One of the burning questions now facing the Ottawa Senators is whether their injury-prone starting crease keeper, Linus Ullmark, should be stopped from playing in next month’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament for Team Sweden. The fear in Bytown is that if he isn’t, he could re-injure himself and put the Senators’ season at risk.
Judging by their comments on social media, many Senators fans have taken a positively Trumpian approach to the question, proclaiming loudly and proudly that for them, it’s the “Ottawa Senators first.” Not only that, but some Ottawa fans even seem hostile toward Sweden’s hopes in the tournament pointing to the country’s socialist proclivities and its location somewhere in Europe, far away from the Homeland.
Despite the controversy, fans have heard nothing but crickets coming from the office of Senators’ president of hockey operations and general manager (GM), Steve Staios. As for Ullmark, mum’s been the word from him about playing in the tournament. Both seem determined not to provoke an international incident that could see tariffs slapped on Swedish meatballs and Canadian maple syrup.
What Ullmark and Dominik Hasek Have in Common
Ullmark has been out of commission since Dec. 22 when he left a game against the Edmonton Oilers early with an “upper-body injury.” Senators’ head coach Travis Green says his top puck stopper is “week-to-week.” This follows a four-game stretch he missed in October due to a “muscle strain.” In the eight games he’s missed so far this season due to injury, the Senators notched four losses giving up eight badly needed points.
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What worries Senators fans and would be surprising if it didn’t make Staios fret too, is that Ullmark may worsen whatever ails him by playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Even if he were judged 100% by the time the puck is dropped to open the tournament on Feb. 12, Dominik Hasek’s adductor muscle would still weigh heavily on Staios’ mind.
Adductor muscle you ask? Who in Ottawa could forget just how close the Senators were to Stanley Cup glory in 2006 before Hasek tore that muscle tending goal for Czechia in the Winter Olympics in Turin that year? The injury dashed the Senators’ Cup dreams and Hasek never played another game in a Senators’ sweater. As the late Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk explained, “You don’t want your players to go over there (the Olympics) and get hurt. It’s a nightmare, I’ve lived it, and it cost us the chance of winning a Stanley Cup.”
Few fans expect the Senators to win Lord Stanley’s silverware this season. Still, most are insisting that the team put an end to its seven long years in playoff purgatory. If that is to happen, having Ullmark between the pipes is crucial from now to the end of the season. Both Ullmark and Staios must know they’ll meet with the wrath of the Ottawa faithful if either does anything to put that into question.
Ullmark Has Right to Play in 4 Nations Face-Off Despite Fan Worries
Alongside the Minnesota Wild’s Filip Gustavsson (it’s okay for Sens fans to reach for the Kleenex box now) and Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils, Ullmark will be part of the firewall Team Sweden will put up against the blitzkrieg of pucks they’ll face from Canada, the United States and Finland. The chance to be part of that trio of Sweden’s top netminders won’t be something Ullmark passes up easily.
And who could blame him? For a competitor like Ullmark, now possibly at the peak of his game, the tournament is the stuff of dreams – a chance to test his limits against the very best talent in the world. As the Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand explained it, “Guys will be out for blood. It’s not an exhibition match (the 4 Nations Face-Off). It doesn’t matter how quick it’s thrown together. You want to make (Canada) and your team proud. It’s a huge honour. You look at teams that are matched up against you, they’re all stacked. You can pick out of a hat who could win that tournament. They’re all incredible groups. Any time you get the best-on-best and you’re playing for your country, there’s extremely high expectations.”
It would be a cold-hearted GM indeed who would seek to deny one of his players the chance to represent his country in international competition. The sting of that decision would burn and linger long after the tournament has come and gone. Staios would need to tread carefully in any discussion with Ullmark about standing down from the tournament to safeguard the Senators’ playoff chances this season.
As for Ullmark’s obligation toward the Senators, it’s undeniable that as a professional, he has an obligation to keep himself healthy. Yet if he were cleared medically to play in the 4 Nations Face-Off, does that obligation extend to avoiding all hockey outside the NHL schedule – even in competitions organized and sponsored by the league itself? If a healthy Ullmark were to play in the tournament, what would he be doing that any other player wasn’t doing? Everyone playing in international tournaments risks injury, but that’s never been a reason for players to sit out or for their teams to insist that they do. Why then, should that be the reason for Ullmark to step back from next month’s tourney?
For a healthy Ullmark to voluntarily back out of the 4 Nations Face-Off would surely have consequences for him in future international tournaments including the Olympics. Does anyone really think that when they put together future Swedish entries the Swedish Ice Hockey Association would overlook Ullmark’s refusal to play in the 4 Nations Face-Off this year?
Could Senators Stop Ullmark From Playing in 4 Nations Face-Off?
Whether Staios has the chutzpa to ask Ullmark to pass on the chance to wear the yellow and blue Swedish colours next month is one thing. Whether he can forbid him from playing is quite another.
The fact is that NHL players have a long tradition of playing in international tournaments. Neither the league nor the franchises they play for have discouraged them from doing so. In fact, some argue that showcasing NHL talent in international tournaments is good for the NHL’s business.
To illustrate the point, NHL players may participate in tournaments sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the teams they play for have no ability to prevent them from doing so. That is, of course, unless the tournament takes place during the NHL’s regular season or the playoffs. That caveat prevented NHL players from participating in the last two Winter Olympics. It also gave the league the ability to prevent Alex Ovechkin from competing for Russia in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Even so, if an NHL player’s team did not make the playoffs or were eliminated, players may play in IIHF-sanctioned tournaments during the NHL season. That’s why you see many NHL players join the World Championship while the tournament is already in progress. What’s more, the 4 Nations Face-Off is not an IIHF tournament. So, in theory, does an NHL franchise have any ability at all to prohibit a player from participating, especially when it is organized by the league itself and the NHL’s schedule has been put on hold?
NHL teams always have the option of trying to talk players out of participating in international tournaments if they think it would put their health at risk. That’s probably the only route open to the Senators if Ullmark were deemed healthy before the 4 Nations Face-Off opens in Montreal next month. Even so, Ullmark doesn’t have to listen to his team’s pleas.
On the other hand, if he were judged still injured or not fully recovered from his current ailment by the Senators’ medical staff when the tournament opens, then the Senators could simply deny him medical clearance to play.
Senators Fans Will Likely See Ullmark in 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament
Fans in Ottawa may hope Ullmark plays it safe and bows out of playing with Team Sweden next month. Even so, it’s unlikely that he will. His pride and the honour of playing for the country of his birth will see to that. What’s more, there’s little Staios can do to stop him even if he wanted to. If he’s cleared to play by team doctors, Ottawa fans will see him in action with Team Sweden.
Yes, the Senators desperately need Ullmark in their drive to win a playoff spot this season. And it’s true that he could re-injure himself in the tournament. But those two reasons are not good enough to keep him at home in Ottawa and deny him a shot at winning international glory in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
