The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Brent Wallace on the Senators Playoff Hopes, Foegele Addition, and more

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Brent Wallace joins the show to discuss the impact of Thomas Chabot’s injury, what the Senators need to do to stay in the playoff mix, and the pressure mounting in Ottawa as the stretch run continues. Don’t miss it.#TheSheet #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #MvsW #NYR #GoSensGo #OttawaSenators #NewYorkRangers #NikitaKucherov #HartTrophy #StanleyCupPlayoffs #NHLPlayoffs #HockeyTalk #ConnorZary #AJGreerLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen, big one tonight. Big one last night for the Ottawa Senators. Big one tonight for the Ottawa Senators. The host of the coming in hot podcast, your definitive source of Ottawa Senators information is Brent Wallace. And he joins me now, us now, rather. Brent, first of all, we've been focusing on last night's game so much from the Rangers point of view and how futile they are.

And part of me in the back of my head is like, you want to give like the Ottawa senators some credit here? Like they went into a really emotional night and Zabanajad night and all that and just shut the Rangers down. did it for a good chunk with only four defenders. How did you look at last thing? Yeah. Oh, a couple of things.

One, people worried about Igor Shisterkin and goal because Ottawa had never beaten him in regulation at MSG. I think he was 401 with like a 966 save percentage, two shutouts. Then there was, yeah, no Jake Sanderson. They had lost Dennis Gilbert, who was a recent call-up. They're playing Lassie Thompson, who last played in the National Hockey League in 2022. Like, if there was a chance they may lose the game, it was last night. but the way Travis Green has this team playing defensively.

Again, they just added a shot on goal, which I'm a little annoyed by because they gave now 10 shots on goal. That's a little disappointed. I asked if it could be challenged. They gave up 14 to the Leafs the night before the two, the game before. I think they've allowed 28 or more shots once in the last like 28, 29 games. Like they just don't give you anything.

No. It's, it's remarkable. And, you know, the other. the thing about the Ottawa Senators, too, is I still think that they have a lot of players that can play up higher. And I think about Montepalo specifically on the blue. Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you. Are we seeing Carter Yakumtrak make his debut tonight? Do we know yet? So he's been called up and so has Jory and Donovan, Sean Donovan's kid. Yep.

They're both expected to play because there isn't anybody else. So unless they go 5D or Curtis McDermott returns as a defenseman, they're playing. Okay. Thanks for making it. So we'll see the NHL debut of 2D on the Sends Blue Line tonight in a game that is arguably the biggest game of the season for Ottawa. I was going to say it's a little bit critical. I had an NHL executive tell me that an Easter conference executive.

It was Steve Sto's. It was not Steve Sto's. Brad for Living. Although what I'm about to say, Ken Hughes. Don Swin. What I was about, what I'm about to say, we'll make you. you think it's probably is to use sales. But he told me at one point that of all the teams that are milling around in the Eastern Conference right now, the one that worried him the most was Ottawa

because their underlying numbers and the way they play have been so good all season that if they could get a save in a critical game in the playoffs, they could easily be the biggest disruptor in the Eastern Conference. What say you to that? I agree with them. We used to make fun of Travis because he'd come out after every game and they would lose because they would give up five goals. And he'd be like, I liked our game. And we kind of chuckled because, yeah, you actually played a pretty good game,

but you never got any saves. And now suddenly you're starting to get some saves. Like James Reimer's now 4-0, and Linus Allmark in his last 18 games has that magical 897 save percentage you were just talking about. He's 12, 2, and 3 in his last 18 starts. Like, they're now getting goal tending.

They've got lines that all contribute. Last night, it was their third and fourth lines that scored in Pinto and Fogel. Warren Fogel has been outstanding since he's arrived from L.A. at the trade deadline. They are deep as a team. If they can be healthy on the blue line and have Jake Sanderson, I don't know what the update is on Thomas Shabbat. He was in a sling at the end of last night's game. He's out for a while, obviously.

