The Ottawa Senators weathered the storm, going 2-1 in Linus Ullmark's week-long absence.
As the Ottawa Senators prepare to leave for a three-game road trip, the club announced on Sunday that goalie Mads Sogaard had been sent back to Belleville (AHL). This means starter Linus Ullmark is healthy and ready to return to the Senators' lineup this week.
Ullmark has been out since last Saturday, when the Senators lost on the road to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1. Ullmark finished that game but missed practice the next day, dealing with a strain of some kind.
Since then, with Anton Forsberg and Mads Sogaard holding down the fort, the Senators have gone 2-1. However, they both needed a ton of run support to get those two wins. In Ullmark's absence, Forsberg's save percentage was .863, and Sogaard's was .765.
Forsberg probably got a little swagger back when he sealed the door shut in the dying moments of Saturday's 5-4 regulation win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. So it wouldn't be a shock if the Senators gave Forsberg one more start on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City. After Utah, the Senators don't play again until Friday night in Vegas, so one more game for Ullmark on the bench would allow them to err on the side of caution in his return to live-fire action.
That's one strategy. But head coach Travis Green hates talking about starting goalies until game day. And even then, he probably isn't big on it.
This week's road trip has three games: Utah on Tuesday night (9:15 pm), Vegas on Friday (6 pm), and Colorado on Sunday (9 pm).
The Utah Hockey Club, formerly the Arizona Coyotes, is off to a 4-1-1 start. Vegas is 3-2-1. And it's been a horror show for Colorado so far. The Avs have stumbled out of the gate with a 1-4 record and a team goals-against average of 5.60.