Can Mads Sogaard be so good that he can help the Ottawa Senators get to the playoffs?
We’re about to find out with veteran goaltender Cam Talbot likely gone for the rest of the season with an oblique muscle injury.
With Anton Forsberg also done for the season with torn medial collateral ligaments in both knees, the 22-year-old Sogaard, who was to suit up for the eighth game of National Hockey League career against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night, will get a chance to carry the ball.
The 35-year-old Talbot left the Senators’ five-game road Wednesday to return to Ottawa, and it’s highly doubtful we’ll see him suit up with Ottawa again.
It’s expected Sogaard will also start Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks, and then the Senators will start Kevin Mandolese in net on Sunday against the Calgary Flames. The road trip wraps up Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers.
“When you know what’s going on (in net), the team plays with a little bit of fear,” TSN colour analyst Jamie McLennan, a former NHL goalie, said Thursday from Seattle. “They know they can’t be loose. Tampa plays loose because they’ve got a rock star like (Andrei Vasilevskiy). How many times do you see Tampa get out-chanced and then they get their game rolling.
“Right now, the team has two goalies with nine collective starts between two goalies and they’re trying to make the playoffs. Is your team going to play with a lot of structure? Are they going to try to win 1-0? To me, that’s the type of mindset that they’ve got to have.”
The Senators know they’ll have to battle through adversity.
Head coach D.J. Smith wanted to see a better defensive effort than what the Senators gave in a 5-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday in the first game of the road trip. The Senators lost 8-4 to Seattle at home in January.
“It’s different on the road,” Smith told reporters in Seattle before the game. “This team is four lines deep, and they check. We have to have that mentality. If we check them, we’re going to get more opportunities. We can’t just go in thinking of ways to score.”
McLennan was a backup throughout most of his NHL career, so he knows how difficult this test is for the Senators. They went into Thursday night’s action trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins by five points for the final wildcard spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
Ottawa has gone from Talbot and Forsberg, who both have plenty of experience, to two untested rookies and that’s not easy on the mindset.
“I know that feeling because I played behind Mikka Kiprusoff (Calgary), Robert Luongo (Florida) and Grant Fuhr (St. Louis). There’s a big dropoff behind those players and Jamie McLennan, so teams play differently. They know what they have in net,” McLennan said.
“Sogaard is a goaltender. He didn’t play well in Chicago, but that was his first dud of a game. If he establishes his game right away, then they’re going to be OK. They’re sink or swim with him, and ultimately the team will play different, but they’ve got to play with some respectful fear. They’ve got to have some fear because they’ve got nine collective starts in net.”
That’s not an insult to Sogaard or Mandolese, just reality. The Senators need to do a good job supporting their young goalies.
Sure, we’d love to see another run like goalie Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond had in 2015, going 20-1-2 down the stretch, and it’s romantic to think about a repeat, but there’s not a lot of chance of that.
“That’s a bit of stretch,” McLennan said. “Meaningful games mean a lot to this group, and I think that’s great, but they also have to understand that they did it to themselves with their play at the start of the season. That circles back to Talbot’s (rib) injury (in camp). He missed five weeks and that forced Forsberg to play five weeks and then you lose (top centre) Josh Norris.
“The Hamburglar run? There’s a reason why it was a one-in-a-million thing and you can’t just replicate that because it’s recent in people’s minds. It’s nice to be able to talk about it, but I don’t think that’s the difference.”
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ottawasun/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tyler-boucher-ottawa-senators-ottawa-67s.jpg?quality="90&strip=all&w=576 2x" height="750" loading="lazy" src="https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ottawasun/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tyler-boucher-ottawa-senators-ottawa-67s.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288" width="1000"/>
GOING UNDER THE KNIFE
The Senators confirmed Thursday that Ottawa 67’s winger Tyler Boucher would have season-ending shoulder surgery after trying to rehab an injury without success.
“In consultation with the Senators’ medical staff, it has been determined that Tyler requires a surgical procedure to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder,” Senators general manager PierreDorion said in a statement released Thursday.
“Tyler suffered the injury while playing with the United States at the world junior championship and then returned to Ottawa to rehabilitate in an attempt to continue his season with the 67’s. After aggravating the injury in a game against the Kingston Frontenacs last week, it was determined that surgery is the best option.”
The recovery time for Boucher, the Senators’ first-round draft pick in 2021, will be three to four months, meaning he’d be ready for training camp in September. He finished this season with 10 goals and eight assists for 18 points in 32 Ontario Hockey League contests.
Post a Comment