The Ottawa Senators Are Having A Normal One | Defector

"Substandard goaltending is not in itself noteworthy, nor even particularly unique this week. On Tuesday, New Jersey's Jacob Markström allowed nine goals on 24 shots, quite possibly the single worst goaltending performance in the NHL's modern era. On Wednesday, St. Louis's Jordan Binnington allowed seven goals, and was intended to be pulled, but his backup wasn't ready, and was later seen looming. Both incidents were fine examples of the exotic dangers of the scariest job in sports."

"The Senators thought they had solved their longstanding goaltending woes when they signed veteran netminder Linus Ullmark a couple years ago, but Ullmark had been having a rough season when on Dec. 27 Ottawa announced he would be granted a leave of absence for personal reasons. He's been back around the team this week, but there's no timeline for his return and on Thursday afternoon the Sens moved him to non-roster status in order to be able to add another player."

"According to Some Guy On Twitter-a burner account that has since been deleted, and offered no sourcing-Ullmark had been caught cheating by his wife, and to defend himself basically told her all the guys do it. And according to this non-credible and non-believable rumor, Ullmark's wife had informed the wives and girlfriends of the rest of the Senators players and now everybody was mad and in trouble."

Substandard goaltending surfaced across the NHL this week, including Jacob Markström allowing nine goals on 24 shots and Jordan Binnington allowing seven amid a failed pull. The Ottawa Senators allowed eight goals in a loss to Colorado amid ongoing goaltending instability. Linus Ullmark was granted a leave of absence for personal reasons on Dec. 27 and was later moved to non-roster status with no timeline for return. A deleted burner Twitter account propagated an unverified claim that Ullmark had been caught cheating and that the alleged information had been shared among players' partners. The rumor was non-credible and exacerbated team turmoil.

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