If they can be strong defensively, they're as good as any team to play play playoff hockey. I'm so happy you shouted out Fogel because like for all of our winners and losers or report cards and all that shit that we do with the trade deadline. Like sometimes it's the Warren Fogel trade that ends up being one of the top five moves to deadline. He's been awesome for Ottawa after the deadline. Like he can't be stopped. You can only hope to contain him kind of thing. He has found his scoring touch. It reminds me of was it to know that went from L.A. to Montreal and then started to score as well.

He just probably needed a change of scenery. Playing with Lars Eller and Fabian Zetterlin and sometimes Travis will put Zetterlin and Fogel along with Tim Stutzla on a line and they can find ways to score goals. It's just a way, like that fourth line is pretty good the way they can contribute. And more than Fogel has been very impressive. Well, I mean, was that like, I know that Steve Stozo has the reputation of being one of those general managers that is, and I guess Brad for Living is like this too. There's a few.

I mean, everybody's on the phone all the time. But Steyos is like involved in everything. Like he's involved in a million conversations going on. around the NHL. As best as you can ascertain, was it like specifically they wanted bottom six speed? Like is that what they were after? They needed speed.

100%. Like, and I brought this up earlier is one of the things that Travis kind of talked about earlier during training camp is they're not fleet of foot. They don't have a lot of great skaters. And you can tell with the additions of like Warren Fogel, even Lars Eller helps put some speed, if you will, on that fourth line. I know you're talking about a guy that's 36.

It may not be, but he's actually a pretty good skater. They just added some more guys who can skate. Jordan Spence is another one in their lineup. It changes the dynamic of this team in the way they play with track. Because Travis, as you can, it's a forecheck that is in your face all the time. So here's the thing about teams that you know. Like, first of all, Ottawa goes into MSG last night and just like Steam rolls in New York Rangers. He's like, okay, that's a team that's like,

they're not trying to get in the playoffs going backwards. Like they're skating forwards into the playoffs. Tonight it's at Detroit Red Wings. Red Wings, though, without Dylan Larkin. When you talk about important games, statement games, however you want to phrase this one, like this is another opportunity where the Ottawa senators can show how serious they are.

Right? I know they're dinged up. You know, Thomas Shabbat. It's never easy. But like, this is, again, like, this is one of those games where it's like, if you want to make the playoffs, it's right there for you. And if they get some help from the out-town scoreboard, it's right there.

It's right there. All they got to do is win. All they got to do is win. And so, well, I guess they need the other teams to lose. So, thanks, tips. No, no, but if they don't win, it doesn't really matter what the Allenders are doing and what Columbus is doing. It's like, take care of your business and you get a little help from the out-town scoreboard.

It's right there for you. It's right there. So a couple things. One is they, no matter how good they seem to be, like, in the last 26 games, so January 13th. They're 17, 5, and 4. They're the fifth best team in the National Hockey League. The Columbus Blue Jackets are ahead of them. They just can't seem to gain ground, right? It's just wild how good they are. But here's the thing that we all seem to think. Lina Sallmark will get the starting goal. He didn't play last night.

He has yet to really steal a game, maybe once against Vegas earlier in the year, against, yet to steal a game this season. This is the game for him to step up with your D being depleted, with guys on the back-to-back, Being in Detroit who has been the better team all season long there, three and O'O against Ottawa, to make a statement, to steal the game. Let's see what Lena Sallmark can do. The problem is. It's a good time to do it.

I was going to say the problem is, and I really, like, he has, as far as goalie skill goes, top five skill in the NHL. Like there are so many goaltors that, like, you know, work so hard and just like look at Lina Sallmark and go, like, I wish I had like that skill as a goal. he just sort of, that he just sort of has. We haven't seen the bite down on the mouth guard goalie yet. You know, the, the Jeremy Swayman performance against it of Trit Red Wings on Saturday was like, no, boys, we're going to win this effing game.

We haven't seen that from Allmark. But to be honest, I've never seen that from Allmark. Never seen it. No, I agree with you. Like, you want that fire, right? Yeah. Just give me that one little bit of fire that, boys, there's no chance they're scoring tonight. I got this game.

Yeah. That's what you want. And I agree with you. And I never want to question anybody because I'm not inside Linus Delmarx head whatsoever. But you just, it doesn't appear on the ice. I believe he's competitive. It's just not the fire of I will slash your ankles if I have to, a little Billy Smith.

