Johansson Gets the Call. Ottawa Hopes It Doesn't Need Him.

The Senators recalled Jonas Johansson after Ullmark was scratched against Detroit, one day removed from exiting in Boston when he was crashed into during the second period. The team called it precautionary. He is day-to-day. The depth chart behind him — Leevi Merilainen and Samuel Ersson — was already thin before any of this happened.

I noted the Ullmark situation the moment it developed in Boston. What's changed since is that Ottawa has now made it official enough to pull Johansson up, which means the precautionary framing is doing a lot of work. The Senators are a team that has been managing injury news carefully all week — Sanderson, Donovan, Montgomery on IR — and the pattern is that "day-to-day" has a way of extending.

The timing is what makes this genuinely uncomfortable. Ottawa clinched the eighth seed at 47-43 and enters the playoffs having allowed 3.3 goals per game over the last ten games, up sharply from earlier in the season. That's a defense already operating short-handed. Goaltending uncertainty layered on top of a blue line that has been cycling through its depth all month is a different kind of problem — the kind where one position's fragility compounds another's.

Ullmark's status between now and the first playoff game is the only thing that matters at this position. If he's healthy, Ottawa has a starter. If he's not, the Senators are asking Merilainen or Ersson to open a playoff series, which is a significant ask for either. The organization has managed a lot of adversity this season. This one has less margin for error than most.