Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk: Keep our families out of it

A fuming Brady Tkachuk came out swinging off the ice on Saturday.

The Ottawa Senators captain wasn’t the least bit pleased with the rumours circulating online surrounding No. 1 goaltender Linus Ullmark’s absence from the team, and he let everybody know it on Saturday before the club hosted the Florida Panthers at the Canadian Tire Centre.

“It’s pretty f-cking b-llsh-t. I don’t think anybody’s happy about a narrative being spread like that,” Tkachuk said. “It’s okay for people to critique our on-ice performance. But when it gets into family, it’s pretty f-cking b-lls-it. So it’s embarrassing that it got to the point that it did.

“I can tell you, I’m not happy about it one bit.”

The Senators issued a statement saying they were “extremely disappointed” with social media posts on Thursday regarding Ullmark.

Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, called allegations on X “completely fabricated and false” and finished  the statement by saying “this statement will put an end to the ridiculous speculation that has spread online.”

The Senators were pleased that Staios had their backs.

“First of all, I want to say I really appreciate what Steve said, standing up for the group,” Stutzle said.

Tkachuk noted he felt bad for Ullmark, and he pulled no punches.

“It’s not true. You should never have to deal with that,” said Tkachuk. “But the fact that he has to even deal with this, and even has to think about it. All we care about for him is getting what he needs, and we’ve said from Day 1 that he has our support.

“Now that he has to deal with this, it’s f-cking mind-blowing.”

He was granted a personal leave of absence on Dec. 27, but was at the Canadian Tire Centre for the team’s game against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night and returned to the ice on Tuesday.

There is no timeline for Ullmark’s return. Still, the club designated him a non-roster player on Thursday before an 8-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche to make room for the return of centre Lars Eller.

Top centre Tim Stutzle said he reached out to Ullmark after he took a leave of absence to let him know that his teammates supported him.

“I texted him right after when he left the team for something completely different. Which we don’t even have to get into, it’s something mental health related.” Stutzle said. “Everybody knows that out there. I texted him. Just told him that we all support him for whatever he’s been going through.”

Stutzle said the players have to ignore the noise.

“We’ve just got to try and (tune) this thing out,” Stutzle said. “What we’ve been doing is just trying to focus on a day-to-day basis. And what annoys me the most is things out there that are not true. And I love my teammates.

“Everybody stands up for each other in the room, and especially with something like that, that’s more important than hockey. And if you go after someone’s family, that’s not acceptable to us. We just try to support every single guy and just be a good teammate.”

Veteran winger David Perron said he’s seen a lot over his National Hockey League career, but never anything like this.

“I guess it’s a Canadian market, so it’s a little bit different in that regard,” Perron said. “And we have enough adversity right now on the ice that obviously adds to it.  We think in the room, we’re managing it fine in that regard. Not fine enough in the game we had against Colorado, but I think we’re excited for another challenge tonight against Florida.”

Ullmark’s absence has been magnified by the fact that 23-year-old netminder Leevi Merilainen has struggled mightily to find his game. He went into the visit by the Panthers with a 6-9-0 record, a 3.50 goals-against average and a .867 save percentage.

Merilainen made his eighth straight start with the Panthers in town, and the Senators have the worst save percentage in the NHL at .873.

The Senators confirmed on Friday that they’ve signed veteran goalie James Reimer to a professional tryout. He was on the ice on Saturday for the third straight day with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville.

Reimer, who played for Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland over the holidays, suited up for 24 games with the Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres last season.

He hadn’t been on the ice for nearly a week since leaving Europe, but may start on Sunday for Belleville against the Rochester Americans.

Reimer has played 525 games in his NHL career with the Leafs, Panthers, Sharks, Hurricanes, Wings, Ducks and Sabres. He has a 225-187-65 record in his career with a 2.89 GAA and a .910 save percentage.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com