The East's Only Unbeaten Team Just Lost Its Safety Net: Ullmark Exits in Boston

BOSTON — Four goals in Boston on a Monday night should feel like a celebration. And for about forty minutes of hockey, it was. The Senators dismantled the Bruins 4-1 at TD Garden, racing to a 4-0 lead by the second period and finishing the night as the only team in the Eastern Conference without a loss. Tim Stutzle was the story on the ice: two goals 1:43 apart in the first period — the first shorthanded at 7:39 on a 2-on-1 break, the second moments after a penalty expired — plus an assist, a three-point night that moved him to 413 career points, sixth in Senators history. Drake Batherson scored, Michael Amadio scored with a helper from Shane Pinto, and Ottawa's 2-0-0 start suddenly had a whiff of inevitability about it. Then the third period started without Linus Ullmark, and the celebration turned into something else entirely.

THE COLLISION — It happened at 4:25 of the second period, and it was the kind of play that looks worse every time you see it. Bruins forward JJ Peterka was tripped by Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot and crashed straight into Ullmark, who went down and was slow getting up. A scrum followed — because a scrum always follows when a goalie gets run — but the scoreboard kept showing the real problem: Ullmark had stopped all 10 shots he'd faced, and he wasn't coming back. He emerged on the bench early in the third, in the ballcap of a backup for the night, watching Samuel Ersson (eight saves, one goal allowed to rookie James Hagens) close out a game Ottawa had already won. The Senators were careful about what they said afterward, and you can read a lot into that carefulness.

"PRECAUTIONARY" — Here's what head coach Travis Green actually said, and the word to sit with is the one he chose: "He kind of tweaked something a little bit. Precautionary, we just felt it was best if we bring him out. Get it evaluated again." That was the result of the collision — Green confirmed it. Beyond that, the team said nothing: no body part, no timeline, no injured reserve, no nothing. "Tweaked something" is doing a tremendous amount of work in that sentence. It can mean a charley horse that clears up by dinner, or it can mean the first line of a week-to-week saga. Ottawa will get him evaluated again — Green's own phrasing — and until then, the only unbeaten team in the East is holding its breath about the one player whose absence it can least afford.

WHAT HE MEANS — This is the part that makes the "precautionary" line land so hard. Ullmark isn't just a goalie in Ottawa — he's the foundation of everything the Senators are trying to be. The 33-year-old won the Vezina in 2023 with Boston, then watched the Bruins trade him to Ottawa in June 2024 (for Mark Kastelic, Joonas Korpisalo and a first-round pick, if you're keeping score of how well that one aged). Last season he started 49 games: 28-12-8, a .891 save percentage, a 2.73 goals-against average. He opened this season with a 3-2 win over Toronto on Saturday, stopping 27 of 29. The Senators' early identity — the thing that has them 2-0-0 and standing alone in the East — is a Vezina winner who doesn't give games away. Take that away, even for a night, and you're looking at a different team.

ERSSON'S AUDITION — So now it's Samuel Ersson's net, at least for now. He stopped 8 of 9 to close out Boston, which is exactly what a fill-in has to do — no heroics, no chaos, just hold the 4-0 lead and get everybody to the bus. The real test is tonight: the Senators are in Detroit at 7pm ET, on the second night of a back-to-back, with the East's only unbeaten record on the line. If Ullmark can't go, that's Ersson's first start of the season, in a building where the winless Red Wings (0-2-0) will be desperate. Then it's the home opener Thursday against Philadelphia. There's no easing into this — the calendar goes from "precautionary" to "prove it" in about 24 hours. Tonight's nine-game NHL slate, including Ottawa at Detroit, is broken down here.

THE BRUINS' OTHER HALF — Lost in the Ullmark drama is the team that actually lost the game, and Boston's problems are bigger than one collision. The Bruins are 2-2-0 with back-to-back losses, getting outscored and outworked on home ice, and their power play is 0-for-10 to start the season — dead last in any category that matters. Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves and got hung out to dry. Marco Sturm called his timeout at 14:41 of the second, the hockey equivalent of throwing a bucket of water on a grease fire. Boston has the look of a team that knows its window is cracking and doesn't yet know how to fix it. Ottawa took their points and left. That's what contenders do.

WHAT'S NEXT — Here's the truth about 2-0-0: it's an unbeaten start right up until the back-to-back tests it. Detroit tonight, Philadelphia on Thursday in the home opener, and somewhere in between, an update on a goaltender who "tweaked something." The Senators have done everything right for a week — they've outscored their problems, their best player is producing, their goalie has been a wall. Now the wall has a crack in it, and the next forty-eight hours decide whether 2-0-0 was a beginning or a peak. Hockey seasons don't pivot on one October night. But they do remember them. See Monday night's full NHL live coverage for how all of this started.