Ullmark's 5-0-0 start has the Senators winning every night he plays

The Senators have not lost a game Linus Ullmark has started this season. He is 5-0-0, and the goalie who won the Vezina Trophy for 2022-23 looks like that player again.

"He's so big, he takes away the whole net and it's pretty awesome," Tim Stützle said after a shootout win over Nashville. "When he's on his game, we have a chance to win every night."

The only other Ottawa goalies to open a season with at least five straight wins are Ray Emery and Dominik Hasek, both in 2005-06. His best start to a season came in 2022-23, when he went 8-0-0 on the way to the Vezina.

He is first in the league in goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck, second in save percentage and third in goals-against average.

The Senators' only recent loss came Tuesday, a 7-2 defeat to St. Louis with Samuel Ersson in net. Ullmark is back for Thursday's game against the New York Islanders.

Since returning to the lineup partway through a difficult 2025-26 season, Ullmark has 19 regular-season wins, the most in the NHL. Long-time friend Maciej Szwoch, now the team's coordinator of goaltending scouting and development, trained with him in Sweden this summer.

Ullmark himself is not interested in the numbers. "I don't really care about my start to the season," he said Monday after beating New Jersey. "I think it's good that the guys have won a whole lot of games."