The Senators haven't closed the book on running back last year's goaltending combination, not publicly anyway.
If you ask the average Ottawa Senators fan what most ails the NHL team, one of the most common answers you'll hear is the need for improvement in goal. The team's management entirely agrees with that.
We could examine the goaltending in Ottawa through many different lenses, but you won't find a single scenic view. This stat sums it up: Among NHL goalies who played at least 20 games, Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg finished in a seven-way tie for 55th in save percentage.
Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Dave Poulin participated in a Q&A at a team event with season ticket holders on Wednesday. One question posed was whether the team was happy with its two goalies or seeking an upgrade.
"The team is not happy with the goaltending tandem," Poulin said. "But I don't think the goaltending tandem was happy with the goaltending tandem."
The analysis of goaltending is always a tricky business — kind of a chicken or egg thing. Which came first, the poor team defence or the poor goaltending? One thing is sure: You rarely have one without the other.
Some believe that teams that can't defend will always have goalies with poor stats. Others point to analytics, insisting they tell the entire story of a goalie's quality, even on a terrible team, often discounting intangibles like erosion of confidence.
It sounds like the Senators are still in summer school, studying which theory they subscribe to and where to assign blame. Poulin brought up Los Angeles, where Korpisalo looked so good for the Kings in the second half of last season.
"Quite frankly, the defence in front of (Korpisalo) wasn't as good (in Ottawa) as it was when he went to LA and played so well down the stretch last year," Poulin said. "We didn't help our goaltenders very much."
So, if we agree that poor team defence is a significant factor in goaltending quality, can the required improvement this fall come from the two goalies the Senators have?
"It can, but I think that's still to be determined," Poulin said.