OTTAWA — Ottawa Senators fans woke up Sunday to find out their team had a playoff berth in December for the first time since 2016.
Two weekend wins that together made a statement.
Linus Ullmark celebrated by removing the helmet from Shane Pinto’s head after Carolina’s 3-0 road upset win on Friday night. Pinto ended a 19-game scoreless streak and Ullmark was shut out against one of the NHL’s best teams.
This move embodies the joy this team is feeling right now. Pinto and Ullmark represent a combination of secondary scoring and elite goaltending that could turn their season around.
“For me personally, it’s definitely a monkey on my back,” Pinto said after scoring twice, including an empty-net goal, against Carolina.
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Ullmark found out at the last minute on Saturday that he would be playing back-to-back nights when Anton Forsberg was injured in warmups. Ullmark was outstanding in the Senators’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Combined with the weekend’s two games and midweek’s win against the Ducks, it’s the team’s first consecutive winning streak this season.
As far as Pinto is concerned, both the team and he desperately need to break a 19-game drought without scoring. Ottawa’s first two lines have been scoring, but their third and fourth lines, not so much. Pinto is known for his contagious, childlike smile and after Friday’s goal, he opened his presents like a child on Christmas morning.
Although Pinto hasn’t scored in a long time, his game has improved a lot in the past few weeks. Some of that goes back to summer workouts in Nova Scotia with his childhood idol, the kid himself, Sidney Crosby. His hero, now a competitor, noticed this.
“For his speed, he obviously has a great shot as well,” Crosby told Sportsnet.ca before Saturday’s game between Ottawa and Pittsburgh. “Just skating with him was spectacular.”
Pinto describes skating with Crosby each summer as a seventh game. Like Crosby, Pinto has developed into a 200-foot hockey player.
Ullmark, meanwhile, said Pinto’s defensive acumen never diminished during the cold spell.
“While he’s not just scoring goals, he can have a positive impact on the team in different ways. He’s been blocking shots, making high-danger duels, tracking back,” Ullmark said.
According to Evolving Hockey, the Senators have an expected goals against rate of 2.25 per 60 minutes at five-on-five with Pinto on the court, ranking him 135th out of 690 players in the league. Bit. Meanwhile, the Senators shot 51.27 percent from the field with Pinto at five-on-five and had the sixth-highest expected goals rate on the team at 52.93 percent, according to Natural Stat Trick.
It seemed inevitable that he would return to his scoring ways, but I was relieved when that happened.
His hero never doubted him after playing him up close this summer.
“I saw him a couple of (Friday) nights. So, I’m sure he’s feeling good right now,” Crosby said. “But he’s playing good hockey. After watching some of his games, I thought it was just a matter of time.”
On Saturday, Pinto locked down Crosby throughout the game. Crosby only had one chance in the second quarter, but it was denied by Ullmark with a nice block. Crosby’s lack of scoring was largely due to Pinto.
Senators head coach Travis Green acknowledged Pinto’s shutout ability.
“Pinto’s front plays well the way they play and we can beat them in any situation and feel confident,” Green said.
The Senators were 43-10-6 when Shane Pinto scored in a career game. This is a crazy statistic. It illustrates the difference secondary scoring can make. Pinto, Nick Cousins, Michael Amadio, Noah Gregor, Zach Ostapchuk, David Perron and Ridley Gregor combined in 30 games Only 13 goals have been scored, but in their three-game winning streak, five of Ottawa’s 11 goals have come from players or defenders in the bottom six.
The hope for the senators is that pinto beans will rain down when it rains. Signs point to a turnaround: If Pinto and the rest of the secondary scorers can move forward, so will the Senators.
Meanwhile, Pinto’s smiling partner Ullmark has turned the corner. Ullmark has started the season 4-7-1 but has been inconsistent, and it feels like the Senators and their fans have 33 million reasons to worry. (He signed a $33 million contract extension shortly after joining the Senators.)
However, everything changed after working out with goalie coach Justin Peters before a road trip to California. Since then, Ullmark has become the nemesis of vinyl with a record of 6 wins, 0 draws and 1 loss.
Ullmark opened the weekend with a 32-save performance against Carolina. He took his performance to another level against Pittsburgh, including a save that was considered an early candidate for the best save of the season. He jumped out to stop Michael Bunting on a breakaway, but the rebound found former Senator Erik Karlsson, who was able to shoot all over the goal. Ullmark turned around and made a ridiculous one-handed save to prevent a sure goal.
“He saved my ass,” Thomas Chabot said of Ullmark’s save.
There are two Ullmark stories in the statistics.
Statistics based on Natural Stat Trick.
Of course, the sample size is small. Still, this is a stretch of goaltending that the Senators haven’t had in nearly a decade — not since the 2016-17 season, to be exact, which was the last time the Senators finished above .500 and made the playoffs in 12 month. .
What happened that season? Eastern Conference Finals playoffs, just one goal away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.
Even if Ullmark still has a save percentage close to .910 this season, it would give the Senators a real chance to make the playoffs. That would be the fourth-highest save percentage behind the Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, all three of whom are already firmly entrenched in playoff berths.
“I mean, I can’t say enough (good things) about him,” Pinto said. “He’s the reason we won that game (against Carolina). So, I mean, we’re excited to have him.”
Unfortunately, Forsberg looks like he may miss some games with an undisclosed injury, and the Senators don’t expect to be without Ottawa University emergency goaltenders Zack Diertz or Brady Tkachu Brady Tkachuk once again served as the substitute.
The Belleville Senators may recall Levi Merilainen or Max Sogard, both of whom have had underwhelming performances in the American Hockey League this season. For the foreseeable future, this will be Ullmark’s net, as it should be.
Maybe Ottawa doesn’t have to be a goalie graveyard after all.
