As the 2024-25 season is three games in for the Ottawa Senators, the team and fans are riding high optimistic for success this season with a 2-1-0 record. One reason the Senators have high hopes this season is due to Linus Ullmark being the new starting goaltender.
Ullmark made 30 saves in the season opening win, including 16 in the third period. The hype around Ullmark entering the first game of the season was worth it, but not everyone seems to be on board with the hype surrounding the Senators' goaltending.
Concern with Ullmark's backup Anton Forsberg is understandable due to his inconsistency, especially after he got pulled in Monday's win against the Los Angeles Kings. Forsberg needs to earn the Senators' trust back, but being Ullmark's can be a better role for him. With a power ranking that came out on the Senators' first game of the season, the goalie tandem is eager to silence critics more this season, but have an extra spark for the next two games.
Senators goalie tandem ranked eighth best in the NHL for 2024-25
Bleacher Report's Adam Gretz wrote an article six days ago titled "Power Ranking Every NHL Team's Goalie Tandem for 2024-25." Gretz ranked the Senators the eighth best goalie tandem in the NHL, and the ranking might be unfair due to Ullmark being a Vezina Trophy winner.
The seven teams ranked ahead of the Senators with their goalie tandems:
7. New Jersey Devils (Jacob Markstrom, Jake Allen)
6. Tampa Bay Lightning (Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jonas Johansson)
5. Nashville Predators (Jusse Saros, Scott Wedgewood)
4. Winnipeg Jets (Connor Hellebuyck, Kaapo Kahkonen)
3. Florida Panthers (Sergei Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight)
2. New York Islanders (Ilya Sorokin, Semyon Varlamov)
1. New York Rangers (Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Quick)
The top five teams deserve where they are ranked, but the Senators being behind the Lightning and Devils might be unfair. In a twist, the Senators' next two games on the schedule are against the Devils and Lightning, so the next two games offer a chance for the Senators to show that they have a better goalie tandem than the Devils and Lightning.
The Senators play the Devils tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET, and Markstrom hasn't won a Vezina Trophy in his career, but Ullmark did in 2023. While Forsberg has had inconsistency problems and his Senators tenure could be in jeopardy after allowing in thee goals on nine shots on Monday, Forsberg has had a better goals against average over Allen in each of the last three seasons.
Allen does have a 0.50 goals against average this season in his two starts, but Markstrom is the Devils' number one goaltender, and Allen has been unable to stay consistent the past three seasons. So far this season, Markstrom has a 2.79 goals against average and Ullmark has 2.58 goals against average this season.
To no surprise, Vasilevskiy is dominant to start the season. Vasilevskiy has allowed in one goal in each game in Tampa's first two games to help Tampa start 2-0-0. However, Johansson has some concern as the backup. Last season in Tampa, Johansson finished with a 3.37 goals against average, which was below Forsberg's. Both Ullmark and Vasilevskiy have won a Vezina Trophy before, but Johansson didn't have a better season than Forsberg last season. The Senators will play the Lightning on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET.
Both games against the Devils and Lightning offers a chance for the Senators to be a surprising team. The Devils will enter their game against the Senators tomorrow in first place in the Metropolitan Division, and the Lightning game on Saturday is an important early division game. The Senators will need their goaltending to help them prevail in both games.