Is Ottawa a goaltender away from the Playoffs? Where do they go from here?

[WarriorofTime]

A disappointing season for Ottawa no doubt. They won’t give away their pick this year but have to soon so they should probably go for the playoffs. Margins are narrow in the NHL and their goaltending was a terrible Achilles heel for them. What can they do to improve in that area and would an upgrade put them on track?

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[A1LeafNation]

Talbot Gustavsson and all the other goalies seem like good goalies when they leave...perhaps its the sloppy defence that's the issue.

 

[Rafafouille]

Talbot

2022 wild .911%
2023 Sens .898
2024 Kings .916%


Nah I'm thinking it's the coaching/D, not the goalies.


Forsberg also dropped from a .917 in 2022 to .902 in 2023 to .885 this year. Kids starting scoring at will last year and suddenly all their goalies suck. It's not a coincidence.

 

[The Red Line]

Their issues go far, far beyond just goaltending.

 

[ORRFForever]

The team makes NO sense. They never do. Such a mess of an organization.

I'll believe they are playoff bound when I see it.

 

[Metroid]

They have stuztle and an extra 5 mil, they should get a good goalie for that

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

I do believe they can be a good team with a new goalie+coaching

 

[Goose]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

I do believe they can be a good team with a new goalie+coaching

That’s so ruthless how it shows the Sharks should be even worse than they are.

To answer OPs question: no.

Ottawa needs more than a goaltender to extinguish the dumpster fire.

 

[RCGP2]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

I do believe they can be a good team with a new goalie+coaching

That tweet has them still not in the playoffs.....

 

[ottawa]

Yes, they're a goalie away from the playoffs

...along with a couple of top 4 defensemen and a couple of top 6 forwards and an NHL level coach

 

[kingsholygrail]

Yes, they're a goalie away from the playoffs

...along with a couple of top 4 defensemen and a couple of top 6 forwards and an NHL level coach

And have a couple teams in the East tumble so they have a level to rise to.

 

[Kegu]

That’s so ruthless how it shows the Sharks should be even worse than they are.

To answer OPs question: no.

Ottawa needs more than a goaltender to extinguish the dumpster fire.

But thats not what it says. It says the sharks should be pacing for 6 more points than they are

 

[Kegu]

That tweet has them still not in the playoffs.....

I think one could make a reasonable assumption that looking at the current season and extrapolating that to the expected standings in the tweet that they would hold the first tiebreaker over philly, but you're right they would merely be tied for the fnal playoff spot.

 

[Burkeocet]

They’ve had some of the worst goaltending in recent memory from a whole team but the issues go beyond that. It’s both. They’d be better and possibly even a playoff team if they could get a save but they don’t have a ton of depth, grit or really much of anything they need to be successful.

Hopefully Josh Norris can live up to that contract when he’s healthy because that’s an ugly one.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Their issues go far, far beyond just goaltending.

Yes, they're a goalie away from the playoffs

...along with a couple of top 4 defensemen and a couple of top 6 forwards and an NHL level coach

I feel like posts like this are overestimating how much of a roster improvement is needed for a turnaround.

Vancouver massively improved this year despite really only adding Hronek, Suter and Brueger, thanks to their goaltending bouncing back& getting a new coach.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

A disappointing season for Ottawa no doubt. They won’t give away their pick this year but have to soon so they should probably go for the playoffs. Margins are narrow in the NHL and their goaltending was a terrible Achilles heel for them. What can they do to improve in that area and would an upgrade put them on track?

Every team is a goaltender away from the playoffs.

Also no.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

Goaltending doesn't exists in a vacuum. There's always an interplay between the team defence, the defencemen and the goaltending.

 

[Iwishihadaspacebar]

Goaltending is clearly an issue, but the fact that goalies leave and thrive says it is a system issue. The Bruins this year have shown that if you have a solid system, that everyone knows, you can get guys to do their job and thrive. Zacha, Coyle, etc have been put into scenarios that were rare for them in recent times and because the system works, they do well. The Bruins have good goalies but they look even better in that system.

Ottawa seems the opposite of that. They rightly went down the route of acquiring top end talent (Stutzle, Sanderson) but then decided to change direction with grit (Greig, Boucher) then back to talent (Chychrun). The change of management may see this improve but I don't see what their identity or plan is, and they look like they want to be everything.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

That’s so ruthless how it shows the Sharks should be even worse than they are.

To answer OPs question: no.

Ottawa needs more than a goaltender to extinguish the dumpster fire.

I feel like posts like this are overestimating how much of a roster improvement is needed for a turnaround.

Vancouver massively improved this year despite really only adding Hronek, Suter and Brueger, thanks to their goaltending bouncing back& getting a new coach.

Huh? They replaced two thirds of their D. Adding Soucy, Hronek, Cole and Zadorov is a massive turnover. Only Hughes and Myers are holdovers on D. Also, Demko getting healthy was a key factor too.
But one of the primary factors was a completely revamped D.

 

[Divine]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

I do believe they can be a good team with a new goalie+coaching

This is exactly what they said last season.

So they decided to let Cam Talbot walk who has a .911 save percentage the year prior to signing in Ottawa, and a .915 save percentage the year after leaving Ottawa.

They signed Korpisalo who had a .914 save percentage last year to replace him.

I don’t think the goalie is the problem.

 

[Peasy]

Should teach the all great stutzle how to play some defence and properly win games.

 

[Bruce Granville]

They need to figure out why every goalie is better elsewhere…

 

[JimmyApples]

Goaltending stinks and the league also screws Ottawa every year with a bad schedule and sketchy reffing. Until that changes, no playoffs.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Sens have literally the worst goaltending this season, even with average goaltending they would have been in the playoffs(see tweet).

I do believe they can be a good team with a new goalie+coaching

Most teams that play bad defensively have goalies that play below expected...weird.

 

[jbeck5]

They need to fix a hell of a lot more than goaltending.

Don't get me wrong, a hot goalie all year can take any team to the playoffs.

But this team has sooo many issues that I can't see them being a contender any time soon.

So much wasted value gone...

They may need to restart the rebuild and do it right this time.