The Ottawa Senators raised some eyebrows on Sunday morning with the announcement that backup goalie Leevi Meriläinen has been loaned to the AHL’s Belleville Senators. In a corresponding move, Mads Søgaard has been called up from the B-Sens.
At a glance, one might think the Senators had suddenly lost faith in Meriläinen, four days after he and the team were shelled in Buffalo on Wednesday night, falling 8–4 to the Sabres. But this probably isn’t a demotion, not after only one game, and not after you see that Sogaard isn’t off to a great start either. This is about getting Merilainen some real game action.
The Senators don’t have a back-to-back situation in their game schedule until October 27–28. The Sens will host Edmonton on Tuesday of this week, the Flyers on Thursday, then travel to Washington on Saturday before hosting the Boston Bruins a week from Monday. Barring injury, it’s likely that Ullmark will start all of those games, including the one against his old team, then the Sens will probably turn to Meriläinen in Chicago on the 28th.
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In the meantime, the Senators want to get Meriläinen playing for two reasons. First, they don’t want him getting rusty from going almost two weeks without playing, and just as importantly, they don’t want him stewing too long about his difficult season debut in Buffalo.
Merilainen is starting for the B-Sens on Sunday afternoon when they host the Syracuse Crunch. They may also let him start again in Laval on Wednesday, and one of the two games against Toronto on Saturday and Sunday before bringing him back.
As for Søgaard, he recently cleared waivers after camp, so he’s waiver-exempt for a couple of more weeks. In the meantime, the Sens just need him for practice and to wear the ball cap on the bench in Ottawa. Based on his two games so far in the AHL, his current .864 save percentage isn’t exactly a statistic that demanded an immediate call-up to the NHL.
So Meriläinen’s assignment to Belleville should not be regarded as a demotion, but instead as a much-needed tune-up – both physically and mentally.
More Sens headlines at the Hockey News Ottawa:
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Senators Suffer Discouraging 8-4 Loss At Buffalo
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