The Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators are about to open an Eastern Conference first-round series shaped by goaltending, and Ottawa will unquestionably turn to Linus Ullmark. Carolina may answer with Frederik Andersen, its incumbent playoff starter, or with Brandon Bussi, the first-year NHL revelation who has given Rod Brind'Amour another option.
That makes Ullmark the first player to define the matchup before a puck is dropped. The 2023 Vezina Trophy winner has posted a.902 save percentage since the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, a number that matters because Ottawa got into the playoffs in part because of him and now needs him to hold up under a heavier test.
Late in the regular season, NHL.com charted 100 goals against each goaltender, part of a project that has tracked more than 10,000 goals since 2017. In Ullmark's sample, 15 of the goals against came off rebounds, screen shots factored on 20 percent of the goals he allowed, and his numbers were less forgiving after a pass was completed on odd-man rushes. He was near perfect when puck carriers held and shot on those rushes, but closer to NHL average once the puck had been moved.
The details matter because playoff hockey has a way of exposing whatever does not hold up over a seven-game series. Ullmark was beaten on 24 goals over the glove, but only three came on clean looks. He also allowed eight breakaway goals, with only one going high glove and four of the eight going through the 5-hole, the kind of split that tells Carolina where it may try to attack. Brind'Amour has already indicated he could use both goaltenders in the best-of-7 series, and that uncertainty only sharpens the edge for a team that can find the other side's relative weakness more often.
That is the real shape of this series. Ottawa needs Ullmark to be enough of a wall to keep the Hurricanes from turning pressure into second chances, while Carolina can keep rotating options in goal if it wants. The team that reaches the other side's softer spots first is the one most likely to survive the round.