If we should, I mean, we should point out. It's a challenging year for the guy. I mean, you know, he's clearly. No, but I'm talking about, no, but the thing is like I'm talking like even historically. Like he's, he's, no, I agree. Like, look down, look down the ice at John G. Gibson and go like, hey, buddy, I'm not letting them in. I'm not letting them in.

You've seen his playoff numbers. I mean, I think his playoff numbers are indicative of that very thing that you're talking about. But, you know, Detroit, they're catching Detroit at the right time. Detroit, I saw it's 24th in the, the NHL since the Olympic break in five-on-five offense. A lot of that's Larkin being out, but he's out again. So maybe they can put up a good defensive effort against him. But I think I wanted to ask you about, Brett, was like, so Ottawa is. is on pace, I think, right now for 97 points. I think I saw that from Bleach Report earlier today.

And that would break the record for most points by a non-playoff team. And so the question then becomes, if they do miss out, like, how do they process this season? Like, what is the ultimate review of this season? Is it just that, all right, the blue jackets happened out, kick our coverage, and, you know, a win here, win there, it could have been different. Or like, what do you think is the reaction if they don't make the cut this year? It's just simple and easy. The goaltending is just going to get blamed. And I guess Steve Stales may have to wear some of that where they gave

Linus Levy, Maryland, a contract after he played just 12 games last year to be the backup, and he wasn't very good, and he struggled at the beginning of the year. They waited until January, or end of December, to find James Reimer and bring him in, who had just played in the Spangler Cup and wasn't playing. I think that's a major miscalculation. And the other one is their penalty kill, and it may be a byproduct of goaltending as well, but their penalty kill at the beginning of the year was historically atrocious. They made a change January 25th and put Mike Yo in charge.

And since then, I think it's eighth overall in the league. That was 50 games into the year. Those two things, I think, were what the problem is with Ottawa. Ottawa, if you look, I believe, compared to last year at this time, are two points, three points ahead of where they were last year, and they were in the first wild card spot last year comfortably. I think it just comes down to those two things. And I think they're just going to roll again and see what happens with Linus next year.

I mean, it's the first year of his four-year extension. I just don't think much changes if that's what we're looking for. Do you ever thought on the general manager of the team that the senators are facing off again tonight? And that's, of course, Steve Eiserman. Now, he did do something at deadline this year. You know, David Perron comes in. and Justin Fult comes in as well, but at the same time,

I don't know that that's going to be enough for the Detroit Red Wings this year. And listen, many people have made the same point. If his last name isn't Iserman, the heat is on. But if Detroit doesn't make the playoffs, comma again, I'm going to have to think that it's Iserman watch time. And I've had people say, yeah, the heat will be on. And I've had people say, no, you know what?

He'll have one more. year. But we all know the illich family too. And that rink hasn't had fans in it after the second week of April since they opened. Yeah, no playoff games at Little Sears, right? Nope. I, I, he may have bought himself a year based on the performance of this team. Um, just being able, like for a long, long time, right? They were top three. They were second in the Atlantic in a very tough division. I think he may have bought himself a little more time with that. That's, I mean, I couldn't tell you, but I think he may have earned it. I think he had a big mess to clean up. And if we saw it with like Steve Stales, trying to clean up those messes isn't easy.

And I know eight years is a long time. I give you that. They blamed everything on the goaltending last year, right? Like everything was like, we would have been there if and John Gibson had like five guys playing goal, right? Was that last year where he had like five different guys in gold during the season. I think James Reimer was part of that group. And they ended up blaming the whole thing on the goaltending. And then that was cleaned up. Now, as one person told me yesterday, he did make moves at deadline, but they have the

built-in excuse of the Larkin injury. And I say to that, you know what? Maybe that coupled with the last name is enough to keep the torches away from the castle. But it's only going to be a matter of time here, right, guys? Well, they did lose Andrew Cop, too. So they went to, they lost their top two centers for a while. That'll have a little bit of an impact.

But, yeah, like, I don't think they're a better team than Ottawa, despite where they are in the standings. I don't think there is deep. I think they've got some holes. I don't think they're as play as in-your-face style of hockey that Steve would know from playing his days in Detroit. But I think he's earned himself a year. We'll see. For a good portion of the season, we're kind of a very top-heavy team as well.

