Senators frustrated with inconsistent goaltending after loss to Red Wings

OTTAWA – Forgive the Ottawa Senators if they seem just a little frustrated.

Monday night the Senators (20-16-5) played well enough to win but a few costly mistakes and subpar goaltending cost them a critical two points against a divisional rival.

Ottawa fell 5-3 to the Detroit Red Wings and yet the score could have easily been reversed considering how they played.

The reality is this is not the first loss that can be attributed to poor goaltending.

The Senators, who are looking to advance to the playoffs for a second straight year, haven’t had consistency in net all season.

Linus Ullmark, who is currently on a personal leave from the team, was inconsistent from the start of the season. With a 14-8-5 record and .881 save percentage Ullmark could be very good or very bad. His play had improved of late going 5-2-1 in nine December games before he took a leave.

In his absence Leevi Merilainen is carrying the weight of keeping things afloat. It’s a heavy lift for the 23-year-old goaltender who has limited NHL experience with just 27 games to his credit.

Monday night Merilainen was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots in the first period.

“I just didn’t like a couple of the goals,” said head coach Travis Green.

When asked about the challenges his goaltender’s have faced this season Green was forthcoming.

“I mean, the one thing we deal with is, and talk about with our group is just being honest,” Green said. “We play that game 10 times, we’d win eight or nine times and that’s just reality. We try to deal in reality. We try not to look for something that’s not there. And the truth is, we played a really good hockey game (Monday).”

General manager Steve Staios met with media on Saturday and gave a vote of confidence to Merilainen, Hunter Shepard and Mads Sogaard, who will be counted on in Ullmark’s absence. Shepard is currently in Ottawa serving as Merilainen’s backup and saw his first action Monday playing in relief of Merilainen. He allowed two goals on 12 shots.

“They’re all good goaltenders,” said Staios. “It’s amazing, with the goaltending position, you can talk to any team in the league and it’s under the microscope. You can have players that go through stretches that they don’t have a good month, or a good 10 games or whatever it might be and obviously the focus is on goaltending. But we have full faith in the goaltending.”

With no timeline on Ullmark’s return, Staios faces the challenge of deciding whether to keep faith with his current goaltenders or attempt to acquire reinforcements.

With the Eastern Conference being extremely tight, all 16 teams are over .500, there are very few sellers at this point. A two-game swing can move a team in or out of contention at this point.

With the upcoming roster freeze for the Olympic break coming Feb. 4 and lasting until Feb. 22 teams will have little time to ponder decisions before the March 6 trade deadline.

“Typically, when you see a little bit more of a divide, you see you have teams that are looking to recoup some assets and move on,” said Staios. “It’ll be interesting, for sure. Even heading into the holiday freeze, there had been some dialogue, but I sense that a lot of teams are sort of just in the middle right now, trying to evaluate where their group is.”

The Senators head west for a two-game road trip where things won’t get any easier as they take on the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2026.