Yahoo Sports Ottawa Senators Organization Loses Two More Goalies To Injury
The top six goalies in the Ottawa Senators organization have now all missed time this season due to injury. It's becoming ridiculous.
After injuries to the big two, Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg, Sens head coach Travis Green is currently using his third and fourth-string options, Leevi Merilainen and Mads Sogaard.
Meanwhile, down on the farm, Belleville Senators head coach David Bell has an even bigger problem. After losing Merilainen and Sogaard in the recall to Ottawa, he's now lost both of their replacements.
After injuries this week to Malcolm Subban and Michael Simpson, Bell is now down to his fifth and sixth-string options. On Tuesday, the B-Sens signed ECHL goalies Mark Sinclair (Bloomington ECHL) and Alexis Gravel (Orlando ECHL) to professional tryouts.
Two weeks ago, Bell was probably feeling pretty good about his situation. The B-Sens had played a good chunk of the season without Sogaard and Merilainen, who both missed significant time due to injury. Sogaard was out for over two months, while Merilainen was absent for most of November. But now his top two options had returned—healthy and rounding into form.
Then the goalie dominoes began to fall again.
Bell might quietly feel like he's been struck by a voodoo goalie curse right now, but he seems to be taking things in stride.
"Well, Sinclair has been here before, and he's had some really good games for us," Bell told the Belleville Senators Entertainment Network. "So he knows some of the guys. And then the Gravel kid, I've never met him. So you know what? He's going to come in. He's had a great year in Orlando, and he's got some great stats."
Bell says that having two new goalies changes nothing in terms of the club's game plan or preparations.
"The game's the same. Just gotta stop the puck, just gotta keep it on our side of the goal line. And I'm sure the guys will rally around having a couple of guys in there that aren't regulars in our lineup.
"I don't think if we had Linus Ullmark in there, we would play any different."
With two games of AHL experience, both in Belleville the past two seasons, Sinclair got the first opportunity to start on Tuesday in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Utica Comets. He gave up four goals on 23 shots. Gravel was just named the ECHL Goalie of the Week (Dec. 16-22) with a 2-0-1 record, a 1.29 goals-against average, and a .969 save percentage.
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