history, on two fronts. First of all, Travis Green has never been one to get a ton of offense out of his teams. He’s looking for more of a hard-nosed, two way style of game. Second, this core group has been together for a few seasons now and have never been better than average as an offense. They were 20th in goals last season and 18th the year before.

Early on, it looked like Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson had taken their games to higher levels. Now, Stützle’s sitting at 41 points through 40 games, while Batherson has fallen under a point per game, with 36 points.

Current Goaltenders Numbers

I mentioned this about the offense and the same holds true for the goalies- based on their history, things don’t look promising. At all. Who knows, maybe they can catch lightning in a bottle- that’s what happened many years ago with Andrew Hammond. More often than not, though, history is a good way to predict the future. So let’s take a look at the stats over the last two seasons for the three goalies that the Senators are currently relying on.

• Anton Forsberg: 44 games, .888 SV%
• Mads Sogaard: 8 games, .846 SV%
• Leevi Merilainen: 4 games, .884 SV%

Add it all together and the three have combined for an .882 SV% in just under 3,000 minutes of action. Sogaard and Merilainen have mainly been in the AHL during that time, so here are their numbers in that league:

• Mads Sogaard: .908 SV% in 40 games
• Leevin Merilainen: .905 SV% in 37 games

Decent numbers, but not dominant by any means. Sogaard has regressed this season, battling injury and inconsistency. As a team, the Sens rank 19th in the NHL with an .898 SV%. That of course is propped up by Ullmark. The only teams to make the playoffs last season with a team save percentage below .900 were the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs. They were both bailed out by top five offenses.

The Road Ahead

A big part of the equation is how long Ullmark is out. If it’s long term, then Steve Staios needs to explore the trade market. With the three guys above, the Ottawa Senators would essentially be hoping to get lucky. If they played up to the numbers above, the Senators would be getting bottom five goaltending in the league. There is some hope with Merilainen; he’s shown some promise in limited action this season. Relying too much on a 22, inexperienced goalie might not be the smartest choice.

Who should Staios target in a trade? Here are a few veterans  that could make sense: Jonathan Quick, Petr Mrazek, Dan Vladar, and James Reimer. John Gibson is probably the best goalie available, but he makes $6.4 million for two more seasons beyond this year. The other option is to try to improve the defense, which could also use some work. But that’s worthy of a whole article of its own!