But staff-leets has them at 37% probability to make the playoffs, Detroit. So not great. By the way, Ottawa is at 72% courtesy of our friends and staff-leets who have a specious formula to calculate all of this. But nonetheless, the numbers are always interesting. Do you what I found really strange with betting sites is that Ottawa was ahead of like Montreal and other teams in a playoff spot to win the Stanley Cup.

I felt that one was so I, so I laid a bell. I'm like, that seems really weird. But yeah, they were like, tend to overall to win. I was like, this is, yeah. So how would you? Nobody can see it. Why not? So this is interesting to you.

Let me start to finish this one on this note. Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, Detroit were those four teams that we are all waiting to take that next step. Now, Montreal got there first. Ottawa got into the playoffs last year as well. Buffalo is like never going to lose another hockey game. And the Detroit Red Wings, we just had the conversation about when you look at, you know, ready for the big shift in the Eastern Conference. I don't know that Buffalo is as good as we've seen.

Like this is insane going back to early December. But how would you, like if you're placing them on a ladder, like who's on which run? here. It's a good question. I've always thought Buffalo's had really good pieces and you're always one, like, and I'm sure you guys sat there and went, how is this team not in the playoff spot or at least competitive?

And I don't know what it was that kickstarted it in Buffalo this year, but I think they have a pretty good team. Can they hold on to it? Like the Alex tuck thing will be certainly interesting to watch. I like Montreal if they had better goal tending.

I could probably say the same for Ottawa right now. Ottawa needs a bigger top six, or at least a better, they need an addition to the top six. I just always thought Detroit wasn't as good as they were. And you've seen great regular season teams that can't make it in the playoffs because they just score on the outside. Like the Rangers last year when they were winning the President's trophy,

were never really tough to play against. I don't think Detroit's tough to play against. They'd be last for me. Yeah. Tom McClellan, weeping when hearing that comment. It's a man who is from his team. It's not that he doesn't want them to. I just don't know that they have the personnel to do it.

Yeah. I think it's construction, not coaching. And I'm with Brent on this one. I don't think the issue there is coaching whatsoever. Listen, this has been great. Tonight's going to be a fascinating one for the Ottawa senators. To me, it's one of the most interesting. By the way, this is a team full of under.

underrated players. Let me just close on this. Whether it's Dylan Cousins, whether it's Drake Batherson, whether it's Shane Pinto, whether it's Artem Zub. Who's like the most of the underrated players? Who's the most underrated guy for you? It's easy because it's Michael Amadio. But on our show, Yorkie loves,

we've made a song about Michael Amadio. He is by far the most underrated player in that group. Like that whole third line of Shane Pinto and Nick Cousins and Michael Amadio, they know how to play the game. They keep Pucks alive like crazy in the offensive zone. They probably could have more goals if Amadio didn't have cement hands. But he's like that, that group is really fun to watch. All right.

Well, we'll be tuned into me. I love Shane Pinto, man. That's a good thing. When you have, you know, when you have Shane Pinto on your third line, you're doing all right. Right. You're doing, you're doing, right? Like, people are saying they've got to get them up the lineup.

I'm like, you don't want to move someone like that up the lineup if you can have that kind of deep. Because you can't win in the playoffs if you don't have deep centers. But the thing is. Merrick. Merrick. Merrick. Merrick. Pinto, all mark and a first for shit-shirkin.

How about that. But here's the thing. Which is the line that gets you places in the playoffs? It's your third line. Right? Third line. The more low line. You're taught.

Keep going, right? like the Blake Coleman with Tampa Bay Lightning, you know, last season with, you know, the Finns and Marchand, like, it's your third line. The guys that always get big contracts after the playoffs, the third line. It's so true. It's so true.

Warren Fogle. Getting so much trouble. He may be the most underrated guy on that team right now. Warren Fulg. Right now, it might be, yeah. Okay, you'll be well. We will catch up soon. Fascinating one tonight, Ottawa Center,

to Detroit, Red Wings on the board this year. Thanks, please. All right. Thanks, Brent. Be good.