Ottawa's goalie news is fresher and probably bigger. Ullmark was second in the league with a 1.33 GAA and a .945 save percentage. He strained something in the 3rd period of the 5-1 win over Florida, needed help getting off the ice, and went on IR. Travis Green says he'll miss 1-2 weeks. The Senators called up Jonas Johansson from Belleville, where he was 3-1-1 with a 2.92 GAA and a .912. Ottawa hasn't said who starts Saturday.
The night after Ullmark went down, things fell apart. On the second half of a back-to-back, without Ullmark, Thomas Chabot or William Eklund, Ottawa got outscored 5-1 over the last 40 minutes and lost 6-2 to San Jose. That's 2 of their last 5 games where the Senators gave up 6 or more, including a 7-2 home loss to St. Louis. They're 7-4-0 on the season, but over the last 5 they've alternated wins and losses, and the losses have been ugly.
The injury list is where the matchup really changes. Eklund had surgery on a torn ankle tendon and is out 10-12 weeks. Chabot is out, which takes their best puck-moving defenseman out of a group that just gave up 6. Kurtis MacDermid is on the injured non-roster list. Losing Chabot and Ullmark together means a thinner blue line in front of a goalie with less NHL experience.
Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET at Canadian Tire Centre. Both teams come in on a day of rest after playing Thursday, so neither has a schedule edge. Fox and the New York power play against a Senators blue line without Chabot is the matchup to watch. Garand gets a chance to show Toronto was a blip. Ottawa needs to prove the Sharks game was about the back-to-back and not about losing Ullmark.